A standing room only Homecoming crowd packed both sides of Alumni Field in Quakertown Friday night to witness the Hatboro Horsham Hatters, 2-0 in the Continental and 3-2 overall, take on the undefeated Quakertown Panthers, 4-0 and 0-1 in the Continental.
“We had to minimize mistakes and come out and run, and not run the ball at them but try to get to the outside,” said Quakertown Head Coach John Donnelly,
The Hatters scored the night’s first touchdown by riding the back of junior running back #25 Darryl Neville who capped the drive with a ten-yard scamper to the end zone. Neville, the workhorse for the Hatters, rushed for over 150 yards and scored two of their four touchdowns. Quakertown headed into the half behind 0-12.
Quakertown was determined to post points on the scoreboard before halftime. Senior Quarterback #15 Kurtis Roberts lead the Panthers down the field and into the end zone to score from three yards out. At halftime the score was Panthers 7 – Hatters 12 .
Hatboro started off the second half the same way they did in the first half increasing their lead to 7-20 when Hollenbeck connected with senior tight end #5 Ryan Mullen for a fifty-six yard touchdown pass.
On their next possession, Roberts got the Panthers into scoring ranges on a twenty one yard gain from senior tight end #85 Robert Basile. Roberts scored his second touchdown on the night in the next play with a five-yard touchdown scramble, then drove the ball in for the two-point conversion making the score 15-20 going into the fourth quarter.
The Hatters hit hard and plowed down field with workhorse Neville, who capped off the drive with his second rushing touchdown of the night putting the Hatters up 15-26.
With three minutes left in the game the Panthers rallied down the field to post seven more points on the board, keeping this contest close at 21 -26.
The Panthers Defense lead by senior linebackers #85 Robert Basile and #43 Edwin Gonzalez, forced Hatboro to turn the ball over on downs in the next series of plays.
With a minute left in the game, the Panthers on their thirteen-yard line with no timeouts, Roberts and senior tailback #34 Tony Latronica marched their team down to the Hatters’s twenty-one yard line. The Panthers comeback hopes were halted with fourteen seconds to go when Roberts pass was picked off by Hatter #1,Casey Saverio. sophomore, to end the game.
“I’m really proud of the fight in our guys,” said Donnelly. “We had a chance to win at the end with that amount of time and minutes, it’s going to hurt over the weekend but we got to come ready to work on Monday.”
Both teams will be away next week with Hatboro traveling to Souderton and Quakertown at Central Bucks South.
