Running wild: Colonials ride powerful ground attack to 36-21 win at Uniontown
Every football team that plays Albert Gallatin knows what to expect.
The Colonials are a running team and when they’re executing coach Drew Dindl’s flexbone offense properly, as they were Friday night against Uniontown, stopping it is like trying to slow down a runaway locomotive.
Albert Gallatin churned out 390 total yards, all on the ground, and had four different players rush for over 80 yards in defeating the Red Raiders, 36-21, in a non-conference battle of Fayette County rivals at Bill Power Stadium.
It was the Colonials’ seventh straight win over Uniontown with Dindl improving his mark to 5-0 in the series.
“They’re a really good running team,” Red Raiders coach Keith Jeffries said. “Coach Dindl does a really good job with that. I told the kids they run the ball 99 percent of the time. I think they average over seven yards a carry and it showed. He gets the kids in the right places and they make plays. They did a good job as far as preparing to play us.”
Uniontown fell behind 36-7 but managed to hang in the game despite a rash of injuries, including a scary moment in the second quarter when David Ranitu had to be removed from the field on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital.
“David lost consciousness briefly so as a precaution they took him to the hospital,” Jeffries said. “We’re all hoping he’s going to be alright.”
The Red Raiders were already without starting quarterback Cam Dugan.
“Dugan got speared in the Allderdice game last week so he’s in concussion protocol,” Jeffries explained. “So we were using three different kids at quarterback tonight. Everybody did a little bit of everything to try to help us out but obviously it wasn’t enough to win the game.”
Notorious Grooms, Calvin Winfrey III and Nate Hice each spent time running the offense for Uniontown.
“We had to make a lot more adjustments real quick when Ranitu left,” Jeffries said. “We had to change our defensive game plan and alter our offensive game plan because he was a big part of both sides of the ball for us.
“We had three concussions, a hip-pointer, a possible broken ankle. So it’s back to the drawing board this week to see who can step in where as we get ready for Brownsville.”
Albert Gallatin’s stable of backs was led by Adam Pegg who had five carries for 103 yards and a touchdown. He was followed by Roman Smith with six carries for 89 yards and a TD, Caleb DeHave with seven carries for 88 yards and a score and Tee Guseman with 11 carries for 83 yards.
Quarterback Bronx Jamison only ran the ball twice for 10 yards but both went for touchdowns.
“We try to spread the ball around,” Dindl said. “We look at what the defense is trying to take away. Once they start biting inside we go out and when they’re looking outside we go inside. Our offense is running pretty good right now.”
While he was happy with his team’s offense, Dindl wasn’t pleased with his players’ composure, or lack thereof, on the field. The Colonials were penalized nine times for 104 yards and had two players ejected from the game.
“We did some really good things, but man we were so undisciplined tonight it kind of overshadowed all that,” Dindl said. “We’ve got to get that cleaned up. We were telling them it’s a rivalry game and you want to play with emotion but not let it get to the point where you’re costing your team. We had two players ejected so they’ll have to miss a game now. So it’s kind of a bittersweet win right now to me.”
Albert Gallatin scored touchdowns on its first five possessions.
The Colonials opened the game with a brisk, six-play, 67-yard drive that ended with a 42-yard run by Pegg. Sam Evans, who was four for four on extra-point attempts, nailed the PAT for a 7-0 lead with 9:31 left in the first quarter.
Uniontown threatened to pull even with a 10-play drive that featured a scintillating, weaving 44-yard run by Winfrey. The Red Raiders moved the ball from their own 42 to the AG 1 but a penalty pushed them back five yards and the Colonials’ defense forced a turnover on downs at the 8.
Albert Gallatin then went on a six-play 92-yard drive that was highlighted by a 44-yard run by Smith and finished off on a 32-yard run by DeHaven with 3:44 remaining in the opening quarter.
Winfrey came up with another impact play when Uniontown got the ball back, lofting a long pass to Jamarie Walker who made an over-the-shoulder grab and mauvered 89 yards for a touchdown. Ranitu added the extra point to make it 14-7 at the 2:25 mark.
“It was a nice pass by Calvin, a great adjustment on the ball by Jamarie and he showed some natural instincts running after the catch,” Jeffries said. “Just a great play.”
Undeterred, the Colonials fired right back with a six-play, 73-yard drive that included a 27-yard run by DeHaven and a 26-yard run by Pegg and was capped by Jamison’s two-yard plunge on the second play of the second quarter. Guseman ran in the two-point attempt after a penalty against Uniontown to put the visitors ahead 22-7.
Ranitu was injured three plays later, forcing a lengthy delay as he was tended to on the field. Several AG players went over to wish the Uniontown senior well as he was being taken from the field.
“We all wanted to go over and check on him. He’s been a solid player for them,” Dindl said. “I’ll talk to Keith later in the week and see how he’s doing.”
The Colonials upped their lead to 36-7 with a five-play 89-yard drive that Jamison capped with an eight-yard run at 6:35 and a six-play, 60-yard that ended with Smith’s 11-yard rush with 1:28 left in the half.
Uniontown refused to fold and, taking advantage of a pair of 15-yard yard penalties against AG, went 55-yards in four plays for a touchdown. Hice capped the drive with a 12-yard pass to Nathan Serock, who grabbed the ball around the five-yard line and juked back to elude an AG defender before diving and reaching the ball over the goal line with 20 seconds left in the half. Walker ran in the two-point conversion to make it 36-15 at halftime.
The second half featured a running clock despite no mercy rule being in effect.
“The administrators got together and realized tempers were a little bit touchy and before it got too far out of control they just said it was going to be a running clock in the second half,” Jeffries said.
As a result, Uniontown’s 12-play, 48-yard touchdown drive, which included a couple penalty discussions by officials while the clock continued to tick down, ate up the entire third quarter and ended on Grooms’ four-yard touchdown run with 10:07 left in the fourth quarter to set the final score. The biggest play in the drive was a 32-yard pass by Hice to Walker, who had five receptions for 128 yards.
“They’ve got a lot of weapons, a lot of athletes and eventually they’re going to break one or two and they did,” Dindl said of Uniontown’s offense.
“We did some good things tonight offensively,” Jeffries said. “We spread the ball around a little bit, some of that by necessity. Jamarie, Tory, Calvin all made some nice plays and Nate Hice, the freshman, made some good decisions.”
Uniontown was limited to 58 rushing yards in 21 attempts with Winfrey’s 44 yards leading the way. Grooms ran six times for 25 yards and completed two of three passes for 11 yards. Hice connected on four of 10 throws for 36 yards. The Red Raiders had 136 passing yards.
Uniontown senior Meredith King, escorted by her father Jeff King, was crowned as the homecoming queen at halftime.