Montour pulls away for win over New Castle
New Castle (14) vs. Montour (33)
Written: Sep 22, 2012
 By Ron Poniewasz Jr.
New Castle News
For nearly one half last night, momentum was squarely on the side of the New Castle High football team.
Just before intermission, however, a disputed call changed everything. From there, it all was downhill for the Red Hurricane.
The Spartans turned a third-quarter New Castle fumble into 26 unanswered points in a 33-14 come-from-behind Parkway Conference win at Taggart Stadium.
New Castle (0-3 Parkway, 1-3 overall) was nursing an 8-7 lead with seven seconds left in the first half with the ball on Montour’s 1. The ’Canes, coming out of a timeout — their final stoppage of the half — gave the ball to Jalen Holmes who plowed forward. One official signaled touchdown, the points were put on the scoreboard and New Castle players began celebrating.
Seconds later, though, another official said no score, sending Taggart Stadium into a rage.
“The guy on the far side called touchdown. The guy closest to the play said he wasn’t in,” New Castle coach Joe Cowart said. “It’s unfortunate that they signaled touchdown. That was probably their biggest mistake.
“It’s a 50-50 play. Half of the time you’re going to get it. Unfortunately, right now, we’re not getting it. It was a pretty big momentum thing. We have to respond better.”
Said Spartans coach Lou Cerro, “I couldn’t tell. I have to wait until I see the film. The only thing they told me was they made the no touchdown call. I’m assuming they made the right call.”
Holmes’ plunge into the line was the final play of a 14-play, 57-yard drive that took 7 minutes, 30 seconds. New Castle executed 32 plays from scrimmage in the first half to just 13 for Montour.
The ’Canes held a 136-59 advantage at the break in total yardage as well.
“They came in with a nice game plan,” Cerro said. “They were handing it off and Jalen was just hitting the holes.
“They took us off the field. They did the proper things and we were fortunate to be down by just a point.”
New Castle was utilizing the Delaware wing-T to move the ball on the Spartans (3-0, 4-0), who are ranked No. 1 in the WPIAL in Class AAA by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“That’s our wing-T package,” Cowart said. “We have some really good athletes and we’re good up front to be able to do it.”
The ’Canes got the second-half kickoff and set up for their first play at their own 29. But Holmes fumbled and the Spartans scooped it up for a pivotal turnover.
“We can’t chase ghosts,” Cowart said of the play at the end of the half. “It didn’t happen in the first half. We were getting the ball with the lead to start the third quarter. And we still had the lead. We have to be a better third-quarter football team.”
Montour’s Ryan Mihelcic found Devin Wilson in the end zone on the first play after the fumble for a 28-yard scoring pass and a 14-7 lead.
“That was obviously a turning point in the game,” Cerro said. “We recover a fumble, next play we score a touchdown and we get the momentum right back. The kids had a lot of confidence and they were ready.”
Wilson hauled in a 17-yard scoring pass from Shenango transfer Tynen Greer on the Spartans’ next drive for a 20-7 advantage. Greer was 4 of 6 through the air for 34 yards and a score.
“Tynen led us on a touchdown drive. That’s all we’re asking for,” Cerro said. “He’s a tough kid and we’ll need him as the year goes on.”
New Castle managed just 134 yards of total offense in the second half with two turnovers. Sixty of those yards came on the ’Canes’ next-to-last drive, when Julian Cox connected with Paul Jones on a 23-yard touchdown pass with 2:51 left to close the scoring.
“Montour is a good football team,” Cowart said. “They did what they needed to do tonight. They got a road win in the Parkway Conference and that’s a difficult thing to do.”
The Spartans took the opening kickoff and marched 63 yards in seven plays, culminating in a 14-yard pass from Mihelcic to Justin Hill and a 7-0 lead.
But the ’Canes answered in the second quarter on a six-yard touchdown run by Cox. Holmes converted the two-point rush for an 8-7 margin with 9:57 to play in the half. New Castle held the ball for 15 yards, eating up 8:06 on the clock.
(Email: rponiewasz
@ncnewsonline.com)
MONTOUR NEW CASTLE
13 First downs 17
77 Yards Rushing 229
30 Yards Lost 17
47 Net Rushing 212
19 Passes Attempted 6
16 Passes Completed 3
0 Passes Intercepted 0
191 Yards Passing 58
238 Total Yards 270
1-0 Fumbles-Lost 5-2
4-33.2 Punts-Average 3-32.3
6-46 Penalties-Yards 2-15
MONTOUR 7 0 20 6 — 33
NEW CASTLE 0 8 0 6 —14
Scoring plays
MONTOUR — Justin Hill, 14-yard pass from Ryan Mihelcic (Nathaniel Dearth kick).
NEW CASTLE — Julian Cox, 6-yard run (Jalen Holmes run).
MONTOUR — Devin Wilson, 28-yard pass from Mihelcic (Dearth kick).
MONTOUR — Wilson, 17-yard pass from Tynen Greer (pass failed).
MONTOUR — Kevin Klemmer, 22-yard run (Dearth kick).
MONTOUR — Michael Baird, 1-yard run (run failed).
NEW CASTLE — Paul Jones, 23-yard pass from Cox (pass failed).
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