New Castle clinches playoff berth with win over Blackhawk
New Castle (35) vs. Blackhawk (13)
Written: Oct 29, 2016
By Shawn Fox
New Castle News
DARLINGTON — The New Castle High football team didn’t wait around for help.
Instead, the Red Hurricane took care of business itself.
New Castle clinched its fourth straight WPIAL playoff berth Friday night with a 35-13 victory over Blackhawk in WPIAL Class 4A Northwest Nine Conference action in the final game at Northwestern Stadium. Blackhawk has begun preparation to build a field at the high school.
“Throughout the year, we had a few bumps in the road, but the journey took us to exactly where we want to be right now,” New Castle coach Joe Cowart said. “We treated this game as a playoff game. We focused on that. I thought the guys played their best four quarters of the year against a very good Blackhawk team tonight.”
The ‘Canes, who could have also reached the playoffs with a Montour loss to South Fayette last night, improved to 6-2 in the conference and 6-4 overall to finish third in the Northwest Nine. The top four teams in the two Class 4A conferences advance to the postseason.
“It’s a great feeling,” New Castle wideout Marcus Hooker said. “We’ve been waiting for this. We were preparing all week and couldn’t wait to play. Now, we just need to keep working hard and keep our eyes on the prize.”
South Fayette posted a 42-20 victory over Montour, but the ‘Canes made that mute as they built a 21-0 lead at the half.
Geno Stone got New Castle on the board at the 10:13 mark of the first quarter with an acrobatic interception of a Michael Savilisky pass and 50-yard return.
“I just had a great read on the ball and I guess I caught it one handed,” Stone said. “I didn’t even know I did that. I got the ball, and my guys blocked for me down the field.”
The ‘Canes increased their lead to 14-0 with 4:25 remaining in the opening quarter, as Hooker broke free for a 21-yard touchdown run. Hooker finished with a game-high 124 yards rushing.
“My coaches told me to just run hard, and I got great blocking,” Hooker said. “I just kept running hard.”
Late in the second quarter, Stone found Hooker for a 15-yard TD strike to give New Castle a 21-point lead heading into the locker room.
“I just put it up for Marcus,” Stone said. “He’s a great athlete, and I knew he would make a play.”
The Cougars, who finished with their first winning record since 2011 by going 4-4 in the conference and 5-4 overall, got on the scoreboard midway through the third quarter on a 20-yard touchdown run by Savilisky.
But New Castle answered, engineering a six-play, 65-yard drive that was capped when Garrett Farrah hauled in a 25-yard TD pass from Stone in the front corner of the end zone to increase the ‘Canes’ lead to 28-7 after three quarters.
“Answering touchdowns are what good teams do when you get your backs against the wall,” Cowart said.
Stone finished the game completing 8 of 19 passes for 94 yards to go over 1,000 passing yards on the season. The senior signal caller now has 1,025 yards through the air.
The ‘Canes hiked their lead to 35-7 early in the fourth quarter as Hooker broke loose on a 28-yard scoring jaunt.
Blackhawk closed out the scoring with 2.5 seconds remaining in the game on a 1-yard Spencer Hunter run which came after a timeout by Cougars’ coach Joe Lamenza. Lamenza went 7-29 as Mohawk’s coach from 2011 to 2014.
“It’s a great feeling,” Stone said. “It’s my senior year, so I’m happy we were able to do it. I just want to make sure we win a playoff game this time.”
New Castle will learn its postseason opponent at 7 p.m. Monday when the WPIAL holds its annual pairings meeting at the DoubleTree Hotel in Green Tree.
“We’ve got to play our best football,” Cowart said. “At this time of year, it’s cold, it’s crisp, it’s fall, it’s playoff weather, and we want to be playing our best football heading into the playoffs. I thought our guys played their best football game tonight, and we hope to build on that as we move forward. We’re going to have to because the teams we’ll be playing are only going to get better and better. We’ve got to play our best football moving forward.”
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com).
NEW CASTLE BLACKHAWK
13 First downs 13
246 Yards Rushing 262
33 Yards Lost 16
213 Net Rushing 246
19 Passes Attempted 14
8 Passes Completed 6
1 Passes Intercepted 2
94 Yards Passing 13
307 Total Yards 259
2-0 Fumbles-Lost 4-3
6-35.7 Punts-Average 5-28.6
14-108 Penalties-Yards 6-70
NEW CASTLE 14 7 7 7 — 35
BLACKHAWK 0 0 7 6 — 13
Scoring plays
NEW CASTLE – Geno Stone, 50-yard interception return (Brayden Cartwright kick).
NEW CASTLE – Marcus Hooker, 21-yard run (Cartwright kick).
NEW CASTLE – Hooker, 15-yard pass from Stone (Cartwright kick).
BLACKHAWK – Michael Savilisky, 20-yard run (Myles Vyjaklya kick).
NEW CASTLE – Garrett Farah, 25-yard pass from Stone (Cartwright kick).
NEW CASTLE – Hooker, 28-yard run (Cartwright kick).
BLACKHAWK – Spencer Hunter, 1-yard run (run failed).
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