Powerful Spring-Ford dominates, 33-3
By Al Tustin, Staff Writer, The Times
“The stars might lie, but the numbers never do.” — Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Unionville’s Mike Cresta (53) fights in the trenches against the Spring Ford offensive line. Jim Gill photo.
EAST MARLBOROUGH — While it’s possible that the stars were aligned for Unionville High School in its 2016 season opener against Spring-Ford, the numbers may have predicted a different story:
First off, the Rams are a 6A school with nearly twice the population of 5A Unionville High. Second, the Indians are a very young team with many new starters, especially on offense. Third, and this was the killer, mistakes, as in too many Unionville miscues to stay with one of the top programs in southeast Pennsylvania.
The result, pre-ordained or not, was a tough 33-3 loss to Spring-Ford, Friday night.
And while some of the younger players managed to shake off opening night jitters and their lack of experience and play better as the game progressed, key turnovers and mistakes at crucial moments broke open a game that been closely contested. Youth and inexperience reared their head at the worst time, head coach Pat Clark said.
Unionville’s Jesse Gill gets to Spring-Ford QB T.J. Pergine. Jim Gill photo.
“But that’s not going to be an excuse much longer around here,” Clark said after the game, “and really, it’s not an excuse now — but our kids know, every kid in our program knows the level we expect to play at and every kid know that we’re going to work together to be a better football team next week.”
While the 0-1 Indians gamely hung in with the Rams — the Indians managed to stop them repeatedly early on and grabbed a 3-0 lead on a Matt Manwaring field goal. Things started to unravel in the second quarter, when Spring-Ford QB T.J. Pergine — a junior making his first varsity start — started to find his rhythm. Pergine hit Stone Scarcelle with a 49-yard pass, which set up a quick 15-yard TD dash by Selwyn Simpson. In a flash, the Indians’ lead was gone.
But Unionville didn’t quit — again the offense got things going, in part keyed by the running of Jack Adams and pushed the ball all the way down to the Rams’ 1 yard line. But then a miscue — in this case — a fumble stopped the Indians cold in their tracks.
Seizing an opportunity to take control of the game, Spring-Ford immediately marched down the field behind Pergrine’s arm — a 34-yard pass to Quinn McKenna and then a 40-yard scoring pass to Scarcelle to make it 14-3 at the half.
Unionville QB Alex Gorgone looks to evade Spring-Ford defenders — the junior QB had an uneven debut as a signal caller. Jim Gill photo.
The third quarter wasn’t much better — and again it was miscues that cost the Indians. QB Alex Gorgone, another junior making his first varsity start, was picked off by Scarcelle, who promptly raced down the field for a score. Two more turnovers in the second half doomed the Indians’ chances of getting back into the contest.
Still, with less mistakes a bit more seasoning, this might have been a much closer contest — Adams and running back cohort Dante Graham showed flashes and the defense played well despite battling a larger and deeper opponent.
Next week’s contest at the tough Academy Park — a highly athletic team that at times can be undone by mistakes — will need Unionville to clean up some of its issues if it is to post its first win of the season.
“We’re going to have to tackle in space and take care of the football,” Clark said. “I think we got a good physical test this week, so I think we’ll be ready physically.”
