Late uprising lifts Laurel to win
Laurel (34) vs. Springdale (7)
Written: Sep 21, 2013
By Dan Irwin
New Castle News
Pat Cuba will take three fourth-quarter touchdowns to break open a tight game.
But he might add a Rolaids chaser.
“I tell these guys you’re killing me,” Laurel High’s coach said after the Spartans scored 20 points in the final frame last night to hand Springdale a 34-7 nonleague loss. It was the second straight game in which Laurel led 14-7 after three quarters before posting multiple scores in the final 12 minutes.
“I said, ‘C’mon, let’s go get after it in the first quarter and build up, instead of waiting until the fourth quarter to make things happen,” Cuba went on.
“But they don’t quit. Even when their backs are to the wall, I still believe that they believe they can still make plays. And that’s what they do.”
Two guys who did it last night were Clayton Sharek and Kyle Forbes, each of whom turned in a couple of game-changing plays to spark Laurel’s fourth-quarter uprising.
The Spartans (3-1 overall) opened the scoring with a first-quarter, 11-yard run by Christopher Peluso, but the Dynamos (1-3) evened things up in the second with a 16-play, 80-yard drive capped by Sammy Carey’s 1-yard run.
Laurel retook the lead with just 34 seconds left in the half on a 2-yard pass from Josh Dando to Spencer Pullium, but another long Springdale drive threatened to pull the Dynamos even again in the third. Springdale got as far as the Spartans 13, where it faced a fourth-and-three situation.
Quarterback Daniel Franscousky looked for tight end Adam Lock crossing over the middle, but Sharek had tight underneath coverage and broke up the play.
“I just read it perfectly and was able to break it up,” Sharek said. “That gave us a lot of momentum because after that, we marched right down the field and scored.”
He left out the part where he went down on his knees and made a sliding catch of a Dando 24-yard heave just behind the goal line pylon to account for that touchdown.
“Clayton Sharek, he showed great hands on the one he caught down in the corner,” Cuba said. “That was a great catch, because he looked one way and then had to reverse and look back the other way to make the catch.”
Actually, Laurel was forced to punt three plays after Sharek’s key pass break-up, but Forbes sprinted downfield and fell on the ball on the Springdale 41 after it bounced off return man Justin Wilson. Five plays later, Dando and Sharek connected on the score.
“On punts I always long snap,” Forbes said, “and they gave me a free release right down the field, and I knew where he was planning on kicking it. He didn’t call a fair catch, and I just seemed to time it out perfect. It bounced right off him, and I got on the ball.”
Laurel stretched its lead on a 37-yard Matty Conway run on its next possession, and Forbes sewed things up when he intercepted Franskousky on Springdale’s ensuing possession and returned it 55 yards for a score.
“I got a nice break on the ball and luckily I got some nice blocks by my teammates downfield or I might not have made it all the way,” Forbes said. “He (Sharek) threw a heck of a block.”
“I just saw him coming with the ball,” Sharek added, “and I thought, well, I’d better block, so I just turned around and started going backwards. There was this guy on his heels and I just took him out.”
Cuba, meanwhile, lauded his entire defensive unit, which yielded just 71 total yards after intermission.
“ I thought our kids did a good job of getting penetration and causing problems,” he said. “That was the problem we had in the first half, we weren’t doing a real good job with that. We did a lot better in the fourth quarter.”
(Email: d_irwin@ncnewsonline.com)
SPRINGDALE LAUREL
11 First downs 11
120 Yards Rushing 197
16 Yards Lost 22
104 Net Rushing 175
11 Passes Attempted 6
7 Passes Completed 4
1 Passes Intercepted 0
61 Yards Passing 47
165 Total Yards 222
1-1 Fumbles-Lost 0-0
5-22.8 Punts-Average 3-38.3
6-30 Penalties-Yards 3-20
SPRINGDALE 0 7 0 0 — 7
LAUREL 7 7 0 20 — 34
Scoring plays
LAUREL — Christopher Peluso 11-yard run (Noah Wertz kick).
SPRINGDALE — Sammy Carey 1-yard run (Alex Pane kick)
LAUREL — Spencer Pullium 2-yard pass form Joshua Dando (Wertz kick).
LAUREL — Clayton Sharek 24-yard pass from Dando (Kick fails)
LAUREL — Matty Conway 37-yard run (Wertz kick)
LAUREL — Kyle Forbes 55-yard interception return (Wertz kick).
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