Opportunity lost
Wilmington (0) vs. Sharpsville (40)
Written: Oct 25, 2014
By Ron Poniewasz Jr.
New Castle News
The scenario coming into last night’s game was a simple one for the Wilmington High football team.
Win and the Greyhounds are District 10, Region 1-A outright champions and bound for the postseason.
Sharpsville had other ideas, though.
The Blue Devils held host Wilmington to five first downs and 76 yards of total offense en route to a 40-0 region win.
“We move on, that’s what we’ll do,” Greyhounds coach Terry Verrelli said of how his team will pick up the pieces from the setback. “We have a game next week. We’ll practice. If we don’t get in the playoffs, we don’t get in the playoffs. That’s just the way it is. Nothing is going to be any different for us.
“We lost the game and we played terrible.”
Verrelli’s team was in an ideal situation entering the Week 9 contest.
“That’s exactly the spot you want to be in,” he said. “We just didn’t get the job done, that’s for sure.”
Last night signaled the end of region play for the seven teams in Region 1-A. Five squads — Wilmington, Lakeview, Sharpsville, West Middlesex and Farrell — all conclude league play with 4-2 conference marks.
“As the season went on we knew it would probably be even more, like a six- or seven-team race because every team is about as equal as you’re going to get,” Blue Devils coach Paul Piccirilli said of the balance of the league. “When we lost two heartbreakers and we played a heck of a defensive game in each game, we told our seniors that someone has to make a play.
“Would I have thought this in a million years (a 40-point win over Wilmington)? No way. I respect the heck out of how Terry runs his program and his staff. It got out of hand. I’m glad for our sake, maybe I can finally sleep tonight. I’m very proud of our kids.”
Piccirilli noted his team prepared well leading up to last night’s battle.
“There’s a lot of pressure on our kids,” he said. “We had a fun week of practice. They knew they had nothing to lose. This is our third chance. We lost against Lakeview and Farrell. Maybe more pressure was on (Wilmington), I don’t know.”
District 10 plays a 10th regular-season game before the playoffs start. Wilmington (5-3 overall) will host Slippery Rock at 7 p.m. and Sharpsville (7-2) will travel to Greenville.
Wilmington quarterback Reese Bender was picked off on the fourth play of the game and Sharpsville took over at the Greyhounds’ 24. Six plays later, Dayne Smith was in the end zone when he hauled in a 13-yard scoring pass from Luke Henwood. Nick Henwood booted the extra point and the Blue Devils were up 7-0 with 7:21 to go in the opening quarter.
“That’s early in the game. That kind of thing happens,” Verrelli said of the early turnover. “It doesn’t mean too much right then. It’s the beginning of the game. Play football, stop them and move the ball when you have it. We really didn’t play well on either side of the ball.
“Offensively was the real problem I think. We didn’t move the ball at all.”
Piccirilli, though, does believe that early pick played a factor.
“Without a doubt it set the tone,” he said. “We struggled all year. We used to be a team that we’d get four yards or five yards and drive it all the way down the field and score. This year hasn’t been one of those years because of our defensive play.”
Sharpsville built a 21-0 lead and carried that into the half. Wilmington set up its only scoring opportunity of the game when the hosts pinned the Blue Devils at their own 2. Sharpsville gained just two yards and was forced to punt.
Wilmington took over on Sharpsville’s 36 with 1:34 to go in the half and marched to the 5. But Bender threw an incompletion on first down, mishandled a snap in the shotgun on second down to lose 11 yards back to the 16 and spiked the ball on third down because the team was out of timeouts.
Bender fired an incompletion on fourth down and Sharpsville took over with six-tenths of a second left in the half.
“I think that’s just indicative of how the offense played tonight,” Verrelli said. “They weren’t getting anything done. That would have certainly given us a little more spirit in the second half to go in there and score. It just wasn’t our night.
“That was a bad snap on the one play and it cost us a down. There wasn’t too much we did right tonight. I mean, jumping offsides. The first quarter was like give them the game why don’t you? We’re not a good enough team to be in the hole and recover. Probably nothing different happens if we score there late in the half judging by the way we played tonight. It would give us some encouragement. But I don’t think a whole lot was going to change.”
The District 10 playoff pairings will be released next weekend.
(Email: rponiewasz@ncnewsonline.com)
SHARPSVILLE WILMINGTON
18 First downs 5
211 Yards Rushing 61
8 Yards Lost 37
203 Net Rushing 24
16 Passes Attempted 18
9 Passes Completed 6
1 Passes Intercepted 1
189 Yards Passing 52
392 Total Yards 76
2-0 Fumbles-Lost 3-1
2-30 Punts-Average 6-37.1
5-55 Penalties-Yards 6-37
SHARPSVILLE 7 14 6 13 —40
WILMINGTON 0 0 0 0 — 0
Scoring plays
SHARPSVILLE — Dayne Smith, 13-yard pass from Luke Henwood (Nick Henwood kick).
SHARPSVILLE — Greg Popatak, 2-yard run (N. Henwood kick).
SHARPSVILLE — Popatak, 2-yard run (N. Henwood kick).
SHARPSVILLE — Tyrin Peavy, 14-yard pass from L. Henwood (kick failed).
SHARPSVILLE — Popatak, 9-yard run (N. Henwood kick).
SHARPSVILLE — Tyler Wansack, 57-yard run (kick failed).
|