Bell, DeJohn help Union earn berth in playoffs
Union (20) vs. Fort Cherry (13)
Written: Oct 17, 2015
By Ron Poniewasz Jr.
New Castle News
Garrison Bell and Randy DeJohn helped the Union High football team continue the team’s positive momentum.
Right into the playoffs.
Bell caught two touchdown passes and DeJohn threw for three scores as the Scotties held on for a 20-13 nonconference home victory over Fort Cherry on Friday night.
It marked the Scotties’ second straight victory and put them in the playoffs on the strength of South Side’s Beaver win over Riverside.
Union (3-2 conference, 4-3 overall) is in fourth place outright in the conference with two league games remaining. The Scotties could finish no worse than a tie for the fourth and final playoff berth out of the Big Seven Conference, but they win the tiebreaker over Rochester (2-4, 3-4), Riverside (1-4, 2-5) and Vincentian Academy (1-4, 1-6) by virtue of head-to-head victories. South Side Beaver’s 34-31 win over Riverside on Friday locked up the postseason bid for Union.
The Scotties travel to Western Beaver (0-5, 0-7) at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 24.
“We want to keep winning. We don’t take anybody lightly,” Scotties coach Stacy Robinson said. “We can’t stop, we can’t sleep on anybody. We’re not that good of a team to take anybody lightly.
“They’ve (Western Beaver) been around a long time with a quality football coach. They’re hungry and they’re looking to beat somebody. It’s an old rivalry from way back. We have to make sure we’re ready. Hopefully we won’t go down there sleeping.”
Bell, a senior who was moved from defensive end to cornerback, also intercepted three passes.
“It’s the shuffling game we do up here at Union,” Robinson said. “If someone goes down, we have to move not just one person, but sometimes three or four to fill the holes in.”
Two of Bell’s aerial thefts came in the second half.
“It was really my first time playing corner, I’m usually a defensive end,” said Bell. “They were just throwing it up to me and I was there. The coaches were calling the coverages and my teammates were helping me out with those.
“The last one I felt like the intended receiver.”
Union opened the scoring on a 33-yard pass from DeJohn to Anthony Bertolino with 3:24 in the first quarter. Logan Schuller hauled in the two-point conversion from Evan Pinkerton to forge an 8-0 lead.
Fort Cherry cut the deficit to 8-6 when Zachary Vincenti plowed in from 10 yards out just six seconds into the second stanza.
Bell reached the end zone twice in the third period, hauling in a pair of scoring passes from DeJohn. The first covered 22 yards and the second was from 45 yards out. Union failed on a two-point run on the first score and the kick failed on the second score to push the count to 20-6.
Bell finished with five receptions for 107 yards.
“Randy throws the ball on the money, it’s always a spiral and it’s always there. As a receiver, I’m always going to be open,” Bell said. “He just threw me a good ball on the first touchdown. I made a decent move and I got there and ran for the corner.”
Said Robinson, “Randy is playing well. We worked that and we repped that every day what we want to do and what our reads are going to be and how we’re going to stretch people horizontally or vertically. It’s a credit to Garrison, he’s getting better at it each week. He knows when to put on the brakes or when to keep going.”
DeJohn, who is playing for the injured Joe Gunn, was 11 of 15 for 181 yards with three scores and no interceptions. Gunn missed his second straight game after sustaining an injury late in the Shenango contest in Week 5.
Last week, DeJohn rallied the Scotties to a key 27-18 conference road win over Riverside in his first start of the season.
“Randy has done great,” Robinson said. “He improved 100 percent from the beginning of the year to last week. If it’s possible, he’s improved 100 percent again. So, 200 percent better than in August. He’s been doing great.”
Union allowed a Fort Cherry touchdown with 3:58 to go in the game and then hung on for the win. The Rangers (2-5) had one final crack with 1:19 to go and moved from their own 40 to the Scotties’ 45, but could get no closer and turned the ball over on downs when quarterback Devon Brown fired an incompletion down the left sideline with 42 ticks to go.
“This was a struggle tonight,” Robinson said. “That’s a good football team, Fort Cherry. We struggled to hang on because they were trying to come back and win.”
(Email: rponiewasz@ncnewsonline.com)
FORT CHERRY UNION
15 First downs 11
288 Yards Rushing 94
40 Yards Lost 63
248 Net Rushing 31
11 Passes Attempted 15
0 Passes Completed 11
3 Passes Intercepted 0
0 Yards Passing 181
248 Total Yards 212
5-3 Fumbles-Lost 7-2
1-21 Punts-Average 5-30
8-40 Penalties-Yards 6-45
FORT CHERRY 0 6 0 7 — 13
UNION 8 0 12 0 — 20
Scoring plays
UNION — Anthony Bertolino, 33-yard pass from Randy DeJohn (Logan Schuller pass from Evan Pinkerton).
FORT CHERRY — Zachary Vincenti, 10-yard run (pass failed).
UNION — Garrison Bell, 22-yard pass from DeJohn (run failed).
UNION — Bell, 45-yard pass from DeJohn (kick failed).
FORT CHERRY — Devon Brown, 1-yard run (Anthony Kampian kick).
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