Union fails to capitalize in loss to Riverside
Union (13) vs. Riverside (45)
Written: Oct 04, 2014
By Ron Poniewasz Jr.
New Castle News
Opportunities were there for the Union High football team last night.
But the Scotties couldn’t cash in.
Union had four possessions reach the Riverside 30 or deeper and came away empty each time in a 45-13 Big Seven Conference home loss.
The Scotties (1-4 conference, 1-5 overall) reached the Panthers’ 18 and 30, only to turn the ball over on downs. They advanced to the 30 and threw an interception and reached the 29 only to fumble the ball away.
“We had opportunities. Riverside is a good football team,” Union coach Stacy Robinson said. “We’re not good enough to blow opportunities or chances. Subsequently, we did, and that’s why the score ended up the way that it was.
“It’s hard to sustain long drives because eventually something is going to break down somewhere, a protection or an assignment. We tried to strike with big plays. We did make some big catches, but we have to finish them off and take them to the house in order for us to stay in games. Sometimes we didn’t get it done on certain drives.”
The loss also eliminates the Scotties from playoff contention with three games to play, two of which are conference games
“I’m pretty much sure our fate is sealed,” Robinson said. “But we still have to try and find a way to win games.
“There’s a scoreboard in every stadium we’re going to play in so we want to make sure we come out on top with the most points on the board the rest of the way.”
The Scotties’ first two squandered opportunities came in the first quarter, a third chance came late in the half and their final shot came on their second drive of the second half.
“I was mixing our packages,” Panthers coach Tom Liberty of his defense to get Union’s offense off the field. “I was trying to confuse their linemen. I was going into bear fronts, eagle fronts, stack. I was running line twists and bringing two linebackers at a time, one linebacker at a time.
“I was just trying to confuse them because they do have athletes. They can throw and they can catch the football. In the first half, I was running edge blitzes and they were hurting us.”
Riverside (3-1, 4-2) raced to a 21-0 lead after one quarter on the strength of a 10-yard scoring run by Lance Fischer, an 82-yard touchdown tote by Logan Sheridan and an eight-yard scoring jaunt by Dalton Hewitt.
“We didn’t want a letdown,” Liberty said. “We basically knew they had some athletes.”
The Panthers pushed the buffer to 35-0 late in the second quarter and threatened the execution of the mercy rule. But Union’s Garrison Bell hauled in a 61-yard touchdown pass in stride from Anthony Rush with 4:25 to go in the half and Bell’s conversion boot closed the deficit to 35-7.
Riverside’s Cortney Harden drilled a 34-yard field goal as the second quarter came to an end for a 38-7 advantage.
Bell reached the end zone again for the Scotties on the opening drive of the second. He hauled in a 38-yard scoring aerial from Rush with 7:12 left in the third.
Bell caught three passes for 104 yards and a pair of scores.
Union had momentum after forcing a three-and-out. The Scotties marched to the Riverside 29, but Jordan Best was stripped in the downpour and the guests took over.
“I told the kids that I was still happy that they weren’t giving up,” Robinson said of his halftime speech. “We could have hung our head, but we kept trying to fight and we tried to get on the board.
“Who knows, but call me crazy, you never know what’s going to happen. That’s why we play the game. We thought we could come out in the second half, by some miraculous miracle, come back and win. But it wasn’t to be. You have to have hope. If not, you might as well not even go out and play.”
Said Liberty, “Stacy is old school like me. They’re not going to quit. He’s been around like me. I told these guys, don’t let up. And they put up a very nice drive out of halftime.”
Riverside rolled up 450 yards of total offense, 389 of which came in the first half. Union managed 284 yards of offense.
“It’s tough to stop Riverside,” Robinson said. “It’s no mystery. I know how people are going to come at us and if they don’t, they’re foolish.
“They knew what to do. Their game plan was to run the ball down our throat. They passed the ball a lot, too. They’re working on getting better in all aspects of the game. They’re bigger and more aggressive than us up front. I can only fault my guys so much. You’re outweighed 40 or 50 pounds to a man, it’s a tough battle to fight.”
Union returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Friday at nonconference foe Fort Cherry.
(Email: rponiewasz@ncnewsonline.com)
RIVERSIDE UNION
19 First downs 13
278 Yards Rushing 132
10 Yards Lost 22
268 Net Rushing 110
16 Passes Attempted 24
9 Passes Completed 11
0 Passes Intercepted 1
182 Yards Passing 174
450 Total Yards 284
2-0 Fumbles-Lost 3-2
4-27 Punts-Average 4-32.5
7-60 Penalties-Yards 5-31
RIVERSIDE 21 17 7 0 —45
UNION 0 7 6 0 — 13
Scoring plays
RIVERSIDE — Lance Fischer, 10-yard run (Cortney Harden kick).
RIVERSIDE — Logan Sheridan, 82-yard run (Harden kick).
RIVERSIDE — Dalton Hewitt, 8-yard run (Harden kick).
RIVERSIDE — Ricky Wass, 1-yard run (Harden kick).
RIVERSIDE — Hewitt, 3-yard run (Harden kick).
UNION — Garrison Bell, 61-yard pass from Anthony Rush (Bell kick).
RIVERSIDE — Harden, 34-yard field goal.
UNION — Bell, 38-yard pass from Rush (kick failed).
RIVERSIDE — Marcel Cleckley, 3-yard run (Harden kick).
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