{"id":5394,"date":"2012-11-03T18:48:52","date_gmt":"2012-11-03T22:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=5394"},"modified":"2012-11-03T18:48:52","modified_gmt":"2012-11-03T22:48:52","slug":"joy-in-unionville-tears-in-kennett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=5394","title":{"rendered":"Joy in Unionville, tears in Kennett"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indians hold off Blue Demons, 34-17 win league title, playoff berth<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Unionville quarterback Tom Pancoast looks to evade Kennett’s Matt Petrick, during the Indians’ 34-17 win over the Blue Demons, Saturday.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 Two sidelines, two stories: the pain of loss on one side, and the joy and celebration on the other.<\/p>\n

While Unionville was able to celebrate its first ChesMont American Division Title since 2007 and a berth in the state playoffs, Saturday, Kennett\u2019s rapidly improved program fell just short, still having its best season since football returned to the school in 2005.<\/p>\n

The victory was also head coach Pat Clark\u2019s 75th at the helm of the Indians and ended with a shower from his players as he conducted post-game interviews.\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a nice way to get a 75th win,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThat\u2019s just a testament to all the kids who have been in the program. This is the best thing that ever happened to me, coming to Unionville.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennett, eliminated from league and state playoff contention with a loss, could only ruminate on what might have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to reflect on how the season went when you\u2019re facing a loss like this,\u201d Kennett head coach Scott Green said afterward. \u201cWe\u2019re extremely disappointed that our players didn\u2019t get an opportunity to experience something that could have been great. It just wasn\u2019t meant to be today and congratulations to Unionville.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Unionville’s stifling defense bottled up Kennett’s run game most of the day. Here Indians’ Tim Christopher (19), Zach Barnes (54) and Austin Lowe (11) stop Kennett running back C.J. Lowe.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Indians (8-2, 6-0) won a tough-fought 34-17 contest, in a game that was closer than the score might indicate, clinching an undefeated record in the ChesMont American and a berth in the state playoffs, and likely a home opening round game. The Blue Demons (7-3, 4-2) likely fell out of the top 16 in power points in PIAA 4A.<\/p>\n

The Indians enjoyed a balanced offense \u2014 largely on the ground \u2014 with senior running back Brad Pechin rushing for 92 yards on 18 carries, while senior quarterback Tom Pancoast rushed 18 times for 85 yards. Senior all-purpose weapon Tim Christopher had only three carries, but 59 yards \u2014 but was outdone by junior back Dom DiBiaggio who rushed for 85 yards and two scores on just three carries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strength of our team has been running the football,\u201d Clark said. \u201cWe were able to use our strength to get to victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kennett quarterback Jordan Jones pitches to CJ Lowe.<\/p><\/div>\n

Although Unionville has used its high-powered offense to bludgeon opposing teams, Saturday, it was defense \u2014 and stopping Kennett\u2019s strong option offense that was the difference. The Blue Demons were limited to just 146 total yards \u2014 and star running back Jordan Lardani was limited to 72 yards (53 of which came on one play). Junior QB Jordan Jones was limited to just 36 yards rushing, and 40 yards passing on 2-of-6 attempts.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively, people had kind of questioned the fact that we had given up some points,\u201d Clark said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gievn up some points, but when we\u2019ve been up 34-17, 42-17 and kids lose their focus. You don\u2019t want them to, but we had to come out and do the job today, and the kids were phenomenal. The key, defensively, is that we slowed down Lardani \u2014 he had the one big run, but that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (Unionville) came out in a defense that they hadn\u2019t shown all year,\u201d Green said. \u201cBut they played it against us last year. So we were in between, trying to think if with a short week (because Hurricane Sandy limited both teams\u2019 practice week) they were going to try and play something different against us and come out of what they\u2019ve been running all year. So it took us a little bit to get going. And they have good defensive players \u2014 that made it tough to move the ball on them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both teams came out fired up and battled to a near draw in the opening half \u2014 and while the Indians had better success moving the ball, they couldn\u2019t cash in until after recovering a fumble on the Kennett 36, they pounded the ball down the field. Pancoast scored from 15 yards out, to give Unionville a lead it would never surrender \u2014 but the game didn\u2019t become remotely comfortable for the navy and gold until the final seconds.<\/p>\n

Kennett struck back with a 31-yard-field goal by Brett Rose, leaving the score 6-3 at the half.<\/p>\n

Unionville came out strong in the second half, mounting a drive sparked in part by the running of Pechin and junior Garrett Scargill, with Scargill scoring from six yards out to open the lead to 13-3.<\/p>\n

The Blue Demons struck right back, keyed by Lardani\u2019s 53-yard romp to the Unionville 5 . Three plays later, Jones scored from two yards out and Kennett served notice that it would not be fading away.<\/p>\n

Then the Indians struck right back, this time set up by a 43-yard run by Christopher. DiBiaggio pounded the ball in from the four and Unionville had a 20-10 lead in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Down 10 points, Kennett found itself in a do-or-die situation: 4th-and-4 on its own 35 with less than 10 minutes left. The Blue Demons had little choice but to roll the dice and go for it. A Jones pass failed and the ball went over to Unionville on downs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to make a move,\u201d Green said. \u201cWe were having a hard time stopping them on defense and we had to make a move. We had to do something if we were going win this game. If we didn\u2019t go for it there, and they go down and score and lead by a bigger margin, we still lose the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pechin and the Indians made the defensive stop count, moving the ball quickly down the field. Pancoast scored from two out and suddenly it was 27-10, Unionville with 6:39 left to go. That score led the West Chester Rustin players in attendance \u2014 a Kennett win would have shared the ChesMont American title between Kennett, Unionville and Rustin \u2014 to leave en masse.<\/p>\n

But those Knights\u2019 players should have had a little more faith in the Blue Demons\u2019 refusal to quit. Jones cooly led his team right down the field, hitting senior wide out Maalik Rochester with a 37-yard scoring strike, to cut the lead to 27-17.<\/p>\n

It was DiBiaggio that ended Kennett\u2019s hopes. His 72-yard scoring run sealed the deal for Unionville, 34-17, with 3:19 left in the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indians hold off Blue Demons, 34-17 win league title, playoff berth By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 Two sidelines, two stories: the pain of loss on one side, and the joy and celebration on the other. While Unionville was able to celebrate its first ChesMont American Division Title since 2007 and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[222,1380,154,269,382,55,1381,642,34],"class_list":["post-5394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blue-demons","tag-chesmont-american","tag-football","tag-high-school","tag-indians","tag-kennett","tag-piaa","tag-playoffs","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5394","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=5394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}