Unionville rally leaves both sides ‘in shock’

EAST MARLBOROUGH » Truly special football seasons are often punctuated by an unlikely win. If Unionville goes on to have big-time success this fall, it will look back on Friday’s wild 23-20 victory over visiting Academy Park as the one that somehow, someway, didn’t get away.

In a classic defensive battle between Class 5A foes, the Indians scored two touchdowns in the final minute and 49 seconds to stage a dramatic comeback and stun the Knights. Ranked 17th in the latest Pa. Prep Live Top 20, Unionville improves to 2-0 and hands Academy Park its second setback in two outings.

“I am still in shock,” said wideout Joe Zubillaga, who hauled in both of the late scores, including the game-winner from senior quarterback Alex Gorgone. “I really don’t know how it all went down, but I do know that Alex played a heck of a game.”

Zubillaga and Gorgone were huge in the closing minutes, but it’s doubtful that Unionville wound have been able to pull it out without a huge defensive play by cornerback Dante Graham, who stripped the football from Knights’ quarterback Skylor Fillis. There was less than a minute on the clock, Academy Park was clinging to a five-point lead in Unionville territory when it happened.

“We needed that turnover,” Indians head coach Pat Clark said. “There is always hope until the end, but (Fillis) had the first down when we stripped it. If he goes out of bounds …”

With new life, Gorgone made the most of it by connecting with Zubillaga for a 31-yard score. And when Zubillaga hauled in a pass for the two-point conversion, Unionville had a 2320 lead with 23.1 seconds remaining.

“This just shows that our team doesn’t give up,” Zubillaga said. “We fight until the end. We were down two scores with time running out, but we stuck together and stayed strong.”

After staging an epic 13-play, 77-yard scoring drive with just under three minutes to play, the Knights were seemingly in command, 20-9. Fillis ran it three times for 47 yards in the march, including the eight-yard scoring run. And Academy Park got a break when punter Kareem Burton turned a low punt snap into an impromptu first down run near midfield, setting up the score.

“(Fillis) played great,” said Knights’ head coach Jason Vosheski. “For 47 minutes of the game he was awesome.”

But on the ensuing possession, Unionville’s struggling offense suddenly perked up. Gorgone found Jack Adams for 22 yards and J.T. Hower for another 26. That set the stage for a six-yard TD toss to Zubillaga, which cut the deficit to 20-15 with 1:49 left.