Mohawk struggles offensively against Beaver Falls
Mohawk (6) vs. Beaver Falls (41)
Written: Sep 04, 2010
 SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
BEAVER FALLS — One thing is for certain when a team punts nine times and commits nine penalties.
It’s going to be a long night.
And so it was for Mohawk High, which opened its season last night with a Class AA Midwestern Athletic Conference contest against Beaver Falls at Geneva College’s Reeves Field. Mohawk lost, 41-6.
The final score isn’t a true indication of how the Warriors played. While they couldn’t get anything going offensively the first three quarters, they only trailed the Tigers 15-0 midway through the third period. But Beaver Falls got a score on a 1-yard run by Trey Hall with 1 minutes, 16 seconds left in the period, and then Andre Williams dashed 54 yards for a touchdown on the third play of the fourth quarter.
Those scores gave Beaver Falls a commanding 28-0 lead with 11:35 left to play.
Mohawk didn’t record its initial first down until the 10:44 mark of the fourth quarter. It came on a 6-yard pass from quarterback Johnny Beatty to Matt Vogel and was a key play in a 73-yard, 13-play drive that ended with Beatty bulling his way into the end zone from a yard out with 8:59 remaining.
The big play of the drive was a 23-yard pass from Beatty to Colin Bredl down the right sideline on a fourth-and-5 play that carried to the Beaver Falls 1. But by that time, the outcome had been decided.
“I thought we battled but we didn’t make plays when we needed to make plays or had opportunities that would have helped us in the game,” Mohawk coach Jason Long said. “I thought earlier in the game we did have some things going and we’d make a decent gain on first or second down. Then we’d come right back and take an offside penalty or something.”
Mohawk finished the night with nine penalties for 80 yards with seven of those coming in the first half.
Perhaps the biggest penalty of the night for the Warriors was a roughing-the-kicker call midway through the second quarter. They trailed only 6-0 at the time and stopped Beaver Falls, but the Tigers got a first down with the penalty and moved in for a 32-yard Evan Richards field goal with 4:05 left in the half.
“It looked like we got a piece of the ball on that 10-yard punt that went sideways, but we get called for roughing and that gave them a first down and changed the momentum,” Long said.
The nine penalties were the main reason Mohawk had to punt the football away nine times. And while Beatty did a good job with the kicks — he averaged 34.2 yards a punt — a team can’t give the ball back to an opponent — especially a talented one such as Beaver Falls — that many times in a game and hope to win.
While Beaver Falls has a relatively young team, it does have talent … especially in the backfield.
Junior fullback Trey Hall, a transfer from New Brighton where he rushed for 1,000 yards as a freshman, rushed 15 times for 112 yards and two scores. He set up his third-quarter touchdown with a 52-yard run. And teammate Andre Williams scored on runs of 54 and 40 yards, finishing with 112 yards on seven carries.
“(Assistant coaches) Curt Agostinelli and Mark Taylor did a good job of adjusting our defense to their power game and empty set,” Beaver Falls coach Ryan Matsook said. “I’m sure when we look at the film we are going to see a lot of mistakes. But we’re really a young team. At least we lined up right and tackled.”
There were some bright spots for the Warriors, who were without a couple key linemen because of injuries. Vogel played well at defensive end and had a couple of sacks, and Bredl played well on defense and caught four passes for 52 yards.
“We were just our own worst enemy in the first half,” Long said. “We need to get better.”
MOHAWK BEVER FALLS
4 First downs 19
50 Yards Rushing 320
10 Yards Lost 34
40 Net Rushing 286
21 Passes Attempted 15
9 Passes Completed 9
0 Passes Intercepted 0
79 Yards Passing 144
119 Total Yards 430
0-0 Fumbles-Lost 0-0
9-34.2 Punts-Average 4-28.7
9-80 Penalties-Yards 11-85
MOHAWK 0 0 0 6 — 6
BEAVER FALLS 6 9 7 19 — 41
Scoring plays
BEAVER FALLS — Trey Hall, 3-yard run (kick failed).
BEAVER FALLS — Evan Richards, 32-yard field goal.
BEAVER FALLS — Carlin Henderson, 10-yard run (run failed).
BEAVER FALLS — Hall, 1-yard run (Richards kick).
BEAVER FALLS — Andre Williams, 54-yard run (kick failed).
MOHAWK — Johnny Beatty, 1-yard run (kick failed).
BEAVER FALLS — Williams, 40-yard run (kick failed).
BEAVER FALLS — Austin Cleckley, 8-yard run (Richards kick).
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