Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Unionville rolls past Oxford
Unionville runs away from Oxford as Indians keep picking up steam after slow start to season
EAST NOTTINGHAM » Shaking off a rough start to the season, the Unionville Indians (2-3, 2-0 league) are finding their footing.
The Indians’ 48-12 win at Oxford (3-2, 0-1) Friday night gives them a two-game win streak and a 2-0 record in the ChesMont League American Division.
“I think our athletes are starting to hit their stride and get comfortable,” said Unionville coach Pat Clark. “Now we’re 2-0 with a win over a much improved team that came in 3-1, and on track for first place in our division. When we talk about goals, winning the league is always first on the list.”
The Indians worked with excellent field position all night, thanks to a defensive effort that stymied an Oxford offense that had been putting up 27 points a game and rushing for 175 a game. Friday night, the Indians held the Hornets to just 87 yards on the ground.
“The defense played really well tonight,” said Unionville linebacker Alex Pelegrin. “We all stuck to our assignments and did what we were taught by our coaches. Everyone really stepped up and just fired on all cylinders and at full speed. I was impressed by everyone. This was a big win for us.”
Unionville got up on the Hornets in a hurry, putting up four touchdowns by halftime, including three by Connor Schilling, who ran in a pair and caught a 7-yard pass from Dominic Braithwaite. Then, just when it seemed liked Oxford was picking up a little steam, Jeffrey Lang picked off a Hornet pass and took it 34 yards to the house. The Indians took a 27-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“We had momentum early, but Oxford battled back,” said Clark. “Mike (Means) is doing a great job over there and has those kids playing tough. I thought we were really physical tonight. We challenge the kids to be disciplined and stay in assignments. That pick six really helped, I thought. Our eyes on defense were great, and we were physical.”
Schilling led all rushers on the night, picking up 79 yards on 13 carries, while the Indians piled up 244 yards as a team.
“This feels really great,” said Schilling. “We started out pretty bad, but now we’ve won our last two. We just have to come out playing all out every week. There are ten games in the season, and you just have to come out hard in every one.”
Oxford finally got on the board in the third. After Kochmansky (9 for 19, 180 yards, TD, two INT) hit Brandon McWilliams on a 60-yard pass inside the Unionville ten, Kochmansky ran it in from two yards out. They scored again with another Kochmansky-Williams connection for 51 yards.
The Hornets will look to rebound next week at Sun Valley, which will be coming off a surprising home loss against a previously winless Kennett team Friday night.
“I got be honest, the coaches are all really surprised by this game,” said Oxford coach Mike Means. “This was a beating, we need to get tougher. We’re not going to make any excuses. We’ve been very physical all year, so we were shocked with tonight. I thought we had a good week of practice. This coming week in practice, we need to figure out who we are, and we need to get tough again. Basically everything that could go wrong tonight went wrong.”