{"id":23581,"date":"2014-10-18T13:16:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-18T17:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=23581"},"modified":"2014-10-18T13:16:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-18T17:16:09","slug":"rustin-ends-unionville-league-title-hopes-41-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=23581","title":{"rendered":"Rustin ends Unionville league title hopes, 41-20"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indians must beat Great Valley, Oxford for postseason chance<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"UHSRustinfb-3\"<\/a>

West Chester Rustin’s Terry Loper \u2014 one of the top running backs in Chester County \u2014 breaks a tackle against Unionville, Friday night. Loper’s power running was too much for the Indians, as they fell to the Knights, 41-20. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

WESTTOWN \u2014 The engines weren\u2019t even cool on the school buses in the parking lot when it was clear Unionville High School\u2019s football team was in trouble.<\/p>\n

Whether is was because the young (5-3) Indians squad had never found itself in a situation like this: battling a tough foe (West Chester Rustin), on the road, with the Ches Mont American title on the line, or the fact that the Knights came out like a team on a mission, for the first quarter or so, the game seemed a tick fast for Unionville \u2014 so much so that by midway through the second quarter, its found itself trailing 21-0.<\/p>\n

Unionville fought back and battled it way back into the game \u2014 but couldn\u2019t overcome the powerful 7-1 Knights\u2019 running game and star back Terry Loper, falling 41-20, Friday night.<\/p>\n

The loss ended the Indians\u2019 league title hopes \u2014 and makes a District One playoff spot a dicey proposition; any more losses and that hope is done as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to win out,\u201d said Unionville Head Coach Pat Clark, which means finding a way to beat 6-1 Great Valley next week and finishing off with a road win against Oxford.<\/p>\n

As for the slow start, it didn\u2019t appear to be one of effort, but one where the situation was initially more overwhelming than the young team was expecting.<\/p>\n

\"UHSRustinfb-1\"<\/a>

Unionville’s Alex Pechin throws to Elan Nash against West Chester Rustin, Friday night. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed we didn\u2019t start fast enough,\u201d Clark said. \u201cMaybe some of that was guys starting in their first big game, but we certainly didn\u2019t make enough plays early. I think we settled in in the second quarter and matched their intensity from the second quarter on.\u201d<\/p>\n

To their credit, the young Indians’ squad found its footing and battled back into the game. Senior quarterback Alex Pechin led the comeback through the air, completing 12 of 20 passes for 240 yards and score \u2014 as the Indians went to the air, after their running game was stymied.<\/p>\n

But having fallen behind, as Loper continued his stellar season \u2014 he had a pair of rushing TDs \u2014 when Unionville started finding away to contain the Rustin rushing attack, Knights\u2019 quarterback Even Wlack was able to use the play-action pass to devastating effect, throwing for two more scores. In the end too was too big a hill to climb against one of the top teams in southeast Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Wlack scored on Rustin\u2019s opening drive \u2014 an eight-minute ground-pound that set the early tone \u2014 diving in from the one. After Unionville was forced to punt on a three-and-out, Loper and running back Dom Simpkins continued showing their rushing prowess, again helping the Knights ground out a scoring drive. Loper scored from the seven to make it 14-0.<\/p>\n

\"UHSRustinfb-2\"<\/a>

Unionville’s Tyler Marmo fights for yardage against West Chester Rustin. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

Unionville\u2019s offense began to show signs of life, but its next drive was stalled by penalties and a continued struggle to move the ball on the ground.<\/p>\n

Rustin \u2014 having sold the run game \u2014 scored on an 82-yard play-action pass from Wlack to Mike McKnight, putting the Indians in a deep 21-0 hole.<\/p>\n

But it was at that point, when things looked all but hopeless when Unionville found its footing and clawed back into the game. After a strong Brandon Boon kickoff return set them up at midfield, Pechin was able to use his arm to move the Indians. He hit Tyler Marmo with a 27-yard pass, and then kept the drive alive with a 17-yarder to Boon. Pechin scampered in from five yards out on a broken pass play to get Unionville on the scoreboard just before halftime.<\/p>\n

Although Unionville got the second half kick off, its initial drive stalled, and Rustin took advantage to eat both clock and yardage. Again behind Loper, they marched methodically down the field, going 69 yards and taking seven precious minutes off the clock, capped by Wlack hitting Andrew Chobany for a scoring pass to make it 28-7.<\/p>\n

But again, down but not out, Unionville fought back. Pechin \u2014 using his feet and arm \u2014 engineered another drive, going 76 yards on just six plays, to close the score with 28-14, on his 30-yard scoring pass to Boon.<\/p>\n

And after getting a quick stop against Rustin, the Indians appeared to be on the verge of scoring again \u2014 Pechin hit Boon with a 37-yard pass \u2014 but the junior was hit after the ball arrived, and lost the handle. The officials ruled it a fumble, with Rustin recovering. And again, Loper sealed the deal, carrying the ball three times on a four-play drive, scoring from 13 yards out to give Rustin a 35-14 lead middwy through the final quarter.<\/p>\n

Again, Unionville rose \u2014 and again Pechin led a scoring drive to keep their faint hopes alive. Pechin hit Elan Nash twice and Brendan Boyle once with passes to set up Austin Hofmann-Reardon\u2019s one yard run. The extra point attempt was blocked, leaving Unionville in a 35-20 hole, with 4:38 left.<\/p>\n

The Indians tried an onside kick \u2014 but Rustin was able to recover at midfield. Again, Loper ground out a drive and ended Unionville\u2019s hopes, scoring from five yards out to cap the scoring at 41-20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indians must beat Great Valley, Oxford for postseason chance By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times WESTTOWN \u2014 The engines weren\u2019t even cool on the school buses in the parking lot when it was clear Unionville High School\u2019s football team was in trouble. Whether is was because the young (5-3) Indians squad had never found itself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[4108,31,824,32,7427,823],"class_list":["post-23581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-ches-mont-american","tag-football","tag-golden-knights","tag-indians","tag-unionville-high-school","tag-west-chester-rustin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23581","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=23581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23582,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23581\/revisions\/23582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}