{"id":17161,"date":"2016-10-02T11:22:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T15:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=17161"},"modified":"2016-10-02T11:23:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T15:23:27","slug":"unionville-shuts-down-oxford-14-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=17161","title":{"rendered":"Unionville shuts down Oxford, 14-0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Win sets up showdown for 1st place with Great Valley<\/em><\/h2>\n
\"Unionville's<\/a>

Unionville’s James Watson closes in on Oxford quarterback Chandler England. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

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

OXFORD \u2014 You could almost hear the echoes of the legendary John Fascenda carried on the the driving wind and drizzle. Two teams engaged in a hard-hitting defensive struggle, covered in mud, soaked to the skin \u2014 a true battle of wills that might well have made the old Monsters of The Midway feel right at home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unionville held off a determined Oxford squad, 14-0, in a rugged Ches Mont American Division battle Friday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

The win leaves the Indians (3-3, 2-0) in first place in the American \u2014 and in control of their own destiny, as Great Valley lost a heartbreaker to West Chester Rustin, 31-27. Unionville hosts Great Valley Friday for a homecoming matchup that could well determined whether the Indians can defend their 2015 league title.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unionville head coach Pat Clark said he knew his squad was in for a battle \u2014 and offered strong praise to Oxford head coach Mike Means for how well prepared his team was for the contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Unionville<\/a>

Unionville quarterback Joe Zubillaga (1) looks for running room behind Jack Adams (25) and chris D’Amico (12). Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMike Means is a good football coach and their kids are comparable to our kids,\u201d Clark said. \u201cAnd you\u2019re going to get good games out them. I thought our defense did a great job \u2014 we made a bunch of stops and we were efficient on offense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For the Hornets \u2014 a far better team than their 1-5, 0-3 record might indicate \u2014 it was a night of frustration as they moved the ball fairly well against a \u201cbend-but-don\u2019t-break\u201d Unionville defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe pride ourselves on defense,\u201d Clark said. \u201cWe had a tough one last week (a loss to Downingtown East), but it was big for our kids to bounce back. If they (Oxford) don\u2019t score, it\u2019s tough for them to win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The scores \u2014 one in each half \u2014 came off hard-fought drives and Unionville\u2019s power running game, which at times was able to get a push against the aggressive Oxford defense. Jack Adams scored the Indians\u2019 first TD \u2014 following a drive on which he and QB Joe Zubillaga fought for tough yards on the ground. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Unionville's<\/a>

Unionville’s Trevor Gardiner makes an impressive open field tackle of Oxford’s Tim Davis. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

The second score completed a sequence that was arguably more pivotal: the Hornets took the opening kickoff of the second half and proceeded to grind the ball down the field \u2014 moving 80 yards and eating the clock. But mistakes by Oxford \u2014 and Unionville\u2019s ability to maintain composure in a key moment \u2014 stopped the drive cold. A pair of penalties pushed the Hornets into a fourth-and-long situation and the Indians\u2019 defense held.<\/span><\/p>\n

That stop sparked Unionville onto its second and final scoring drive. <\/span><\/p>\n

Again, it was Zubillaga \u2014 bringing echoes of former standout Unionville quarterback Tom Pancost (now a tight end at Penn State) \u2014 who showed a tough running style, including a 49-yard romp, on the drive. Adams capped the drive again, this time from 10 yards out \u2014 and with Matt Mainwaring\u2019s extra point (Mainwaring had a strong night battling the winds as Unionville\u2019s kicker and punter), the Indians held on for the 14-0 win.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s contest between Unionville and Great Valley could either lock up the Indians\u2019 grip on first place in the Ches Mont American Division with a win \u2014 or create a four-way tie for first with a loss, with Sun Valley likely to hold off Octorara, the winner of Rustin-Kennett and Great Valley and Unionville all with one league loss. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Patriots (4-2, 2-1) are an offensive powerhouse behind quarterback Robert Geiss \u2014 who threw for almost 200 yards in the loss Friday against Rustin, while running for 75 more yards. While the Indians pride themselves on defense, it\u2019s likely the offense is going to have to step up.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey have skill kids all over the place,\u201d Clark said of Great Valley. \u201cTo win, we\u2019re going to have to play great defense. And we\u2019re probably going to have to find more than 14 points to win the game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Win sets up showdown for 1st place with Great Valley By Al Tustin, Staff Writer, The Times OXFORD \u2014 You could almost hear the echoes of the legendary John Fascenda carried on the the driving wind and drizzle. Two teams engaged in a hard-hitting defensive struggle, covered in mud, soaked to the skin \u2014 a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[808,3279,3280,7999,811],"class_list":["post-17161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ches-mont","tag-football","tag-high-school","tag-oxofrd","tag-unionville-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17161","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=17161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17164,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17161\/revisions\/17164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}