New Castle rallies for win over Hopewell
New Castle (32) vs. Hopewell (28)
Written: Oct 08, 2011
By Ron Poniewasz Jr.
New Castle News
HOPEWELL — The New Castle High football team salvaged the season last night.
The Red Hurricane marched 72 yards in four plays to score the winning touchdown with a little over a minute left in a 32-28 Parkway Conference decision over Hopewell.
New Castle (2-2, 3-3) trailed 14-0 in the first quarter and 21-12 at the break.
“We sure do make things hard,” ’Canes coach Frank Bongivengo Jr. said. “Every week we seem to get off to a slow start. It’s just mental errors.
“For some reason, we went brain dead.”
New Castle is in a three-way tie with Hopewell and Montour (2-2, 4-2) for fourth place. The ’Canes lost to Montour earlier in the year, 35-25.
“This game was huge,” Bongivengo said. “Now we’re 2-2 in the conference. If you can string a couple together, you’re back in the hunt.”
The Vikings’ Rushel Shell, who is the WPIAL’s all-time leading rusher, sat out with concussion-like symptoms. Shell has 1,059 rushing yards on the season.
Matarazzo, who finished 17 of 32 through the air and 230 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions, helped rally New Castle. He was 3 for 3 for 70 yards on the game-winning drive.
Despite throwing three interceptions, Bongivengo knew his quarterback would give his team a chance at the end. Matarazzo has just five interceptions on the year, compared to 15 touchdowns.
“Johnny was moving the ball well. We knew we would have an opportunity to pull it out,” Bongivengo said. “Matarazzo is really playing well. This was probably his shakiest game until the end.”
Matarazzo hit Stew Allen on a 44-yard scoring pass to put the ’Canes ahead, 32-28.
New Castle almost didn’t get a chance at a game-winning touchdown drive. Adam Murray’s 1-yard run with 2:05 left in the game gave the Vikings (2-2, 4-2) a 28-25 lead.
But the ’Canes disputed the score and were hit with back-to-back unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. The infractions enabled Hopewell to kick off from New Castle’s 30.
The Vikings instead attempted an onside kick, but the ’Canes recovered and marched toward the winning score. New Castle was penalized 11 times for 117 yards.
“I’m very disappointed with the number of 15-yard penalties we took,” Bongivengo said.
Hopewell committed eight penalties for 76 yards.
“We made some terrible penalties,” Vikings coach Dave Vestal said. “We didn’t execute on the onside kick, either.
“I feel that New Castle has a good football team, but I feel we beat ourselves. We would have liked to have had Rushel out there, but there’s still a lot of good in this game. We just can’t make mistakes.”
New Castle’s Marcus Carter intercepted a pass after the go-ahead score and returned it for a touchdown. But an illegal block was called, nullifying the score, and the ’Canes were able to run out the clock.
Carter scored three of New Castle’s five touchdowns.
Murray, subbing for Shell, rushed for 133 yards on 26 totes with two scores.
New Castle returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Friday when it hosts West Allegheny in a conference matchup.
(E-mail: rponiewasz@ncnewsonline.com).
(Gaylord Muny contributed to this report).
NEW CASTLE HOPEWELL
15 First downs 12
124 Net Rushing 219
32 Passes Attempted 7
17 Passes Completed 2
3 Passes Intercepted 1
230 Yards Passing 61
354 Total Yards 280
1-0 Fumbles-Lost 2-1
4-35 Punts-Average 4=28.5
11-117 Penalties-Yards 8-76
NEW CASTLE 0 12 0 20 — 32
HOPEWELL 14 7 0 0 — 28
Scoring plays
HOPEWELL — Adam Murray, 52-yard run (Nate Bowden kick).
HOPEWELL — Wiley Belknap, 34-yard pass from Nolan Harmotto (Bowden kick).
NEW CASTLE — Marcus Carter, 15-yard pass from Johnny Matarazzo (kick blocked).
HOPEWELL — Zach Gula, 25-yard interception return (Bowden kick).
NEW CASTLE — Carter, 6-yard pass from Matarazzo (pass failed).
NEW CASTLE — Matarazzo, 42-yard run (Khalil Huddleston kick).
NEW CASTLE — Carter, 12-yard run (pass failed).
HOPEWELL — Murray, 1-yard run (Bowden kick).
NEW CASTLE — Stew Allen, 44-yard pass from Matarazzo (Huddleston kick).
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