Bristol squashes Pennington with defense, teamwork
BucksLocalSports Editor In the days leading up to last Friday night’s gridiron battle with New Jersey rival Pennington, Bristol head coach Leo Plenski challenged his defense. While the unit had performed admirably in three consecutive wins – all registered against BAL rivals – it had yet to attain a shutout.
The coach nearly got what he was asking for Friday night in the Warriors’ 19-7 victory at home over the previously unbeaten Red Raiders, who registered their only touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Pennington practically had the score gift-wrapped, given the fact that a shanked punt gave them possession of the ball on Bristol’s 15 yard line.
If there was any question how good the now 5-1 Warriors are, it was answered last week against the Raiders who had beaten Bristol in four previous matchups dating back to 2008.
“We saw this as a statement game. We wanted to see how we’d react winning,” said Plenski afterward. “The fact that we came out on top shows that our team is where we think it is.”
Offensively, the Warriors were in control from the start leading 13-0 at the half and taking a 19-0 edge on Tyriq Wilson’s 24-yard TD scamper on the first play of the fourth quarter.
After his monster game last week against Jenkintown (307 yards, 5 TDs), sophomore running back Donte Simmons came back down to earth, registering a mere 177 yards on 33 totes against Pennington.
While Simmons didn’t reach the end zone once in this one, fullback Willie Sutton got there twice with both coming before the intermission.
The first came practically gift-wrapped courtesy the Red Raiders who botched the snap attempting to punt the ball away on their second possession. Sutton made Pennington pay with a four-yard rumble to paydirt with 2:30 remaining in the first quarter.
Sutton’s second TD strike – a 15-yard scamper – was just the capper to a six-play, 69-yard scoring drive by Bristol, which took a 13-0 edge into the locker room.
“The good thing about our offense is we play together as a team,” said Plenski. “They block for each other and they do big things.”
“As a coach, it’s great; we have depth at running back, full back, offensive line – anything you can ask for in a class-A team like Bristol.”
The Warriors came out in the third quarter and drove the ball downfield at will. The drive featured a pair of first down runs by Simmons, a 10-yard pickup by receiver Ryan Shamwell on a pass from QB Trevor Leone and a fourth-down pickup when the Raider defense was tagged with an encroachment penalty.
The drive stalled however on Pennington’s 20 yard line when a Leone aerial glanced off a receiver’s hands and into the night.
The Raiders could do nothing with the missed opportunity by Bristol, going 3-and-out on their next possession. Simmons seemed to take control from there, dashing for 7 yards up the middle on one play and 15 around the left end on the next.
While the drive was capped with Wilson’s scoring jaunt that put the Warriors on top by a commanding 19-0 score, there were some scary moments when
Pennington linebacker Cameron Warner lay motionless on the field after making a tackle on the first play. The young man had to be carted off the field by emergency personnel already on the scene. No word on his condition.
Also on the drive, a ball found its way to the turf though Bristol managed to keep possession when senior Sean Coughlin alertly fell on the pigskin.
On their next possession, the Raiders took advantage of a squibbed kickoff by Bristol, taking possession near midfield and driving the ball all the way down to the four yard line.
The drive – which included a lateral pass that was batted back by a Warrior defender and was allowed to lay on the grass until a Pennington player finally thought to latch onto it after a huge loss of yards – stalled however on a huge fourth down stop by the Bristol defense.
It was Sutton who came up with the tackle, stopping standout senior RB Marcus Fulmore dead in his tracks on the line of scrimmage. To his credit, Fulmore had a good night, racking up 139 yards on 22 carries including a huge gainer in which he grabbed every single yard back and more after the gaffe made on the lateral pass by QB Ryan Mcdann.
Taking over on downs, the Warriors lost yards when Leone fumbled the snap and appeared to be tackled behind the goal line. While officials ruled the ball dead on the one, Bristol couldn’t escape the poor field position setting up a Ryan Rigby punt from the end zone.
Rigby calmly handled a high snap and got the ball away. Pennington took the kick and ran it all the way back to the 10. eowever a Raider defender ran into Rigby on the punt, giving Bristol a fresh set of downs.
The Warriors went nowhere from there however and Rigby’s next kick was short giving Pennington the ball back on the 15. Raiders coach Jerry bure decided to switch gears going to sophomore quarterback dreg Oldsey, who heaved a second-down pass from the 11 into the corner of the end zone to haison Randolph. To his credit, the receiver came down with an acrobatic one-handed grab and kept both feet in bounds for the score.