{"id":18791,"date":"2013-10-13T10:39:01","date_gmt":"2013-10-13T14:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=18791"},"modified":"2013-10-13T10:39:01","modified_gmt":"2013-10-13T14:39:01","slug":"unionville-beats-octorara-28-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=18791","title":{"rendered":"Unionville beats Octorara, 28-0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sloppy, penalty-filled game overshadowed strong performances<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Unionville’s Will Hart puts a jarring hit into Octorara’s Alex Gooden, knocking the ball loose. The Indians won a sloppy contest, 28-0. Jim Gill Photo.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\nATGLEN \u2014 If it had been about style points, it’s unclear whether there would have been a winner in Saturday night\u2019s Unionville-Octorara high school football game.<\/p>\n

Although the Indians posted a 28-0 win, the game was beset by numerous penalties and generally chippy play, as emotion seemed to overcome what had been Unionville\u2019s ability to dominate smoothly and effectively while maintaining control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame,\u201d Unionville High School head coach Pat Clark said after the game. \u201cWe had a 10-minute period there\u2026(Octorara head coach) Jed (King) and I spoke after the game, and certainly, that\u2019s not what his team is like, that\u2019s not typically what our team is like. It was bad on both sides and I think both of us were a little embarrassed with what happened out there. It overshadowed a really good effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Style points aside, though, the 6-1 (3-0 Ches Mont American) Indians again were able to use their powerful offense to control the game and keep the Braves (1-6) explosive offense off the field. When junior quarterback Alex Pechin (5-of-9, 91 yards, 3 TD) wasn’t throwing over top of them, Unionville\u2019s running game, led by senior Garrett Scargill, 19 carries, 129 yards and a TD, ate both the clock and territory in large bites.<\/p>\n

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Unionville’s Garrett Scargill had a strong game against Octorara, rushing for 129 yards and one score on the ground, while catching another for a TD. Jim Gill photo.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe was phenomenal,\u201d Clark said of the senior running back. \u201cGarrett runs the ball really well. We had good balance tonight, Alex carried us in the first half and Garrett carried us in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

If anything, though, the unsung heroes of the night were the Unionville defense, which bent but never broke, despite the efforts of junior quarterback Alex Gooden, one of the county\u2019s most elusive runners. Although Gooden seemed to have a real gift at manufacturing yards after contact, the Indians\u2019 defense managed to swarm to him and largely contain him.<\/p>\n

The game, postponed from Friday night because of weather, right from the start seemed to indicate that the Indians might not be able to play from their recent script: use the passing game to build a big lead and then grind down the clock by running. In fact, when Octorara recovered the opening onside kick, it appeared that it wasn\u2019t going to be just another night of running out to a big lead and then coasting home.<\/p>\n

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Unionville’s Elan Nash breaks into the endzone after catching a pass from Alex Pechin. Jim Gill photo.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The Braves did nothing with the ball after recovering it, and were forced to punt, leading to the sort of Indians\u2019 drive that has marked the 2013 season, a mix runs and Pechin passes. This 75-yard drive was capped by a 23-yard pass to Elan Nash.<\/p>\n

Unionville\u2019s defense produced another three-and-out for Octorara and a big Nash punt return set up a short field for the Indians\u2019 offense. Pechin ran for 26 yards and then hit David Daly with 14-yard scoring pass to make it 14-0.<\/p>\n

A turnover and some struggles in the passing game stalled the Unionville offense for the remainder of the half \u2014 and with the Braves getting the ball to start the second half, the game was far from comfortable.<\/p>\n

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Unionville’s Alex Pechin fires the ball downfield. Jim Gill photo.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Octorara, behind the elusive Gooden, got the ball moving a bit to start the second half \u2014 but again stalled just short of midfield. After a punt, the Indians showed off a bit of the classic ground-pounding offense that has led to so much success over the last decade \u2014 featuring Scargill. The senior back carried the ball six times on a 12-play, 82-yard drive that took almost 8:00 minutes off the clock and all but decided the game. The lone pass of the drive \u2014 which featured key runs by Daly, Dom DiBiaggio and Brandon Boon \u2014 was Pechin\u2019s 30-yarder to \u2014 who else \u2014 Scargill, over the middle.<\/p>\n

The Braves threatened again, driving deep into Unionville territory \u2014 pushing the ball inside the 10 \u2014 before a Nash interception turned them away. Again, the Indians went into roadgrader mode \u2014 with Scargill carrying the ball on seven of eight plays, grinding the ball and the clock for 68 yards. Scargill\u2019s 2-yard plunge made it 28-0.<\/p>\n

The second half was marred by at least eight penatlies \u2014 some mundane motion calls, but a number of personal fouls, as passions and frustrations appeared to increase on both sides.<\/p>\n

While a win, it wasn\u2019t the crisp, efficient game Clark might have hoped for heading into what is likely the game of year in the Ches Mont American, versus 7-0 (3-0 Ches Mont American) West Chester Rustin.<\/p>\n

As has been the case for the last five years, it is likely that the winner of Friday\u2019s night game will go on to win the American Division title \u2014 Unionville is the defending champion, but Rustin won the four years before that \u2014 so both teams are likely to know what is at stake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re undefeated, and we\u2019re defending league champs,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThe immovable object meets the irresistible force. We have to have our best week of practice and be ready for a challenge. Rustin is an outstanding football team, but we\u2019re not going down without a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sloppy, penalty-filled game overshadowed strong performances By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times ATGLEN \u2014 If it had been about style points, it’s unclear whether there would have been a winner in Saturday night\u2019s Unionville-Octorara high school football game. Although the Indians posted a 28-0 win, the game was beset by numerous penalties and generally chippy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[4318,4108,31,32,109,7427],"class_list":["post-18791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-braves","tag-ches-mont-american","tag-football","tag-indians","tag-octorara","tag-unionville-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}