GAME FIVE
GAME FIVE
GAME FIVE
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Souderton survives Pennridge
By ANDREW MARCUS
SOUDERTON — There are some plays you can practice and situations to emulate, but other areas in football that cannot be duplicated.
The Souderton football team executed both the prepared play calls and the unrehearsed attempts and shocked Pennridge with a touchdown in the final seconds to win 10-7 on Friday night.
The Indians were faced with a fourth down and goal from the 14 yard line with six seconds remaining in the game.
The outcome of the next play would either have the Rams rejoicing or the Indians demonstrating how the two-minute drill is ran.
“We called two plays just in case,” Indians’ coach Ed Gallagher said. “Tanner Allem and Ry (Yozallinas) have both come through down the stretch of games. I still cannot believe we won that game.”
The Indians’ junior quarterback Allem regrouped from two earlier interceptions and found his favorite target, tight end Yozallinas in the middle of the end zone for the 14-yard game-winning grab. Yozallinas finished with five catches for 78 yards and Allem accumulated 110 yards through the air.
“Tanner showed a lot of composure after throwing his first two interceptions of the year,” Gallagher said. “He has given us a chance to win every game this year.”
James Marrero and Kyle Bigam had the interceptions for the Rams and it was the sophomore Bigam’s big play that set up the Rams’ lone touchdown. The Rams used the field position from the turnover and went to the air to enter the red zone.
Kyle Peters connected with Rocky Ferrier for a 30-yard reception that resulted in a one-yard score by the senior quarterback on the following play to give the Rams a 7-3 in the third quarter.
“We struggled to run the ball, but we made some adjustments,” Peters said. “I threw the ball OK, but there were a few throws I should have made. Their defense was quick to the ball.”
Peters completed five of his last six pass attempts and gave the Rams a chance to make it a two-score game on a few different occasions. Stuck in some grey areas of fourth and short and barely out of the kicker’s range, the Rams made some hard decisions to punt and attempt to move the chains on fourth down instead of electing for a field goal.
“We shot ourselves in the foot too many times,” Rams’ coach Randy Cuthbert said. “We had a couple of penalties and turnovers in the red zone. It would have been hard kicking into the win on fourth down. This was a tough game to lose.”
The Indians had one opportunity to go for three points, did so and was successful. With one second remaining on the clock the Indians’ sophomore kicker Jeff Wolf hit a 49-yard field goal to give the Indians a 3-0 halftime lead.
“All we had to do was fair catch the punt,” Gallagher said. “We knew we had to get points. We thought they would kick it out of bounds. That is something we do not practice.”
The Rams had every intention to kick the punt out of bounds, but when the boot drifted back into play the Rams had no idea what impact the fair catch with one second left would have on the outcome. The free kick is so rarely seen the Rams’ defense was unsure how to line up and the same for the Indians who were attempting the try from midfield.
“We talked during the timeout in the huddle about kicking the ball out of bounds,” Cuthbert said. “That did not happen and they got a chance to use the free kick.”
The Indians churned up 116 yards on the ground and the Rams had 96, but the way both teams have been running the ball to this point of the season those numbers exhibit how strong the defense on both sides played.
It was a tough game to lose for either side, but it is the Rams that will fall to 0-1 in league play and the Indians that improve to 2-0 against the Continental Conference.
“Everyone picked them to win this game and we showed we can play with them,” Peters said. “Down at the wire I had no doubt we would win that game the way the defense was playing. They are a good team, but we have to win that game.”
GAME SUMMARY
Souderton 10, Pennridge 7
Pennridge 0 0 7 0 – 7
Souderton 0 3 0 7 – 10
S – Wolf 49 yard field goal
P – K. Peters one yard run (Caya kick)
S – Yozallinas 14 yard pass from Allem (Wolf kick)
TEAM STATISTICS
Pennridge Souderton
First downs 11 14
Rushing yards 96 116
Passing yards 105 110
Total yards 201 226
Passing 6-10-0 10-20-2
Fumbles-lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties-yards 6-50 4-35
Punts-avg. 5-38 4-40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Pennridge – Knepp 15-40; K. Peters 10-18, TD; 12-16; McCabe 2-9; Marrero 2-8; Crawford 1-3; C. Peters 2-2;
Souderton – Scholl 16-70; McNamara 8-36; White 7-15; Allem 3- (-5).
PASSING
Pennridge – K. Peters 6-10-0, 105.
Souderton – Allem 10-20-2, 110, TD.
RECEIVING
Pennridge – Cope 3-56; Ferrier 1-30; McCabe 1-13; Knepp 1-6.
Souderton – Yozallinas 5-78, TD; Sowhangar 2-16; Passarella 1-10; McNamara 1-4; Scholl 1-2.
INTERCEPTIONS
Pennridge – Marrero, Bigam
Souderton - none
SACKS
Pennridge – Newman
Souderton - Stolfi
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