Penn Wood falls to Rustin in semifinal on late field goal
Rustin’s late field goal boots game Penn Wood out of District 1 Class 5A playoffs
WESTTOWN >> From 32 yards out, it was the longest kick Tommy Powers made all season.
The football novice, who was a soccer player for his entire athletic career until this year, connected for fifth-seeded Rustin in Saturday night’s District 1 Class 5A semifinal against No. 1 Penn Wood.
A defensive slugfest would rest on the foot of Powers. With 5:15 left in regulation, after Rustin’s offense was stymied in the red zone, Powers was there to save the game.
The Golden Knights then thwarted the Patriots’ last-gasp rally attempt and held on for a 10-8 victory. Rustin advances to the district championship game to play No. 2 Upper Dublin, which routed 11th-seeded Unionville, 40-7.
Powers’ game-winning boot was the culmination of a lot of hard work.
“It was a bit of a shaky start to the season for me,” he said. “I kept practicing every day and my confidence level rose and I was able to get it done tonight.
“This is my first year doing this, I was originally a soccer player, so all of it is new to me. The switch-over to football wasn’t that hard, though. I mean, kicking a ball is kicking a ball, you just have to make sure it goes through the posts.”
Penn Wood’s high-octane offense had one more shot to get the goahead score, but Powers couldn’t hold in the excitement. Could you blame him? “Nothing is more exciting in the world,” he said. “It means a lot to me and to help this team. … The back and forth of this game, it was amazing. It had everyone on the edge of their seats.”
Rustin, unexpectedly, had another chance to create some lasting memories on their home field.
The snowstorm that blasted the region earlier in the week forced Penn Wood to forgo home field advantage to Rustin, which had already beaten Penn Wood at its place during the regular season.
Penn Wood’s Kerr Field was deemed unplayable Friday afternoon. Penn Wood athletic director Rap Curry was unable to secure a neutral site on short notice, so the teams reluctantly agreed to play at Rustin. The Patriots, by the way, haven’t lost at home since Oct. 29, 2016.
The Patriots (11-2) can only wonder what could have been, but at least they had a loud crowd of supporters in attendance to make them feel at home. And for 3½ quarters, they were the better team, ever so slightly.
But the mistakes piled up, especially on offense. They had too many dropped passes and not enough big plays.
Desman Johnson, the Patriots’ standout junior quarterback, broke the Delaware County record for most yards in a season when he found wide receiver Anauri Hankey for 23 yards in the second quarter. Johnson finished 11 for 22 with 113 yards and an interception to give him 2,884 yards for the season. The previous record was set by Marple Newtown’s Anthony Paoletti (2,793) two years ago.
“I could’ve made better passes,” Johnson said. “We should’ve held the ball more on offense, but I had three turnovers myself.”
Johnson was being too hard on himself. While he was sacked three times, fumbled twice and threw a pick, he did everything he could to extend Penn Wood’s season. From the 13-yard line, with 5:05 to play and down two points, Johnson and the Patriots offense went back to work. But every play they ran seemed to move in slow motion.
Michael Dargan stepped up in the second half as the primary ball carrier. He ran for 39 yards on nine carries after leading rusher Elijah Gleplay (109 yards, nine carries) exited with a knee injury.
On third-and-nine, with the clock ticking away, Johnson hooked up with Hankey on a 23-yard pass. Moments later, on fourth-and-five, Johnson scrambled for six yards and a first down.
The clock kept running.
A pair of negative yardage plays and a delay of game penalty put the Patriots in a bind. On fourth down, with 10 seconds to play, coach Ato Troop called on his kicker, James Nmah, who had never attempted a field goal prior to this moment. The 47-yard try was blocked at the line of scrimmage. Time ran out on the Patriots (11-2) and their season.
“We wanted to get within field goal range,” Troop said of his mindset on the final drive. “We have a kicker, who is a soccer player, that we had for this game and we could use. We just didn’t want them (Rustin) to tee-off on our quarterback, so we wanted to get the ball in field goal range and hopefully we could make a play at the end. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that.”
Penn Wood’s defense, led by lineman Christian Suber, limited an offense that scored 42 points against Academy Park a week ago to one touchdown and a field goal.
A fourth-down stop at the Penn Wood 24-yard line early in the fourth quarter seemingly gave the Patriots the momentum. All they needed was a couple of first downs, at least, to switch field position.
But on the next play from scrimmage, Johnson tried to avoid the pass rush, took a hit and lost the ball. Rustin recovered and was back in business.
Michael Covert had a nine-yard run to get the Golden Knights (10-2) within field goal range. Rustin quarterback Will Pileggi (6-for-10, 55 yards) was tackled by Suber at the line of scrimmage on third down. Powers trotted out on the field and calmly drilled the 32-yard field goal, with plenty of leg to spare.
“It’s an awesome feeling,” said Rustin wide receiver Sean Hopkins, who scored his team’s lone touchdown off a seven-yard pass from Pileggi in the first quarter. “That was a team effort right there.”
Penn Wood, the top passing team in Delaware County, was committed to running the football all game. Gleplay shined on the opening drive of the night, accounting for 43 yards, including an eightyard scoring scamper. The Patriots converted a two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead.
Penn Wood failed to replicate that offensive success the rest of the night.
“We had a lot of little things go wrong,” Troop said. “The two big things were the fumble (by Johnson) on first down and we dropped a touchdown in the first half. I mean, that changed the game. And they made more plays than we did. They did what they had to do to win this game.”