{"id":781,"date":"2010-11-06T18:47:53","date_gmt":"2010-11-06T22:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=781"},"modified":"2010-11-06T18:49:50","modified_gmt":"2010-11-06T22:49:50","slug":"unionville-needs-stirring-comeback-to-beat-kennett-35-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=781","title":{"rendered":"Unionville needs stirring comeback to beat Kennett, 35-21"},"content":{"rendered":"

No postseason, but much for seven-win team to be proud of<\/span>
\nBy Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTImes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Unionville's Mason Popham breaks up a pass while covering Kennett's Anthony Torello.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 Going into the game, they knew this was it. The members of Unionville\u2019s football team realized that the math was against them and win or lose against neighboring Kennett, their 2010 high school football season would end at the final whistle.<\/p>\n

There would be no return to the state playoffs \u2014 and no chance for even a share of the Ches-Mont American Division title, after West Chester Rustin finished undefeated.<\/p>\n

But seemingly seconds after the opening whistle, it seemed like the season could be over before half time \u2014 and not in a way the Indians would have imagined before kickoff. But despite being down 14-0 in the first quarter and spending most of the game trailing, the Indians stormed back late to hold off the plucky Blue Demons, 35-21, Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a war \u2014 and we expected that,\u201d Indians Head Coach Pat Clark said afterward. \u201cI think coach (Scott) Green is doing a great job with that program, they\u2019re young, they get everybody back and they\u2019re competitive. But I\u2019m really proud of our guys at the end. Our seniors provided leadership for us at the end and we got the job done at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Unionville quarterback Connor Gades hands off to Mason Popham against Kennett.<\/p><\/div>\n

It took just 14 seconds for things to go from disappointing to down right scary for Unionville, which finishes the 2010 season with a 7-3, 5-1 in the Ches-Mont American. Tyler Boyer returned the opening kickoff \u2014 after Unionville won the toss and opted to kickoff \u2014 87 yards for a score. The frustration mounted when, on the next possession, the Indians drove inside the Blue Demons\u2019 20 \u2014 and came away with no points, missing a field goal. Seconds later option quarterback Barry Tomasetti ripped off a 62-yard touchdown run \u2014 and Unionville found itself in a deep hole, 14-0.<\/p>\n

\u201cKennett was explosive to start the game,\u201d Clark said. \u201cBefore we blinked, it was 14-0.\u201d<\/p>\n

Showing the grit they\u2019ve displayed all season, the Indians took the ball on their own eight and proceeded to march down the field, with quarterback Connor Gades scoring on a 44-yard run.<\/p>\n

Story continues, next page<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Unionville's Connor Gades breaks away from Kennett defenders en route to a 33-yard touchdown.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI thought when we got the drive, we got settled down and we figured out that we were able to run the ball on them,\u201d Clark said. \u201cWe\u2019re a little more experienced up front then they were and we were able to run the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so they did \u2014 Gades and senior tailback Mason Popham were able to grind out another long drive, this one starting from the Unionville nine, with Gades scoring from one yard out, set up by a brilliant 20-yard run by Popham that fell just short of the goal line.<\/p>\n

The left the game tied at the half \u2014 which is the way it stayed until the the fourth quarter when a tense, tight contest turned into a wild and wooly finish.<\/p>\n

Tomasetti led his Kennett squad down the field on a fairly methodical drive that ate up nearly half of the final quarter and left the Blue Demons leading, 21-14.<\/p>\n

But once again Gades, hobbled with a bad ankle that would see him on crutches after the game, and Popham seemingly refused to let their final game at Unionville go without a fight. Gades hit a long pass to Rich Kaiser down the right sideline to the Kennett 25 and then the two seniors shared the running load, with Popham scoring from nine out to tie the game with 5:27 left.<\/p>\n

The Indians unleashed a furious defense against Tomasetti and managed to force a three-and-out punt \u2014 and then pulled off what may have been the play of the season with the game on the line.<\/p>\n

Gades hit Doug Ott with a short pass in the right sideline flat and he immediately pitched to Popham, who then scored on a 33-yard run. In old school terms, it was the old \u201cHook and Ladder\u201d play and Unionville ran it to perfection. The extra point gave the Indians a 28-21 lead \u2014 but no room for anyone to put away the Rolaids just yet.<\/p>\n

Tomasetti fumbled on the next possession and for a moment, it looked like clear sailing for the first time all day for Unionville \u2014 until two plays later, Popham lost the ball on a handoff from Tom Pancoast, who replaced the injured Gades at quarterback. One more time the furious Indians defense needed to rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n

The exclamation point came when Unionville\u2019s Jerry Rassias clobbered Tomasetti for a six-yard loss \u2014 backing up Kennett and seemingly shaking up the junior QB. Two more pass attempts went nowhere and Unionville took over the ball on the Kennett 9. The Indians were able to muscle the ball in for another score in closing seconds \u2014 more or less looking to eat the clock \u2014 Pancoast scoring on a dive, to give Unionville the 35-21 lead.<\/p>\n

The win, obviously was satisfying, if not harrowing at times. But Clark couldn\u2019t hide a little disappointment about not returning the District 1 4A playoffs \u2014 even if he made it clear he was fiercely proud of this team which posted a seven-win season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe controlled everything that we can control. We know from day one we know we have competitive games up front and we\u2019re going to have to win a bunch of games and our kids did that \u2014 that\u2019s what they\u2019ve done the last six years. We didn\u2019t get the numbers break this year, but that doesn\u2019t make us any lesser of a team. This group battled through more injuries than any group we\u2019ve had in the last seven years. There was a lot of opportunity to slip and we never slipped and that\u2019s a credit to our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Check back Sunday for video highlights of Unionville’s victory.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No postseason, but much for seven-win team to be proud of By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTImes.com KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 Going into the game, they knew this was it. The members of Unionville\u2019s football team realized that the math was against them and win or lose against neighboring Kennett, their 2010 high school football season would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,18],"tags":[34,29,31,33,32,25,58,24],"class_list":["post-781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-unionville-high-school","tag-ches-mont","tag-chester-county","tag-football","tag-high-school","tag-indians","tag-kennett","tag-sports-2","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781","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=781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}