{"id":23360,"date":"2017-11-18T12:02:59","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T17:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=23360"},"modified":"2017-11-18T12:03:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T17:03:01","slug":"unionville-overcomes-slow-start-defeats-marple-newtown-to-advance-to-section-1-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=23360","title":{"rendered":"Unionville overcomes slow start, defeats Marple Newtown to advance to Section 1 finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unionville’s JT Hower leaps high to grab his second interception of the game against Marple Newtown. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

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

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2013 With a bit less than three minutes left in the first quarter, it looked like Unionville\u2019s football team had run out of answers against Marple Newtown \u2014 and was about to get run out of the District One, 5A playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Down 14-0 with 2:46 left in the first quarter, the Indians were out of sync on offense and seemingly unable to stop the Tigers’ offense \u2014 playing without star QB Anthony Paoletti \u2014 and on the verge of getting blown out of the semi-finals of the district playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n

But as has been the case more than once in this magical 2017 season, Unionville proved resilient, overcame the sluggish start, tied the game \u2014 twice \u2014 before halftime and then dominated the second half to cruise to a 36-21 win to advance to next Friday night\u2019s Sectional 5A championship game at top seeded Springfield (Delco). <\/span><\/p>\n

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Unionville’s Joe Zubillaga scores the final TD, Friday, against Marple Newtown. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

While a lot of high school football teams might have looked at the scoreboard in that first quarter and thought the game \u2014 and the season \u2014 was over, this Unionville team found something deep inside to mount a powerful comeback over the 8-5 Tigers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of settled in and I was really proud of the way the kids focused and bounced back,\u201d Unionville Head Coach Pat Clark said afterward.<\/span><\/p>\n

This marks the Indians (12-1) first-ever appearance in a sectional final as well as the school\u2019s first 12-win season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d Clark said, betraying a bit of emotion. \u201cI\u2019m really impressed with this group. We ask these kids to do so much and for them to actually get to this point, to get a reward for their hard work\u2026there are very few times in life where they get this chance, but they earned it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While there were too many key plays and players to list, senior defensive back\/wideout JT Hower had maybe his most dominant game of his strong career, picking off two passes from Aiden Mathes, sparking a tying score in the final seconds of the first half with an electric 91 yards kickoff return and catching six passes for 96 yards in the win.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Unionville’s Pedro Aviles Bernal closes in on Marple Newtown’s Marlon Weathers and Sam Ross closes from behind. After a tough start, the Indians’ defense completely shut down the Tigers in the second half. Jim Gill photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cDefensively, we had a good scheme,\u201d Hower said, deflecting a bit from an inquiry about his two interceptions in the game. \u201cWe were preparing for their quarterback Paoletti to play and when he showed up, it was a bit of a surprise to have him not being (dressed). We knew they were going to run a lot of Wildcat \u2014 Marlon Weathers is a really good player \u2014 so, we kind of keyed on that and trusted our defensive backs to play man, and it worked out for us. They had a new quarterback and we made some plays on the ball.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And while Hower managed to make key plays, it was a team effort to shake off the early struggles and get things moving in the right direction. Senior QB Alex Gorgone found his rhythm after a slow start to finish 10 of 19 for 173 yards. The Indians’ defense \u2014 which seemed caught a bit off guard by Paoletti not playing, his injury last week had been described as merely a \u201cstinger\u201d \u2014 adjusted and was able to contain backs Weathers and Te\u2019ron Johnson and star wideout Dash Dulgerian.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good football team (Marple Newtown),\u201d Clark said. \u201cThey\u2019re big, they\u2019re physical. Just because their quarterback wasn\u2019t playing doesn\u2019t mean they were going to roll over and lay down. They\u2019re in the district semifinals for a reason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While the cold \u2014 and playing their first semifinal in more than a decade \u2014 seemed to inhibit the third seeded Indians, the seventh seeded Tigers, who upset No. 2 seed Upper Moreland last week, played free and loose in the early going.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unionville sputtered on the opening drive, unable to get connections on its passing game when the run game stalled. The Indians seemed a bit stunned when Mathes \u2014 a junior filling in for one of the area\u2019s top QBs \u2014 hit a pair of long passes, the second of which was a 34-yard scoring throw to Dulgerian. <\/span><\/p>\n

Three minutes later, after Unionville\u2019s offense was held to a three-and-out, the Tigers again marched down the field, sparked by a bit of razzle-dazzle on a halfback option pass by Brian Joslin to Dulgerian for 33 yards. Mathes connected on his second TD pass of the night \u2014 to the dangerous Dugerian \u2014 and very suddenly, Unionville found itself in a 14-0 hole \u2014 which is how things stood at the start of the second quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the Indians\u2019 defense was finally able to get a stop, Hower grabbed the ensuing punt and raced from the 50 down to the Marple Newtown 28. A couple of key runs by Joe Zubillaga and a pass \u2014 18 yards from Gorgone to Hower \u2014 set up Dante Graham\u2019s smash into the end zone from two yards out. Stephon Twombly \u2014 filling in for injured kicker Dominic Braithwaite \u2014 missed on the extra point try, to leave Unionville trailing 14-6.<\/span><\/p>\n

After stopping the Tigers again \u2014 this time on a three-and-out \u2014 the Indians again marched right down the field, as Gorgone began to get hot in the passing game, hitting a pair of throws to first Zubillaga and then Hower for big gains. Zubillaga scored from\u00a0 <\/span>seven yards out and then Gorgone hit Hower for the two-point conversion pass to tie the game at 14-14.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the Tigers were stopped quickly on their next possession \u2014 Unionville gave them a big opportunity when Zubillaga fumbled on the Unionville 33. Marple Newtown needed seven plays, but managed to retake the lead on Mathes\u2019 pass to Luke Cantwell, giving the Tigers a 21-14 lead with just :24 left in the half.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unionville and Hower, weren\u2019t quite ready to call it a half, though. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hower caught the ensuing kickoff on the 1-yard line and raced up the right sideline \u2014 91 yards \u2014 to the Marple 8 with about :10 left in the half. Gorgone cooly hit Zubillaga with a scoring TD pass and Twombly hit the extra point and the game was tied at the half.<\/span><\/p>\n

After digging their way out of a hole in the first half, the Indians kicked on the afterburners in the second half, dominating the Tigers \u2014 especially on defense \u2014 taking complete control of the contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

After stopping Marple\u2019s opening drive, Gorgone used his arm and feet to lead Unionville down the field, hitting Zubillaga with a 49-yard TD pass. A Zubillaga two-point conversion run gave the Indians\u2019 their first lead, 29-21.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the final quarter, Unionville mounted a lengthy scoring drive \u2014 eating the clock and putting the game away \u2014 with Zubillaga scoring on a 1-yard run to make it 36-21.<\/span><\/p>\n

In taking on Springfield (Delco) in the sectional final, Unionville will likely be facing its toughest matchup of the season. While the two teams have not played each other, they do have a number of common opponents: Springfield beat Strath Haven, Glen Mills, and Rustin \u2014 which Unionville also defeated. Springfield also boasts a win over powerful Garnet Valley \u2014 which will take on Coatesville next week in the 6A Sectional Final.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cougars (13-0) feature a powerful running game and a stifling defense. <\/span><\/p>\n

The winner of Friday\u2019s game may find itself with a promising route to the state final at Hershey Dec. 8 \u2014 and the East 5A title. Wyoming Valley (6-6) upset Whitehall in the semis and will play either Archbishop Wood (8-2) or Simon Gratz (7-3-1), who play their semifinal matchup Saturday. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Al Tustin, Staff Writer, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2013 With a bit less than three minutes left in the first quarter, it looked like Unionville\u2019s football team had run out of answers against Marple Newtown \u2014 and was about to get run out of the District One, 5A playoffs. Down 14-0 with 2:46 left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[4825,6269,3279,809,9879,4918,9880,811],"class_list":["post-23360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-district-one","tag-featured","tag-football","tag-indians","tag-marple-newtown","tag-playoffs","tag-tigers","tag-unionville-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23360","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=23360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23361,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23360\/revisions\/23361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}