New Castle’s playoff hopes take hit in loss
New Castle (21) vs. West Allegheny (24)
Written: Oct 15, 2011
Special to the News
For the New Castle High football team, it’s now a two game season with no wiggle room.
It is that way for the Red Hurricane after a 24-21 Parkway Conference loss to West Allegheny last night before a sparse crowd at Taggart Stadium.
West Allegheny put together an 81-yard, 14-play drive to score the winning touchdown on a 6-yard pass from quarterback Dylan Bongiorni to Zach Medved with 2:37 left to play. That was the first time the Indians were ahead in the contest.
The loss dropped New Castle to 2-3 in the Parkway standings with two games to play in the regular season. Central Valley defeated Hopewell, 34-23, and is 5-0. West Allegheny is now 4-1 in the conference and alone in second place with Blackhawk and Montour tied for third at 3-2. Hopewell is tied with the ’Canes in the loop at 2-3.
The top four teams in the conference advance to the WPIAL playoffs. Central Valley secured one of those spots last night with its win against Hopewell. The other berths are up for grabs.
“Like I told the kids, it comes down to a two-game series probably,” New Castle coach Frank Bongivengo Jr. said. “We need to win them both, probably, to get it.”
New Castle, 3-4 overall, plays at Moon at 7:30 p.m. Friday and then entertains Blackhawk the final week of the regular season. Two wins and the ’Canes are 4-3 in the conference.
“We just made it hard on ourselves,” Bongivengo said. “Now it’s a two game fight.”
Had the ’Canes held on and beaten West Allegheny, which upped its overall record to 5-2, one win in the final two games would have probably gotten them in the playoffs.
It looked as if New Castle would get the win last night after it held the Indians to a 39-yard field goal following a short punt that gave West Allegheny the ball on the New Castle 25. That field goal by Tom Forse cut the ’Canes lead to 14-10.
New Castle took the ensuring kickoff and drove 73 yards in four plays to take a 21-10 lead. The touchdown came on a nifty play where quarterback Johnny Matarazzo flipped a lateral to Marcus Carter who then launched a long pass to Darrian Rice. The play covered 55 yards.
“What a great call on that double pass,” West Allegheny coach Bob Palko said. “What a great ballgame. God almighty, they are so athletic. And their quarterback, oh boy, he throws it well and runs hard.”
Matarazzo completed 12 of 16 passes for 155 yards and ran for another 20.
Jalen Holmes finished with 69 yards rushing on 15 carries.
West Allegheny cut the lead to 21-17 with 2:12 left in the third quarter when Bongiorni scored on a 20-yard run out of the Wildcat formation.
The Indians then tried to get the ball back with an onside kick but Tevin McCaster fell on the ball and New Castle took over on the Indians’ 45. The ’Canes then drove to the West Allegheny 14, but that’s when things started to fall apart.
On a second-and-10 play, Matarazzo fired a pass to Carter running a slant route in the end zone. The pass appeared to be on target but Carter couldn’t come up with the ball. New Castle lost five yards on the next two plays.
West Allegheny took over on its 19 and drove for the winning score with sophomore Troy Delmonico doing most of the work out of the Wildcat offense. He carried the ball on 10 consecutive plays and moved the Indians from their 45 to the New Castle 5.
“That was a tough little catch,” Bongivengo said of the pass to Carter in the end zone. “One he usually catches but, unfortunately, he didn’t catch it this time.
“Then we had a guy wide open on the last play and made a bad throw. We had opportunities to make plays, unfortunately we didn’t make them.”
He pointed out this is the second game the ’Canes have let slip away in the fourth quarter.
“We had Montour [beaten] … that’s two games that we didn’t finish,” he said.
“When you look at it we got the field goal, then the big stop (on defense) and then the drive at the end,” Palko said.
(E-mail: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
WEST ALL. NEW CASTLE
15 First downs 13
265 Yards Rushing 108
16 Yards Lost 18
249 Net Rushing 90
9 Passes Attempted 17
7 Passes Completed 13
0 Passes Intercepted 0
92 Yards Passing 210
341 Total Yards 300
0-0 Fumbles-Lost 3-0
2-30 Punts-Average 2-13.5
11-93 Penalties-Yards 5-46
WEST A. 7 0 10 7 — 24
NEW CASTLE 14 0 7 0 —21
Scoring plays
NEW CASTLE — Levar Ware, 19-yard pass from Johnny Matarazzo (Khalil Huddleston kick).
WEST ALLEGHENY — Wes Thomas, 1-yard run (Tom Forse kick).
NEW CASTLE — Marcus Carter, 33 pass from Matarazzo (Huddleston kick).
WEST ALLEGHENY — Forse, 39-yard field goal.
NEW CASTLE — Darrian Rice, 55-yard pass from Carter (Huddleston kick).
WEST ALLEGHENY — Dylan Bongiorni, 20-yard run (Forse kick).
WEST ALLEGHENY — Zach Medved, 6-yard pass from Bongiorni (Forse kick).
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