Down and out
New Castle (16) vs. Hopewell (42)
Written: Oct 27, 2012
By Joe Sager
New Castle News
HOPEWELL TWP. — The New Castle High football team needed its best effort last night.
Instead, the Red Hurricane delivered one of its worst performances in a 42-16 loss to Hopewell in a WPIAL Class AAA Parkway Conference battle at Tony Dorsett Stadium.
The defeat knocked New Castle (3-5 conference, 4-5 overall) out of WPIAL playoff contention.
“They came out ready to perform on their senior night. The best Hopewell team we saw all year came to play tonight. Unfortunately, maybe they got maybe the worst of us,” New Castle coach Joe Cowart said. “That’s one that’s going to linger and one that’s going to eat at us. Hopefully, as a group of juniors and a group of sophomores, this thing will filter down that they never ever want to taste something like this again.”
Hopewell (4-4, 4-5), which qualified for the postseason as the Parkway’s No. 4 seed with the win, used a stifling defense to silence the ’Canes. The Vikings limited New Castle to no positive rushing yardage and just 94 yards through the air.
“Tip your hats to a group like that. They had some tough losses this year, but they rectified their wrongs tonight and they made us look bad,” Cowart said. “We, as a coaching staff, have to do a better job getting those guys ready to win a playoff-caliber football game. We, as coaches, didn’t get it done — me, in particular.
“We have to get better. We have to turn the page, as a group of younger guys, and right the wrongs that we saw tonight.”
While the ’Canes’ running game fizzled, Hopewell’s sizzled. Mike Tempalski gained 121 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries, while quarterback Stefan Mrkonja had 98 yards on 19 totes and Tyler Ishman had 76 yards on 14 attempts.
“We thought Stefan was doing a good job in the shotgun. Tyler Ishman did a tremendous job for a sophomore. Mike Tempalski just ran his guts out. He was unbelievable tonight. Those are the guys we knew we had to hang our hat on this week,” Hopewell coach Dave Vestal said. “We made a determination that we were going to go right at them. Our trap play worked well and our fullback (Tempalski) was humming pretty good. We just knew we had to control the tempo of the game and the clock. The more touches they had, the more dangerous they were.”
The Vikings took charge from the start. After forcing New Castle to punt on its first two possessions, the hosts easily marched their way for touchdowns. They built a 22-0 lead before Julian Cox found Malik Hooker for a 9-yard scoring strike. That trimmed New Castle’s deficit to 22-8 at halftime.
Hopewell scored twice in the third quarter to build a 36-8 advantage. Cox hit Hooker for another 9-yard TD pass in the fourth, but the hosts chewed large chunks of time off the clock with their power running game.
“We had a good week of practice and we got a lot of guys back who missed last week,” Vestal said. “Our kids were determined that they were going to go out with a win in their last game this season at Tony Dorsett Stadium. Our kids came ready to play. New Castle is a good football team, but we really executed.”
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
NEW CASTLE HOPEWELL
7 First downs 22
64 Yards Rushing 312
64 Yards Lost 14
0 Net Rushing 298
11 Passes Attempted 2
6 Passes Completed 1
0 Passes Intercepted 0
94 Yards Passing 5
94 Total Yards 303
0-0 Fumbles-Lost 1-0
5-35 Punts-Average 0-0
7-50 Penalties-Yards 3-20
NEW CASTLE 0 8 0 8 — 16
HOPEWELL 14 8 14 6— 42
Scoring plays
HOPEWELL — Tyler Isman, 2-yard run (Nate Bowden kick).
HOPEWELL — Mike Tempalski, 2-yard run (Bowden kick).
HOPEWELL — Tempalski, 1-yard run (kick failed).
HOPEWELL — Safety, Jamal Moody tackled in end zone.
NEW CASTLE — Malik Hooker, 9-yard pass from Julian Cox (Demarcus Blanchard pass from Cox).
HOPEWELL — Stefan Mrkonja, 1-yard run (Bowden kick).
HOPEWELL —Tempalski, 12-yard run (Bowden kick).
NEW CASTLE — Hooker, 9-yard pass from Cox (Cox run).
HOPEWELL — Tempalski, 13-yard run (kick failed).
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