by Matt Beltz
HUGHESVILLE – After a game like Friday’s Towanda-Hughesville contest, all any neutral observer could say after the game would be “wow.” This game had it all – momentum swings, big plays on both sides of the ball, plenty of penalties and clutch kicking. It was such an exciting game, that even afterwards, both coaches, who are anything but neutral, were amazed after taking a deep breath.
Towanda rallied from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter, kicked a game-tying field goal with :15 left in regulation to force overtime, and then stopped Hughesville on a fourth-and-1 play from the one-yard line in overtime before kicking another field goal on their overtime possession to walk away from Hughesville with a 30-27 overtime win, handing the Spartans a hard-fought but disappointing first loss of the season while improving to 3-1 themselves.
“It (the loss) is all on me,” said Hughesville coach Dan Tucker. “I couldn’t call a defense to save my life. They torched us just running (isolation plays with their quarterback) and that’s my fault. My guys played their tails off. Hats off to Towanda, they weathered that storm and they never quit either. It was ashamed somebody had to lose tonight.”
“This game really spanned the entire range of emotions,” said Towanda coach Jamie Wecker. “We matched up well in the first half, then the wheels came off in the second half and they were really sticking it to us. Our defense struggled to adjust but then we did make some adjustments and got some stops and our kids really weathered the storm and I’m so proud of how they bounced back after some adversity.”
That adversity started about midway through the third quarter and lasted into the fourth quarter before the Black Knights were able to get back the momentum. Towanda held a 17-13 lead midway through the third quarter before things took a turn for the worse. First, Hughesville put together a 10-play, 59-yard drive capped by Clint Snyder’s one-yard run to go up 20-17. On the ensuing kickoff, Towanda’s Noah Huff, who ran for 153 yards in the game and threw for 96, returned a kickoff 64 yards but it was called back due to a block in the back penalty. After a false start on first down pushed the Knights back to their own 15, Huff was picked off by Snyder at the Towanda 24 and Snyder returned it to the Towanda one-yard line. Snyder then ran it in for his second touchdown of the night on Hughesville’s first play after the interception to make it 27-17.
A personal foul penalty on Towanda after the touchdown allowed Hughesville to kick off from Towanda’s side of the field, and the Spartans decided to onside kick it and they were successful, recovering at the Towanda 17 after Knights were unable to secure the ball.
Hughesville then ran nine plays but they only resulted in a net gain of two yards due to negative yardage plays and a delay of game penalty, leading to a 32-yard field goal attempt that was missed by Trent Woolcock. That missed kick would prove to be big as would a missed PAT that came earlier in the game after Hughesville had scored a touchdown on its first drive of the third quarter.
That miss allowed Towanda an opportunity to take back the momentum, which it did as it put together a nine-play, 80-yard drive that was capped by Noah Wheeler’s near one-handed catch across the middle for a touchdown with 7:29 remaining, pulling the Knights to within three at 27-24. That drive featured four separate personal foul or unsportsmanlike penalties – two on each team, which were four of the 21 total penalties on the evening.
The Spartans then took the ensuing kickoff back to midfield but went three-and-out as quarterback Logan Henry was sacked on a third down play to force the only punt of the night for Hughesville.
Towanda then took over on its own 36 and put together another long drive, this one going 56 yards in 14 plays over 4:54. After being stalled at the Hughesville eight-yard line, Tyler Basse was brought in to kick a 26-yard field goal, which he nailed and would have been good from further out to tie the game with just :15 left. Hughesville then nearly had an improbable ending as Nick Yeager got free on a third down rushing play on the ensuing possession and went 42 yards all the way to the Towanda 33 before being knocked out of bounds by one of the last defenders downfield and the game went to overtime.
Yeager ran for 142 yards on just 10 carries for Hughesville – all in the second half. He had runs of 35 yards and 25 yards on the Spartans’ first two plays of scrimmage in the second half, the latter going for a touchdown, but it was following that touchdown that the missed PAT occurred.
Hughesville took possession first in the extra frame and picked up six yards on first down and two on second down, giving them two plays to get two yards for the touchdown. They were stopped short of the goal line on third down and then elected to go for it on fourth down rather than kicking the field goal but Towanda rushed through the line of scrimmage to stuff Snyder for a one-yard loss.
“We got into a formation that we haven’t showed very much of and they adjusted well to what we were doing,” said Tucker of the fourth-down play.
“We bumped into our short-yardage defense and after 48 minutes of football, that was a huge play for our defense to make,” said Wecker.
The Knights were then pushed back by an illegal block penalty on their first play of overtime, their 12th of the night. Towanda got the ball down to the three-yard line by fourth down and Basse once again came up big for the Knights as his 20-yard field goal once again would have been good from much further out.
“Our offense did a great job to put us in position to kick the field goals, both in the fourth quarter and overtime,” said Wecker.
The first half didn’t feature nearly as much drama as the second half, but there were still a share of big plays that would prove to be important later on in the game.
Towanda went three-and-out on its first possession and punted, but a Hughesville player had the bouncing football go off his leg, allowing the Black Knights to recover it and regain possession. From there, Towanda went 47 yards in seven plays, capped by Steven Yates’ one-yard touchdown run to draw first blood.
Hughesville immediately answered on its next possession, as Henry found Trey Smith on a post pattern from 16-yards out to tie the game. A big 35-yard gain on a pass from Henry to Sean Poust on a third-and-eight play was the key to that drive.
The Black Knights were then able to again capitalize on a Hughesville turnover to take the lead just before halftime. After Huff picked off a pass that was floated into the end zone, he turned around to his position under center and led Towanda on a 16-play, 75-yard drive that was capped by Basse’s first field goal of the night, this one from 23 yards out to go up 10-7.
Towanda 30, Hughesville 27, ot
Towanda (3-1) 7 3 7 10 3 – 30
Hughesville (3-1) 7 0 20 0 0 – 27
First quarter
7:04 – (T) Steven Yates 1-yard run (Tyler Basse kick), 7-47, 2:44
4:22 – (H) Trey Smith 16-yard pass from Logan Henry (Trent Woolcock kick), 6-60, 2:41
Second quarter
:45 – (T) Tyler Basse 23-yard field goal, 16-75, 8:01
Third quarter
11:36 – (H) Nick Yeager 25-yard run (kick failed), 2-60, :24
7:47 – (T) Steven Yates 14-yard run (Tyler Basse kick), 8-56, 3:49
2:45 – (H) Clint Snyder 1-yard run (Trent Woolcock kick), 10-59, 5:02
2:18 – (H) Clint Snyder 1-yard run (Trent Woolcock kick), 1-1, :04
Fourth Quarter
7:29 – (T) Noah Wheeler 32-yard pass from Noah Huff (Tyler Basse kick), 9-80, 3:14
:15 – (T) Tyler Basse 26-yard field goal, 14-56, 4:54
Overtime
(T) – Tyler Basse 20-yard field goal, 5-7
Statistics T H First downs 21 15 Rushes-net yards 51-260 30-209 Passing yardage 96 101 Passing 13-18-1-1 9-19-1-2 Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1 Penalties-yards 12-114 9-85
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Towanda: Noah Huff (25-153), Steven Yates (22-93-2), Dylan Bates (3-14), TEAM (1-0); Hughesville: Clint Snyder (19-72-2), Nick Yeager (10-142-1), Logan Henry (1-(-5))
PASSING — Towanda: Noah Huff (13-18-96-1-1); Hughesville: Logan Henry (9-18-101-1-2), Clint Snyder (0-1-0-0-0)
RECEIVING — Towanda: Dylan Bates (8-49), Tyler Vanderpool (3-14), Noah Wheeler (1-32-1), Landon Brown (1-1); Hughesville: Sean Poust (4-56), Nick Yeager (2-22), Clint Snyder (2-7), Trey Smith (1-16-1)
