Despite strong passing attack, Neshannock falls to Western Beaver.
Neshannock (10) vs. Western Beaver (20)
Written: Oct 06, 2008
By DAN IRWIN
d_irwin@ncnewsonline.com
INDUSTRY — His running game stopped for a second straight week, Neshannock High head coach Pat Cuba opted quickly for Plan B.
Unleash Josh Brown’s arm.
Brown, who had averaged just seven attempts per game during the Lancers’ first five contests, responded in style. The senior quarterback completed 13 of 25 tries for 164 yards and one touchdown in the Lancers’ WPIAL Class A Big Seven Conference game at Western Beaver.
Ultimately, though, Neshannock’s inability to pick up a few key yards on the ground, as well as costly mistakes on defense, wound up spelling a 20-10 loss.
Despite a first half in which the Lancers (2-2 conference, 3-3 overall) rushed for just 1 yard, they took a 10-7 lead into the locker room as Brown hit 7 of 11 tries for 93 yards. Trailing 7-0 after a 29-yard pass from Morgan Rice to Dustin Creel, Brown set up a 33-yard Chase Falba field goal early in the second quarter, then found Tony Kirkwood with 1:10 to go on a middle screen that the senior wide receiver turned into a 35-yard scoring play.
“Give credit to them,” Golden Beavers head coach Matt Gray said. “That’s what makes good coaching, changing things up a bit. I think we saw four passes (while scouting the Lancers) all year long up to this point.
“He came out throwing today, and he caught us a little by surprise.”
Ask Cuba, though, and he’ll say that Gray has no one but his own team to blame for that.
“We did it, but it was more being forced to than wanting to,” he said of the Lancers sudden switch to an aerial attack. “The nature of what we run we should be able to run the football, and we still couldn’t do it again today (18 net yards, after a 121-yard effort the week before). So we went straight to the passing game.”
Neshannock held its three-point lead for most of the third quarter, and seemed poised to carry into the fourth when it had backed Western Beaver into a fourth-and-22 play at the Lancers 34 with two minutes remaining. However, the Golden Beavers (3-1, 4-2) elected to go for a first down, and when wide receiver Hunter Creel was left virtually uncovered, Rice hit him for an easy 34-yard score.
“It was a mistake in coverage, and they got behind us and scored,” Cuba acknowledged. “It was a killer. The kid’s a good kid, but he just got caught up. It happens.”
Still, the Lancers roared back, with Brown hitting 3-of-4 passes for 50 yards to get his team a first and goal at the 3. Three successive running plays, though, netted a negative 3 yards, and Brown’s fourth-down pass to Aaron Paolini was broken up by Hunter Creel.
A pair of pass interference calls on Western Beaver would help get Neshannock in position again at the 13, but two sacks pushed the Lancers back, and Brown’s 16-yard hook-up with Bobby Nittinger on fourth down wound up five yards short of the sticks.
In all, the Golden Beavers sacked Brown four times in the final frame, and allowed him to complete just three of his final eight passes.
“They abandoned the run early on in the game,” noted Gray, who got a game-clinching 47-yard TD run by Sean Stiffey with 3:21 remaining. “So we just started pinning our ears back and going for the quarterback. We made some mistakes in the first half, but we fixed them at halftime, and we shut them out after that.”
Despite the loss, Cuba couldn’t fault his team’s effort.
“People have been talking, ‘you guys can’t go down and play in the (Beaver) Valley because they’re going to take it to you.’ We didn’t have any problem today. The kids really came off the ball and played well.
“We competed, and that’s what I’m most proud of.”
NESHANNOCK WESTERN BEAVER
14 First downs 15
58 Yards Rushing 259
40 Yards Lost 4
18 Net Rushing 255
27 Passes Attempted 15
15 Passes Completed 6
0 Passes Intercepted 0
191 Yards Passing 77
209 Total Yards 332
0-0 Fumbles-Lost 1-0
3-30.7 Punts-Average 2-32
3-20 Penalties-Yards 10-85
NESHNNOCK 0 10 0 0 — 10
WESTERN BEAVER 7 0 7 6 — 20
Scoring plays
WESTERN BEAVER — Dustin Creel 29-yard pass from Morgan Rice (Michael Graham kick).
NESHANNOCK — Chase Falba 33-yard field goal.
NESHANNOCK — Tony Kirkwood 35-yard pass from Josh Brown (Falba kick).
WESTERN BEAVER — Hunter Creel 34-yard pass from Rice (Graham kick).
WESTERN BEAVER — Sean Stiffey 27-yard run (Kick failed).
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