Egan’s final drive comes up short in quarterfinals
Facing a Middletown team it had lost to by 42 points the season before, the ConwellEgan High School football team knew it had to play one of its best games of the year in the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinals Friday night.
To put it bluntly, the Eagles did not and the result was a disappointing 21-14 loss to Middletown as arguably the greatest season in the program’s history came to an end with a final record of 13-1 on Friday night at Milton-Hersey High School in Hershey, Pa.
Whether it was untimely penalties or turnovers, Conwell-Egan simply made too many mistakes to overcome a monster game by Middletown running back Jose Lopez.
From an Eagle perspective this was a shame because Middletown (12-1) played far from a clean game itself by also committing some key turnovers.
Although two second-half touchdown runs by sophomore fullback Dajuan Harris enabled Conwell-Egan to still have two promising chance to at least tie the game in the fourth quarter, in hindsight where the game was largely lost was in the first half.
It started when the Eagles reached the Middletown 2 yard line in the first quarter, only to come up empty after a holding backed them up. On the very next play, Lopez exploded for an 88-yard touchdown run and Middletown had a lead it would never relinquish.
Also in the first half, Lopez scored on a 45-yard run to compile 179 yards on eight carries. By the time his night was finished, Lopez also reached the end zone on a 6-yard run in the third quarter to finish with 232 yards in all. Lopez now has nearly 2,000 yards and 29 TDs on the year.
On the other side of the ball, Middletown was clearly keying on the Eagles’ star running back Patrick Garwo by keeping him from getting outside. This resulted in Garwo being pretty much neutralized, but it also opened the door for quick hitters by Harris.
Twice Harris drew Conwell-Egan to withing a touchdown. The first time was in the third quarter when Harris roared 84 yards to cut the lead to 14-7. After the third TD by Lopez, Harris scored on a 21-yard run to make it 21-14 with 7:49 to go.
Set up an interception by Sean Stokes, Conwell-Egan then reached the Middletown 40 yard line before it was stopped on downs.
The Eagles later got the ball back on their own 16 with 1:56 remaining. Although Conwell-Egan was able to reach the Middletown 31 yard line on three completions by quarterback Alex Goldsby, it only led to more frustration when it fumbled the ball away in the final minute.
Middletown then took a couple of knees to kill the clock and Conwell-Egan’s dream of a first state championship.
While the Eagles were hoping for more, the fact remains they compiled their first undefeated regular season, captured their first Philadelphia League championship since 1970 and smashed the school record for wins in a year.
There will be some major graduation hits, but look for more good things in the future with some talented underclassmen returning such as Harris and Pat Garwo’s younger brother Andrew. Conwell-Egan (13-1) 0 0 7 7 — 14 Middletown (12-1) 7 7 7 0 — 21 M-Lopez 88 run (Williams kick) M-Lopez 45 run (Williams kick) CE-Harris 84 run (Jackson kick) M-Lopez 6 run (Williams kick) CE-Harris 21 run (Jackson kick)