Despite the excellent weather on Saturday, the Demons were unable to pull out a win at the Patriots’ homecoming game
By P.J. D’Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com
Kennett's Jordan Lardani dives for yardage against Great Valley, Saturday. Lardani led the Demons with 112 yards rushing.
MALVERN — At the onset of Saturday’s contest between the Demons and the Patriots, many thought that the game — like the blustery autumn wind that afternoon—could go any way.
However, Demons Head Coach Scott Green saw it differently. The question is; in this game that shouldn’t have been as close as it was, did Kennett put out its best effort?
“No not at all, not at all. And I’m not sure why that is,” he said.
Maybe the planets weren’t aligned. Or maybe it was the wind…but probably not. Simply put, mistakes were made and the team wasn’t in top form.
Kennett's Anthony Torello fights for territory against Great Valley.
“We turned the ball over too many times and we fumbled late in the first half and they went onto drive,” Green said. “We had the ball down around the twenty yard line and fumbled, and that was the difference because we knew they were going to get the ball at the start of the third quarter.”
Though there were touchdowns from regular contributors Barry Tomasetti Jr. and Anthony Torello, the offensive effort was just not strong enough to prevail against the moderately dangerous Patriots team, fired up and made more skillful by encouragement from the homecoming crowd.
In the third quarter, with Kennett down by one point, 7-6, the Pats managed to drive within the Kennett 3 and score its second touchdown of the game, despite a formidable effort from the Kennett defensive line.
After Kennett gained possession, Torello made an impressive drive down the field to bring the Demons within 20 yards of the Patriot’s end zone, but was pushed back to the 50 after a fishy penalty called that had “homer” written all over it.
Despite not putting their whole hearts into it, the Demons managed to score a remarkable TD within the last minute and a half of the game making it 12-14.
Kennett's Anthony Torello looks for open space.
Everyone knew that the Demons had to gamble on a two-point conversion to keep themselves alive and send it into overtime. The collective breath of the away team stands was audibly held. Could they actually do it in a pinch?
And then the disappointed exhales.
“We made a lot of mistakes and I think that through the pressure of Great Valley’s offense and defense, we felt it. We really made mistakes and they capitalized on that,” Green said.
Despite the disenchantment that the Demons felt from this tough loss, Coach Green says his boys will be in fighting form to do battle with Octorara at Kennett’s homecoming game.
“We’re going to evaluate this game,” he said, “And then we’ll have to evaluate Octorara, but we’re going to have to work hard because they’re a good team. “
