Spartans ride big second half to win over Union
Union (19) vs. Laurel (20)
Written: Sep 28, 2013
By Corey J. Corbin
New Castle News
Some teams like to say they’re a second-half team when they’re not.
When the Laurel High football team says the second half is its bread and butter, it’s not lying.
The Spartans (3-1, 4-1) needed yet another big second-half performance to steal a 20-19 win from Union in a WPIAL Class A Big Seven showdown at Socs Roussos Stadium last night.
“Geez, oh man, I’m getting old fast,” Laurel coach Pat Cuba said. “Give credit to Union. They did a great job. They deserved to win the game, but my kids didn’t quit. They haven’t, nor will they. Every week, we’ll get into a situation where we’re up by one touchdown or something like that. In the fourth quarter, we’re ready to play. A lot of that has to do with our conditioning program in the summertime. It’s really paying off now.”
Union running back Jordan Best ripped off a 73-yard touchdown run to hand the Scotties a 12-point advantage and all the momentum at 19-7 with 10:20 left in the third quarter, but from then on, it was all Laurel.
“We said ‘We’re going to overcome. We’re going to overcome,’ ” Cuba said. “We preached that at halftime. We told the seniors ‘You have to step up and make a statement.’ We left them alone and they made a statement.”
Following Best’s touchdown scamper, Union got a steady diet of Laurel’s Matty Conway, who carried the ball nine straight times for 32 yards, before Christopher Peluso went through a gaping hole between Eric Leasure and Alec Covelli for a 27-yard touchdown. The score stayed at 19-13 when the extra point attempt clanged off the left upright.
Union answered almost immediately when David Sadler took a simple screen pass 69 yards on third-and-9 to the Laurel 10, but Josh Dando intercepted Anthony Rush’s first down pass in the back of the endz one to end the threat.
“It’s a tough spot,” said Union coach Stacy Robinson, who watched Dando end a fourth-quarter drive and Kyle Forbes halt the Scotties’ last possession with interceptions. “Anthony did a good job. He was putting the ball on people at times and at other times, he didn’t. That’s what happens when it’s your first year as a starting quarterback.”
Dando’s second interception handed the Spartans a short field to work with, trailing by six and just over five minutes left in the game.
After Brady Stewart sacked Dando on first down, Conway carried the rock the next five plays, covering 41 yards and scoring from 5 yards out. Noah Wertz tacked on the game-winning extra point.
“Matty did a great job of running the football,” said Cuba of Conway, who finished with 102 yards on 31 carries. “He’s a hard-nosed kid with great vision. When you give him the football, he makes something happen. If you need one, he’ll give you one and a half. He does whatever it takes. I thought the fullbacks did a nice job of leading and I can’t forget the o-line. They did a nice job.”
Both teams struggled offensively in the first quarter — Union to gain positive yardage and Laurel to stop fumbling. The Scotties had -16 yards rushing in the first quarter, while the Spartans had four first-quarter fumbles — including three on the option pitch — losing one.
“I told these kids coming into this game that you’ve got to treat this game like a playoff game and we treated it like it was our first game or first scrimmage,” said Cuba, whose team had seven fumbles. “It was just one of those things where anything that could go wrong went wrong. We had problems with the snap. God bless our center, we put him in this week. He did a great job, but we put in him in a bad situation.
“(The option pitch) is something that we work on all the time. We have to get that ironed out.”
While Laurel continued to struggle offensively, Union ironed out its offensive kinks in the second quarter, scoring on 19- and 25-yard touchdown passes from Rush to Benjamin Young for a 13-7 lead at halftime.
“You come up with a plan and you work the plan,” Robinson said. “In our offense, we like to do multiple things, because we have to. We have to mix it up, because we’re not big enough or strong enough to run it down your throat.
“Ben has a natural gift. He’s been blessed and there’s no shame in being blessed like that. He can track the ball when it’s in the air and he can adjust. He can run. He’s a big-time football player. I think people are starting to realize that each week.”
After the first Rush to Young touchdown, Dando broke free for a 41-yard run, but was stripped from behind. The ball bounced into the end zone and was recovered by Laurel tight end Joseph Haybarger to knot the score at 7.
Robinson vowed the Scotties (1-3, 2-3) aren’t “knocked out” of playoff contention just yet.
“All losses are tough to swallow, but this one is a big gulper,” he said. “We had opportunities to win, but we didn’t get it done. In the end, we have no one to blame but ourselves. As a team, we all came up short, but I’m proud of my guys. It’s a shame they had to lose the game. I feel bad for them.
“We’ve been knocked down, but we haven’t been knocked out. We can still get back up again. We have to keep winning. Is it preposterous to think we can win out? Maybe. Maybe not. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”
(Email: C_Corbin@ncnewsonline.com)
LAUREL UNION
9 First downs 7
236 Yards Rushing 184
54 Yards Lost 73
182 Net Rushing 111
7 Passes Attempted 15
2 Passes Completed 7
0 Passes Intercepted 3
16 Yards Passing 158
198 Total Yards 269
7-1 Fumbles-Lost 2-0
4-38.8 Punts-Average 4-33
5-40 Penalties-Yards 5-30
LAUREL 0 7 6 7 — 20
UNION 0 13 6 0 — 19
Scoring plays
UNION — Benjamin Young, 19-yard pass from Anthony Rush (Young kick).
LAUREL — Joseph Haybarger, fumble recovery in end zone (Noah Wertz kick).
UNION — Young, 25-yard pass from Rush (kick failed).
UNION — Jordan Best, 73-yard run (pass failed).
LAUREL — Christopher Peluso, 27-yard run (kick failed).
LAUREL — Matty Conway, 5-yard run (Wertz kick).
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