Pennington struggles to contain Tower Hill

PENNINGTON >> You didn’t have to know a thing about football to identify the most telling factor in undefeated Tower Hill’s 28-14 victory over Pennington Prep Saturday afternoon.

Tower Hill (6-0) had running back Isaiah Brown on its team and Pennington did not.

Operating out a rarely-seen formation that the Tower Hill coach described as an “unbalanced Single-Wing,’’ Brown repeatedly took direct snaps out of the shotgun and the result was a whopping four touchdown runs and 199 yards on 28 carries.

Despite falling behind 21-0, Pennington (5-2) played hard right down to the end, but the story of this game was no matter what the Red Raiders did on defense, Brown was able to keep the chains moving over and over again.

“The Wing-T (actually Single Wing) did present problems,’’ said veteran Pennington coach Jerry Eure. “With that formation it’s hard to tell who’s going to get the ball and where they are coming from. But Brown is also a very good back. He played a great game.’’

It looked like it was going to be a rout in the early going when Tower Hill went 53 yards and 60 yards on its first two possession, and scored on runs of 18 and 4 yards by Brown.

It looked even more that way when Tower Hill opened the third quarter with a 73-yard drive capped by a 31-yard touchdown scamper by Brown.

The 21-0 lead for the Delaware team stood until the fourth quarter when Pennington’s decision to have good-looking junior quarterback Jay Jackson of Princeton repeatedly throw bombs finally paid off.

In this case, Jackson connected with a leaping Ricky Eng on a 33-yard pass to move the ball to the Tower Hill 6-yard line. Those two then hooked up again when Eng caught an 8-yard pass to put Pennington on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.

With 8:34 still remaining in the game, there was enough time for Pennington to possibly make the game even more interesting. Instead, Tower Hill then went back to feeding the ball to Brown and the result was a back-breaking 65-yard, 11-play drive that made the score 28-8.

The fact Pennington didn’t quit was reflected in the fact it actually took Tower Hill three plays to punch it in from the 1-yard line on a short plunge by Brown.

On the ensuing kickoff, Tower Hill elected to try a short high kick. Suffice it to say, this didn’t work out at all as Isaiah Muse caught the ball at the 35, eluded one tackler and was off to the races for a 65yard touchdown.

At this point, however, Pennington had only two timeouts left and there was just 1:37 remaining on the clock.

Although Pennington was unable to establish any kind of running game, it was effective in the air with Jackson completing 8 of 13 passes for 155 yards.

The thing to remember was the Red Raiders were up against a tough team on Homecoming Day as Tower Hill’s 6-0 record speaks for itself.

It also doesn’t get any easier for Pennington with Academy of the New Church, Springfield-Montco and Pt. Pleasant Beach coming up in the next three weeks.

“It’s not going to be easy,’’ said Eure. “We have a tough schedule and we’re young.’’

No matter what happens from here, it’s that youth factor that is the biggest source of optimism for Pennington moving forward.

Hill (6-0) 14 0 7 7 - 28

Pennington (5-2) 0 0 0 14 - 14

TH-Brown 18 run (run failed)

TH-Brown 4 run (Hickey run)

TH-Brown 31 run (Zungalla kick)

P-Eng 8 pass from Jackson (Gibbard kick) TH-Brown 1 run (Zungalla kick)

P-Muse 65 kickoff return (Gibbard kick)