Time runs out on 'Canes' season
New Castle (14) vs. Mars (17)
Written: Nov 07, 2015
By Joe Sager
New Castle News
ADAMS TOWNSHIP — One more possession.
That’s all New Castle’s football team wanted in last night’s WPIAL Class AAA first-round playoff clash at Mars. The Fightin’ Planets made sure that didn’t happen, though, as they held on tight until the game’s final play.
Caleb Brake’s 18-yard field goal as time expired gave the hosts a wild 17-14 win over the Red Hurricane at the Mars Athletic Complex.
“They have some athletes. They are fantastic,” Mars coach Scott Heinauer said. “Fortunately, a disciplined football team came through in the end. We played good defense and we knew we needed to move the ball down the field. We have faith in Caleb and we knew he’d come through. We set it up in the middle of the field, called time out and let him go.”
Fourth-seeded Mars (9-1), which meets Ringgold (9-1), a 35-0 winner over Ambridge in Friday’s next round, mustered a 72-yard drive in the final 4:43 with precision. The Planets reached New Castle’s 1 with 2.7 seconds to go before Brake nailed a low line drive that split the uprights.
“We had our shots on both sides of the ball. Defensively, I thought we hung in there,” New Castle coach Joe Cowart said. “They found something in that last drive. They got the ball back with four minutes to go in the game and they played four-minute football and they executed. It’s just unfortunate for us that we didn’t get our hands back on the football.
“I thought we played a good game of football. Our seniors, especially, stepped up and just played their hearts out,” he continued. “We played Red Hurricane football and I couldn’t be more proud of a group of young men. With some of the adversity and things they battled through this year, that’s a proud group of men and I am proud to be associated with them.”
Mars had a chance to score first late in the opening quarter. The Planets drove to the guests’ 8, but a holding call pushed the back to the 20. New Castle’s defense held strong and Mars attempted a 37-yard field goal, but Brake, a lefty, hooked it wide right.
The 13th-seeded ‘Canes (5-5) answered with a hurry-up drive and touchdown four seconds into the second quarter. Nick Treloar capped the 16-play march with a one-yard TD run. The kick failed, which left New Castle with a 6-0 lead with 11:56 left in the half.
Mars responded with a long drive and reached the ‘Canes’ 4. However, on a fourth-and-four, Eli Brooks attempted a halfback pass, but Pat Minenok intercepted it in the end zone to end the threat.
“We made it hard on ourselves. We got the ball near the end zone twice and we needed to get points,” Heinauer said. “But give New Castle’s defense credit. They stopped us twice. It’s great for them. We can’t falter when we get down there. We need to get some points. We struggled and changed some stuff up at halftime.”
New Castle was stopped on its next possession and a shanked punt gave the hosts the ball at the ‘Canes’ 31 with 2:02 left. Three plays later, Sam Morrissey fired a 27-yard TD strike to Nate Sablowski. Brake’s PAT boot gave the Planets a 7-6 lead with 1:31 on the clock
Mars opened the second half with a scoring drive as Isaiah Johnson broke loose for a 29-yard TD run and a 14-6 lead with 9:57 left in the third.
New Castle appeared poised to possibly tie the game on its next drive, but the squad fumbled away the ball at the Mars 10 with 5:51 left in the third. Shortly after, though, the ‘Canes’ Geno Stone picked off a pass at the Planets’ 40.
Three plays later, Stone hauled in a pass from Minenok and appeared to take it 39 yards for a dazzling score. He jumped and hurdled over Mars defender Josh Raymundo en route to the end zone, but was flagged for hurdling the player, which negated the touchdown and pushed the ball back to the 41.
Nevertheless, the ‘Canes drove and scored when Marcus Hooker hauled in a five-yard TD pass from Minenok on a fourth-down play. Minenok located a wide-open Giovanni Eggleston for the two-point conversion to tie it at 14-all with 16.5 seconds left in the third.
New Castle reached the Mars 33 on Minenok’s 54-yard pass to Stone halfway through the fourth. However, a penalty and a sack stalled the drive. The ‘Canes got the ball back once more, but went three and out before the hosts embarked on the game-winning drive.
It was the third year in a row New Castle lost in the first round of the playoffs. The ‘Canes’ last postseason win came in 2009 when they beat Greensburg-Salem, 45-38.
“That’s a group of seniors that went to three straight playoffs and really left their mark on this program. They will be dearly missed,” Cowart said. “We just talked about remembering the taste of this loss. It doesn’t feel good, but we have to commit ourselves to the offseason and commit ourselves to not letting it happen and take that step. Boy, we’re close. This is a tough pill to swallow.”
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
NEW CASTLE MARS
14 First downs 17
133 Yards Rushing 280
33 Yards Lost 5
100 Net Rushing 275
17 Passes Attempted 8
9 Passes Completed 2
0 Passes Intercepted 2
117 Yards Passing 38
217 Total Yards 313
1-1 Fumbles-Lost 0-0
4-29.7 Punts-Average 2-40
6-51 Penalties-Yards 3-35
NEW CASTLE 0 6 8 0 — 14
MARS 0 7 7 3 — 17
Scoring plays
NEW CASTLE — Nick Treloar, 1-yard run (kick failed).
MARS — Nate Sablowski, 27-yard pass from Sam Morrissey (Caleb Brake kick).
MARS — Isaiah Johnson, 29-yard run (Brake kick).
NEW CASTLE — Marcus Hooker, 5-yard pass from Pat Minenok (Giovanni Eggleston pass from Minenok).
MARS — Brake, 18-yard field goal.
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