{"id":21615,"date":"2016-10-15T10:01:36","date_gmt":"2016-10-15T14:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=21615"},"modified":"2016-10-15T10:04:14","modified_gmt":"2016-10-15T14:04:14","slug":"unionville-overpowers-kennett-in-second-half-34-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=21615","title":{"rendered":"Unionville overpowers Kennett in second half, 34-14"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indians’ one win from clinching tie for\u00a0Ches Mont American title<\/em><\/h2>\n
\"Unionville's<\/a>

Unionville’s Bryce McManus looks to shut down a throw by Kennett Quartback Jake Dilcher, Friday night. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Al Tustin<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 Regardless of their respective records, there\u2019s one game that the Unionville and Kennett High School football teams circle on their schedule: when the two neighbors \u2014 who share a youth football program \u2014 meet up every year.<\/span><\/p>\n

And every year, the game is a moment of deep passion, even if the results have been one-sided \u2014 Unionville has never lost to Kennett since the latter revived its football program some years back. But for a half, it appeared that the plucky Blue Devils might just finally best their neighbors from up Route 82 \u2014 outplaying the Indians for two quarters before finally seeing a second-half Unionville\u00a0domination leading to a 34-14 win, Friday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

The young Kennett squad (3-5, 1-3) played stout defense in the first half, frustrating Unionville, but found itself worn down as the Indians\u2019 offense finally broke out, exploding for four scores in the second half. While the Blue Demons find themselves wondering what might have been, the Indians (5-3, 4-0) are one win \u2014 hosting Octorara next week \u2014 from clinching at least a piece of the Ches Mont American title. Wins against Octorara and Sun Valley, in the regular season finale, would mean a second straight undisputed league title for Unionville.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Unionville's<\/a>

Unionville’s Dante Graham rips off a run against Kennett. Graham’s strong second half helped power a dominating second Indian run game. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cOur kids work so hard,\u201d Unionville Head Coach Pat Clark said. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to take it one step at a time. We ask so much from our kids, basically from January on, it\u2019s nice to be at the end of October and playing meaningful football games.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But early on, the win was anything from assured. Kennett played with passion and continually frustrated an Indian offense that could not find its rhythm.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the second quarter junior quarterback Joe Zubillaga \u2014 foreshadowing his second half \u2014 broke off a big run, powering the ball in from 32 yards out. After Matt Mainwaring missed an extra point wide right, the Indians held a fragile 6-0 lead. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Blue Demons responded immediately with a drive of their own. Behind the running of halfback Connor Hyzny and quarterback Jake Dilcher, Kennett struck back, grabbing a 7-6 lead on Dilcher\u2019s five-yard run \u2014 which held until halftime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clark pointed the finger at himself \u2014 he calls the defenses during the game and dialed up a blitz package early on that Dilcher was able to take advantage of \u2014 for the first score, praising his defense for yet another strong effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Unionville's<\/a>

Unionville’s J.T. Hower comes down with the first of his two interceptions in the game. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI’ll take the heat on the bad blitz call when we gave up the first touchdown,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThey\u2019ll (the players) probably give me grief about that tomorrow (during game film review). (We want to) keep everything in front of you and be good tacklers. I think that\u2019s the best thing we\u2019ve done this year \u2014 we\u2019re good tacklers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The second half \u2014 as Kennett started to get worn down and Unionville found (arguably for the first time all season) it\u2019s offensive groove \u2014 was a totally different matter. The Indians marched up and down the field, using a power running game and timely passing to control the ball and take control of the game. Dante Graham \u2014 who had an outstanding second half \u2014 punctuated the game by powering a late drive to seal the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of our style \u2014 we\u2019re rounding into form a bit,\u201d Clark said. \u201cWe executed and we didn\u2019t take many penalties.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With Octorara looming, Clark cautioned it would be a mistake to look past the Braves \u2014 a young\u00a0 <\/span>team with talent on offense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey took Avon Grove down to the wire,\u201d clark said. \u201cI think (coach) Jed King is a really good offensive mind. He\u2019ll give you fits \u2014 we\u2019re going to have some issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Two more wins would also likely mean a home playoff game for the Indians in the opening round of the District One 5A playoffs \u2014 Unionville was seeded eighth coming into this week, and teams above them, including Sun Valley, lost, meaning that its likely the Indians will advance in the seeding this week.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indians’ one win from clinching tie for\u00a0Ches Mont American title By Al Tustin, Staff Writer, The Times KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 Regardless of their respective records, there\u2019s one game that the Unionville and Kennett High School football teams circle on their schedule: when the two neighbors \u2014 who share a youth football program \u2014 meet up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3176,6518,154,55,34],"class_list":["post-21615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ches-mont","tag-featured","tag-football","tag-kennett","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21615"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21620,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21615\/revisions\/21620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}