Change of venue wasn’t helpful to Penn Wood
WESTTOWN >> You want playoff football games to be settled on the field, not by the team with the playable field.
For that reason, Penn Wood never will forget its PIAA District 1 Class 5A semifinal loss Saturday night to West Chester Rustin. That’s because Rustin, the host team, was the visiting team on its own scoreboard.
Let’s back up a bit. The top-seeded Patriots were supposed to play the game at Kerr Field in Yeadon, where they were undefeated this season. The game was scheduled for Friday on the natural grass field, but athletic director Rap Curry said it was “under water,” the residual effect of the Thursday rain/snow/ice deluge.
Curry offered photos of the waterlogged field as evidence of its unplayability, and said he exhausted attempts to move the game to a neutral Delaware County site before telephoning a request to Golden Knights AD Devon Landgraff to change the venue to Rustin.
“It just wasn’t playable,” Curry said of Kerr Field. “And you can see we got a nice little turnout here tonight. If we had waited until Saturday night to find out that it was unplayable, we’d have been playing Sunday morning and we wouldn’t have had anybody here. So, the bottom line was to give everybody – both teams – a chance to play in good conditions and compete. These are two good teams.”
No one could question that last sentence. The Knights (10-2) are very good. They answered Penn Wood’s touchdown march to start the game with one on their first possession. The Patriots led, 8-7, by virtue of a two-point conversion until the last six minutes of the contest. Still, you couldn’t help but wonder if the outcome might have been different had Tommy Powers been forced to kick the gamewinning 32-yard field goal in a mud puddle at Kerr Field instead of on the dry artificial surface at his home stadium.
The teams were thatclose until a fumble deep in Penn Wood territory by quarterback Desman Johnson gave the Knights field position to bring out their kicker.
“They made more plays than we did,” Patriots coach Ato Troop said. “We made some mistakes. We fumbled late in our own territory and that led to the field goal. We dropped a touchdown pass in the first half that could have changed the complexion of the game. They’re a good football team. It’s tough to come up here and play but they’re a good football team and they made more plays than we did today.”
The home field advantage door opened, Ato was asked if it impacted the game. Hitting the road wasn’t exactly what the Patriots (11-2) signed up for. They deserved better after flexing their muscles with five straight victories in which they scored 40-or more points.
Did the site impact the game?
“Maybe it did,” Ato said. “Psychologically, maybe. I can’t measure that. If that doesn’t occur is it a different result? I don’t know. But it’s not a good thing to travel when you’re a No. 1 seed in the playoffs. “It’s not a good thing.” It was strange for Rustin, too. The Knights had defeated the Patriots, 4328, on the same field in the third week of September. The Knights were getting their stuff ready for a road trip this past Thursday, only to unpack it Friday.
And it was freakishly strange for the Knights to look up at their own scoreboard under “HOME” and see themselves losing. Late arriving fans didn’t get much of a break watching the scoreboard, either. You had to cheer your team’s uniform colors because there weren’t programs.
All of that said, the Knights gained just enough yardage on that fumble by Johnson, who earlier became the all-time leading passer in Delaware County football, to position Powers for his longest field goal of the season.
“Maybe the field helped us a little bit,” said Knights quarterback Will Pileggi, who threw a touchdown pass to Sean Hopkins. “Our student section does help us out a little bit and having the turf was nice. But you should be able to play anywhere at any time. No matter what. This is awesome, unreal. The last time we won districts was 2008. We haven’t been back to districts with that good old Rustin football. But it felt weird that we won on a field goal.”
It must be mentioned that the Patriots’ fans really showed up to cheer their team. The enthusiasm and noise level were exceptional. For the longest time, it looked like the Patriots would reward them with a victory. The actual playing field wasn’t an issue.
“I think a fast track helps their team,” Rustin coach Mike St. Clair said. “They’re fast. They’re built for turf. We’re built for turf. It wouldn’t do anybody any justice by playing a mud-fest. Not at all, not one bit.”
Of course, wondering what would be next after losing the home game cannot be anything but disconcerting for the top seed. It’s not every week that Johnson fumbles twice and throws an interception.
Landgraff was happy his staff could “pull it all together at the last minute” to host the game. He’d been in contact with Curry and the District 1 office.
“We tried to push the game to Saturday at Penn Wood, just to let the storm come through and hope for the best,” Landgraff said. “Then the amount of snow that fell was far greater than anyone anticipated, and Rap called on Friday (at 1 p.m.) and said they can’t host the game, it’s not playable. It’s a unique situation because they are the No. 1 seed which is an amazing feat in itself. And, yeah, to be honest with you, who wouldn’t mind playing at their home field?”
You know the answer. And if you’re savvy, you don’t want to ask that in front of Patriots fans.