{"id":11838,"date":"2015-09-19T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T17:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=11838"},"modified":"2015-09-19T12:59:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T16:59:13","slug":"unionville-holds-off-improved-avon-grove-27-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=11838","title":{"rendered":"Unionville holds off improved Avon Grove, 27-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indians’ ground game, special teams overcomes Red Devils strong throwing game<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Al Tustin<\/strong><\/span>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Unionville’s Brandon Boon breaks out into the open on a 78-yard TD kickoff return against Avon Grove Friday night. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 Big plays at key moments by a team\u2019s stars often make the difference in a game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without question, that was the case Friday night as Unionville (2-1) held off a determined Avon Grove (2-1) team, 27-17.<\/span><\/p>\n

It took big plays by Indians\u2019 seniors Brandon Boon, Brendan Boyle and Elan Nash to seal the deal when the much-improved Red Devils came roaring back from a 20-3 deficit in the second half.<\/span><\/p>\n

Boon and Boyle managed to power a fourth-quarter, clock-eating scoring drive while Nash, a Naval Academy commit, snagged an interception in the end zone to stop the Red Devils\u2019 late comeback attempt. Big special teams plays \u2014 a 78-yard kickoff return for a score by Boon and Trevor Gardiner\u2019s punt block and subsequent end zone recovery for a score proved the difference in a game when the Red Devils controlled the ball much of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was big,\u201d Unionville Head Coach Pat Clark said of three seniors stepping up at key moments. \u201cBoyle came out and ran the ball \u2014 we\u2019ve always had a running quarterback \u2014 and that kind of settled him down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although frustrated by the final result, Avon Grove Head Coach Harry O\u2019Neill took some solace in his team\u2019s ability to come back and turn what looked like a comfortable Unionville win into a true nail-biter.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Avon Grove’s Shane McLaughlin led a comeback in the second half, throwing for more than 200 yards. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not happy that we lost,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cBut didn\u2019t quit \u2014 we were down 20-3 and we scrapped our way back into the game. That\u2019s all we can ask for, is a shot to win it at the end. If we catch that ball going into the end zone down there, it\u2019s 27-24 and maybe we onside kick and who knows what happens? A lot of woulda, shoulda couldas, but I\u2019m proud of my team. We don\u2019t have many seniors and from where we were last season to right now, I\u2019ll take that effort every single day. I don\u2019t like the outcome, but we didn\u2019t quit, we dealt with adversity and last year we wouldn\u2019t have handled it that way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Boon rushed for 129 yards on 19 carries, while Boyle rushed for 106 on 12 carries as the Indians were able to move the ball with an old-school ground game, in addition to Boon\u2019s TD return. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unionville was able to contain Avon Grove\u2019s talented junior running Nate Jones to just 65 yards rushing, but senior Quarterback Shane McLaughlin had a strong night, throwing for 220 yards \u2014 on 19 of 38 passing \u2014 hooking up almost at will with Henry Buchanan and Chris Vahey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Early on, though, it looked like the Red Devils might be able to run their way to victory, as Jones powered an opening drive that stalled deep in Unionville territory \u2014 and was capped by a Kevin Sheehan field goal. Boon struck back on the ensuing kickoff \u2014 racing 78 yards up the left side for a score, giving the Indians a lead they would never surrender.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Indians were able to shut down Jones\u2019 for the rest of the half, and with Gardiners\u2019 punt block score, Unionville enjoyed a 14-3 half time lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Unionville quarterback Brendan Boyle spearheaded a strong Indians’ running attack. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

With the opening kickoff, the Indians managed a methodical drive for a score, capped by a one-yard Boon TD run. It looked like Avon Grove might be finished \u2014 but the young Red Devils clearly had other ideas. McLaughlin led Avon Grove on an eight-play drive before the end of the quarter \u2014 going to the air \u2014 topped off by a Kevin Francis scoring run, to cut the deficit to 20-10.<\/span><\/p>\n

After getting a stop of the Indians, forcing a punt, McLaughlin went to work again, throwing, and ultimately running the ball down to the 1-yard line, where Francis was able to power the ball in again. What had been a seemingly comfortable Unionville lead was now a mere 20-17 margin, midway through the final quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n

But \u2014 as big players often do \u2014 the trio of Indians\u2019 stars all but willed the team to victory. As Boyle cooly engineered a late drive, Boon rambled 58 yards to set up his short scoring run to give Unionville a 27-17 lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

The game was far from over. McLaughlin again drove his Red Devil squad down the field \u2014 deep inside the 20, before Nash was able to pick off a tipped pass to seal the win for the Indians.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unionville faces a tougher task: a road contest at West Chester Rustin to open the Ches-Mont American season, a game that could decide who wins the league title. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re defending league champs,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThey\u2019re a tough physical team. I\u2019ve looked at some film on them already and we\u2019re going to have to come out and play with the same level of intensity we had tonight.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indians’ ground game, special teams overcomes Red Devils strong throwing game By Al Tustin, Staff Writer, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 Big plays at key moments by a team\u2019s stars often make the difference in a game. Without question, that was the case Friday night as Unionville (2-1) held off a determined Avon Grove (2-1) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[2160,3279,611],"class_list":["post-11838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-avon-grove","tag-football","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11841,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838\/revisions\/11841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}