Mistakes hanut Mustangs
Scott Knee’s debut as head coach at Laurel Highlands saw the Mustangs play two very different halves of football Friday night. A promising first half in which quarterback Matt Humbert picked up where he left off last season saw Laurel Highlands battle Huntingdon to a 7-7 draw.
It’s the second half, however, that left Knee near speechless after he watched the Bearcats take advantage of three turnovers and numerous penalties to pull away for a 35-7 non-section victory at the Mustang Corral.
Huntingdon quarterback Geoff Kozak scored on runs of 10 and 25 yards, along with tossing a 15-yard scoring pass. The Bearcats also turned two Humbert interceptions and a fumble by the senior quarterback into 21 second-half points.
Laurel Highlands was flagged 13 times on offense as well, totaling losses of 75 yards. On the Mustangs only scoring drive, a 15-play, 78-yard series which ate up 7:28, Laurel Highlands was able to overcome a holding, a delay of game, an illegal use of hands and an illegal procedure penalty.
“You can’t do anything offensively when you’re consistently in second-and-long and third-and-long situations,” Knee said. “They (Huntingdon) knew what we were going to do and it took away the chance to have big plays. We’re going to have to work really hard to take care of this.”
Humbert completed 11 of 18 first-half passes for 89 yards, including 14-yard touchdown pass to Antwjuan Cox on third and goal. Cox, who finished the game with nine receptions for 75 yards, caught the ball in the back of the end zone before running into one of the padded bottoms of the goal post.
The ball jarred loose, but the officials ruled Cox managed to get one foot inbounds before the collision.
Things turned sour for Laurel Highlands early in the second half after Humbert connected with Tony Patitucci for a 10-yard gain, which put the ball near midfield.
A loss of five yards and a gain of five yards cancelled each other out before two straight illegal procedure penalties brought up a third-and-20 at the LH 37, where Humbert was dropped for a five-yard loss.
After forcing a punt, Huntingdon marched 63 yards in eight plays to take the lead for good when Kozak scored from 10 yards out on third down to make it 14-7.
With the Mustangs at their own 40 on the ensuing possession, two incompletions around illegal procedure and illegal substitution penalties brought up another third-and-20. This time, Damien Gresko came away with his first interception off a deflection that gave the Bearcats the ball near midfield.
Six plays later, Kozak turned a near-sack into a 25-yard scoring scamper to put Huntingdon ahead, 21-7. On Laurel Highlands’ next play from scrimmage, Gresko picked off Humbert’s pass into the flat and ran it back 36 yards to make it 28-7.
“They shot themselves in the foot several times,” said Huntingdon coach Jim Zauzig. “We were fortunate to go into the locker room tied 7-7. I know what it’s like though. I lost my first game, 30-0. Probably the difference in our programs now is we’re used to winning, they’re not. They played well in the first half, but things changed and then they started snowballing.”
Humbert finished the game 19 of 27 for 135 yards, but consistently faced long-yardage situations. That, along penalties and an ineffective running game made it a long night offensively.
Mustang running back Corey Nesser carried 13 times, but was limited to 18 yards.
“We have to find a running game somewhere,” Knee said. “We have to balance it out. The difference tonight was in the second half. Their team knew what they wanted to do and our kids were letting bad things that happened affect them.
“We played a very good first half against a quality ball team. We were hoping to make some adjustments and come out strong in the second half, but penalties killed us and things snowballed from there.”
Kozak finished with just 53 yards passing, but gained 89 yards rushing on nine carries.
Defensively, Laurel Highlands defensive end Kenny Riddell led all players with eight tackles, including a sack.