'Canes hang tough in hard-fought win over Montour
New Castle (26) vs. Montour (13)
Written: Sep 03, 2016
By Shawn Fox
New Castle News
ROBINSON TOWNSHIP — Things got a bit dicey in the fourth quarter for the New Castle High football team Friday night.
But Geno Stone made sure his team would not be denied the victory.
The Red Hurricane opened up a 26-0 lead, then held off a late rally by Montour to post a 26-13 win in the WPIAL Class 4A Northwest Nine opener for both teams at Thomas J Birko Memorial Stadium.
“Obviously, you want to go 1-0 in league play,” New Castle coach Joe Cowart said. “You stare at the rest of the conference schedule, and you go ‘Boy, there’s no easy ones.’ I always tell our kids to try to enjoy the victories because they’re hard to come by. That was certainly a good victory tonight.”
After the Spartans closed to within 13 points with six minutes to play, Stone snuffed out a pair of late Montour drives with interceptions. He also had an 80-yard interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter.
“I just try to get myself around the ball,” Stone said. “I think of myself as a ball hawk, and I’m just always there.”
Stone was equally effective on the offensive side of the football, as he scored on a 23-yard run 1:26 remaining in the first quarter to give the ‘Canes a 7-0 lead.
“I thought Geno was spectacular,” Cowart said. “He made huge defensive plays throughout the night, but offensively he was just as sparkling. He needs to be great player for us to win football games, and he was tonight. But, it was a collective effort. He doesn’t do anything without those other guys around him. I thought a bunch of guys played really well tonight.”
The senior quarterback then hit Lorenzo Gardner with a screen pass that Gardner turned into an 82-yard touchdown with 5:53 remaining before the half to give the ‘Canes a 14-0 edge.
“That’s part of the playbook,” Cowart said. “We saw something during the course of the week where we thought maybe that was going to be a good one. It’s just a matter of executing. ‘Zo’s a heck of an athlete and he has the capability of making maybe a 20-yard gain into a home run. That was nice.”
Those two scoring plays were nearly 20 percent of New Castle’s first-half offense. The ‘Canes ran just 11 offensive plays in the first 24 minutes. Montour, by contrast, ran 36.
“We felt great out there because of the conditioning all week,” Stone said. “We felt like we were still on our first snap.”
New Castle (1-0 conference, 1-1 overall) took the second-half kickoff and put together a drive that nearly equaled its first-half offensive output, with a 10-play, 68-yard scoring march. Marcus Hooker capped the drive by scoring from 7 yards out. The point-after kick was blocked, but the ‘Canes held a 20-0 lead with 7:51 remaining in the third quarter.
Stone hiked that lead to 26-0 four minutes later, with his 80-yard “Pick Six”.
“After I picked it, in my eyes I didn’t see anybody in front of me,” Stone said. “I knew I was going to score.”
The Spartans, however, were far from done.
After an interception by Jaxon Schrenker gave Montour the ball at the New Castle 47-yard line, the host put together a seven-play scoring drive that was capped by Braydon Jones’ 3-yard run.
Following a three and out by the ‘Canes, Montour again found the end zone, as Kavon Morman connected with Austin Deutsch with a 52-yard TD pass. Nolan Hutter’s kick drew the Spartans to within 26-13 with 6:33 remaining in the contest.
Montour’s defense again forced New Castle to punt, and the Spartans drove to the ‘Canes’ 29. But, Stone picked off a Morman pass on fourth down to end the threat.
“Our defense didn’t want to break tonight,” Cowart said. “They bent a little bit, but didn’t want to break. There was some resolve there that we need to keep keying on and trying to get better at.”
The Spartans took advantage of a New Castle fumble with 1:28 remaining and moved the football to the ‘Canes 21. Once again, Stone intercepted Morman to thwart the drive.
“We had been preaching all week to try to finish,” Cowart said. “We didn’t think we showed a consistent effort in finishing a week ago. They showed that effort tonight.”
After running two plays from the victory formation, New Castle had its first conference and overall win of the season.
“It’s a great feeling,” Stone said. “It’s the first time since I’ve been playing varsity that we’ve opened conference play with a win. The difference was tonight we came out ready to play. After losing to Aliquippa last week, we ran and conditioned so much in practice this week and kept that game in the back of our minds the whole time. That really helped us.”
Montour, which came into the game ranked seventh in the state in Class 4A by the Pennsylvania Football News, was playing its season opener.
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
NEW CASTLE MONTOUR
6 First downs 18
155 Yards Rushing 185
28 Yards Lost 28
127 Net Rushing 157
4 Passes Attempted 30
2 Passes Completed 15
1 Passes Intercepted 3
96 Yards Passing 209
223 Total Yards 366
3-2 Fumbles-Lost 3-1
4-31.8 Punts-Average 3-33.7
4-35 Penalties-Yards 8-57
NEW CASTLE 7 7 12 0 — 26
MONTOUR 0 0 0 13 — 13
Scoring plays
NEW CASTLE — Geno Stone, 23-yard run (Brayden Cartwright kick).
NEW CASTLE — Lorenzo Gardner, 82-yard pass from Stone (Cartwright kick).
NEW CASTLE — Marcus Hooker, 7-yard run (kick failed).
NEW CASTLE — Stone, 80-yard interception return (kick failed).
MONTOUR — Braydon Jones, 3-yard run (kick failed).
MONTOUR — Austin Deutsch, 52-yard pass from Kavon Morman (Nolan Hutter kick).
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