Colonials lose in delayed opener
MONTOUR – The Albert Gallatin Colonials had a victory in their hands last night against the Spartans of Montour, but watched as it slowly slipped away during the second half as they came up on the short end of a 15-13 final score. The Colonials headed into halftime with a 7-0 lead by way of a 37-yard touchdown reception of Gerald Plum. In the second half, however, everything that could go wrong for coach Chuck Colborn’s team seemed to go wrong.
“We played a real solid game,” said Colborn. “We weren’t on time with a lot of things, but its just some things you can expect in the first game of the season.”
Montour tight end Josh Byrom ended the Colonials’ bid for a shutout when he caught a pass from quarterback Nick Dilanni to score on its first possession of the second half.
After Albert Gallatin was able to block the extra point, Tyler Jones and Michael Alexander were both unable to handle the Spartan kickoff. Montour recovered the fumble to give itself the ball on the 6-yard line.
“Some mistakes were made, but we need to be able to overcome them,” explained Colborn. “We’ll be working on a few things at practice, but I’m confident that we will get to know where we need to be.”
“They have a lot of talent and a lot of weapons that play on both ends of the ball,” said Montour coach Bruce Byrom. “Since they (Albert Gallatin) didn’t get to play a game last week, we were hoping that they might get a little fatigued throughout the second half.”
The fumble led to a 2-yard touchdown run by Morgan Singletary for a 12-7 Spartan lead over the Colonials. Montour would lengthen its lead to eight when kicker Ryan Welsh split the uprights on a 33-yard field goal attempt with 34.7 seconds left in the third quarter.
Albert Gallatin’s offense finally sparked at the start of the fourth quarter when it put together a drive all the way down field, leading to a short touchdown run by Alexander.
A 2-point conversion to tie the game failed, when Turner fumbled the snap and wasn’t able to do anything but fall on the loose ball.
“It is just a matter of execution,” said Colborn. “You execute the plays and things will go your way, but it just didn’t happen for us most of the game.”
After both Montour and Albert Gallatin exchanged possessions the Colonials were able to receive the ball with little time left and down two points to the Spartans.
Turner completed a pass to Mark Brown for seven yards before he ran for 12 yards and a first down for the Colonials.
A penalty pushed Albert Gallatin backed 10 yards, but was given one last opportunity to make a Hail Mary play for a shot at the win.
Turner rolled out to his left and heaved a pass downfield to the end zone that went in and out of the hands of receiver Jawaan Alston as time expired.
“They played a tough game and should have a real good season this year,” said Byrom. “This was a solid win to get, especially after the way we played in our first game of the season.”
“We aren’t disappointed in how we played and we definitely know now what certain aspects we need to work on in practice,” said Colborn. “We’ll set our sights on Mount Pleasant next week in our first home game.”
Albert Gallatin will host Mount Pleasant next Friday in its inaugural Keystone Conference game, while Montour will travel to Hopewell.