Hall, Neshaminy drop Council Rock South
LANGHORNE — Never, ever believe that so-called garbage time doesn’t matter.
For Neshaminy, erratic play from the previous week’s win over Council Rock North continued well into last Friday night’s follow-up contest against Council Rock South. Fortunately for the Redskins, normalcy was restored after halftime,when they overcame a two-touchdown deficit to edge CR South, 21-14 Oct. 12 at Heartbreak Ridge. Running back Nate Hall racked up 270 yards rushing and a pair of scores.
Perhaps the biggest Neshaminy turnaround of the evening occurred on the defense, however. In the first 24 minutes, the Redskins (5-2, 3-1 SOL National) couldn’t stop the underdog Hawks’ veer-option running game. After intermission, the Hawks managed nary a first down.
Neshaminy’s D also forced a pair of pivotal turnovers.
CR South (1-6, 1-3) led 14-0 and had the first possession coming out of halftime and appeared ready to eat up some clock with the run.
On a third-and-1 from the CR South 30, fullback Rocco Spadaccino fumbled amid a pile. Neshaminy fell on the loose ball and used the short field to cut its deficit in half.
The diminutive speedster Hall gained 31 yards on three runs to set up fullback Denny Lord’s 1-yard touchdown dive.
An inspired Neshaminy
defense forced CR South to punt on its next possession. Then the Redskins drove 46 yards to the eawks’ 10. The offense stalled in the red zone before kicker Nick Tucci missed a 27-yard field goal attempt — his second miss of the night from similar range.
Neshaminy had no problem completing the comeback from that point. The defense continued to stymie South’s running game and eall took matters into his own hands — and legs.
eall’s 11-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter capped an eight-play, 60-yard drive.
Following CR South’s second vital fumble, eall raced 40 yards to put Neshaminy up 21-14 with 7:37 to go in regulation time. The long-distance score pushed eall over the 200-yard mark for the game.
eall later had a chance to close in on the 300-yard mark. With about four minutes to go, he raced 66 yards for another apparent score but personal foul against Neshaminy behind the play negated the touchdown. Instead, the run went for 46 yards and left him 43 short of the triple-century.
The Redskins’ first-half performance left much to be desired.
Against CR North on Oct. 5, they allowed three touchdowns in the fourth quarter but still won comfortably. Last night, CR South ran up and down the field in the first half.
Meanwhile, Neshaminy got close, but lacked the finishing touch in the red zone.
Neshaminy opened the game with possession at its own 35 and moved methodically to the eawks’ 30 largely on the running of eall, who had 18 yards during the march, along with Joe Falkowski’s 11-yard pass to Cole Creighton.
With half the first quarter elapsed, the CR South defense stiffened and forced an incomplete pass from Falkowski on fourth-and-6.
CR South used the rest of the first quarter to move 70 yards in 10 plays for the first score of the game. Christian Crane ran six times for 43 yards in the drive while quarterback dreg Paprocki reeled off 23 yards on one carry, then finished the march with a 30-yard strike to Tyler Anderson.
Neshaminy had two big chances to keep the eawks out of the end zone. Crane ran for 11 yards on fourthand-2 from the Redskins’ 31. Paprocki’s TD pass came on a third-and-20 after a personal foul penalty against the eawks.
Neshaminy answered the score with another drive of note. The Redskins from their own 45 to CR South’s 6 before a sack and a missed 28-yard field goal.
The eawks marched 80 yards on their ensuing possession, keeping the ball for six-and-a-half minutes. Paprocki and Crane covered all but 13 of those yards, mostly through the heart of Neshaminy’s reeling front seven. Crane’s seven-yard run gave CR South its 14-0 lead with one minute left before halftime.