Pine Bush spoils Senior Night for Kingston
KINGSTON, N.Y. Pine Bush spoiled Senior Night for Kingston High’s football team Friday as the Bushmen ran through and around the Tigers for a 41-0 Section 9, Class AA triumph at Dietz Stadium.
Kingston’s defense had no solution to handling Pine Bush’s ground game, which ran 50 times for 479 yards and six touchdowns.
Junior Gunnar Meland rushed 22 times for 208 yards and sophomore Khristian Walker gained 105 on 11 carries to lead Pine Bush, which improved to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in AA. Both backs each ran for three touchdowns.
Kingston finished 1-5 in AA and is now 3-5 overall with one final game to play: a to-be-announced crossover next week.
The Bushmen got two quick scores as Meland had TD runs of
1 and 39 yards in the first six minutes to establish a 13-0 lead.
The Tigers appeared to be just a big play away from getting back in it, but miscues killed those chances.
One of those breaks occurred when Daiveyon Jackson intercepted a Kenneth Holland pass midway through the second quarter and ran it back 74 yards to the Pine Bush 18. A pair of unsportsmanlike penalties on the play, however, pushed the Tigers back to midfield and they never capitalized.
Penalties haunted the Tigers, who were flagged 10 times for 110 yards. Holding penalties negated two Chapman Parker touchdown passes. He had hit Justin Longo with a 26yard strike just before the end of the half that would have gotten Kingston to within 21-7.
“At halftime we felt it should have been a 13-7 game. There was a huge surge of momentum,” said Kingston coach Quintin Johnson about the interception return and not getting at least one TD before halftime. “It was a rollercoaster.”
A 9-yard scoring pass to Jackson barely a minute after Meland had his third TD
run to start the second half was also erased.
Some good defense by Kingston kept it a 13-0 game until Walker scored on a 21-yard run and added a 2-point conversion with 2:41 left in the half. The Tigers could never force Pine Bush into a 3-and-out, and defensive stops and offensive drives were undermined by the penalties.
“It frustrated me, because I felt like they started snowballing,” Johnson said. “It felt like when we had some momentum. I can’t criticize them (the officials). We certainly made our mistakes. It’s just hard when you get penalties and they’re on the other side of the field and I can’t see them. And there’s
no recourse if you disagree with the call. You just have to play the next play.
“It’s frustrating and the problem is we’re running out of time. I don’t know how much we are going to be able to do on this last game.”
Walker made it 34-0 on a 10-yard scamper late in the third quarter. Kingston answered with its best drive of the night, but it stalled at the 18. Walker then scored again on a 13-yarder with 4:54 left.
Parker carried the Tigers’ offense. He completed 15-of35 passes for 135 yards and rushed seven times for 124. Jackson had five catches for 63 yards, while Myles Gordon had four for 44.