Falcons win first of season
REPUBLIC – The Southmoreland Scotties entered Friday night’s game clinging to their playoff hopes, and for one half of football they seemingly tightened that grip before letting go late in the fourth quarter with a 13-10 loss at the hands of the Brownsville Falcons. Senior kicker Kevin Hagerman opened up the scoring for the Scotties with a 33-yard field goal to put them up 3-0 early in the first quarter.
“I thought we played well in the first half and hung with them, but we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot and just couldn’t catch a break,” said Brownsville coach Andy Assad.
The score remained 3-0 until late in the third quarter when running back Eric Frund took a handoff around the left end and powered his way into the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown run to put the Scotties up 10-0.
With nine minutes left to play in the fourth quarter, Brownsville forced Southmoreland to punt and took over possession on its own 30-yard line, and one play later, quarterback Phil Shaw hit a wide open Craig Novak over the middle for a 70-yard touchdown to pull the Falcons within four points.
After forcing another Southmoreland punt, the Falcons took over on their own 40-yard line and proceeded to march down the field on a 60-yard scoring drive that was capped off with another Novak touchdown, this time from four yards out, that gave Brownsville its first lead of the night.
“He’s a hard worker and a good football player; I was happy for him tonight. He played a great game,” said Assad following the game.
Southmoreland made a strong push on its final drive, including two fourth-down conversions, before kicker Kevin Hagerman came up short on a potential game-tying 52 yard field goal attempt as time expired.
The win was not only the Falcons first of the season, it also marked the first time that they scored more than seven points in a game this year.
The Falcons play host to McGuffey next week before finishing their season on October 27th at Waynesburg.
Southmoreland will travel to Washington next Friday and finish its season on the road at Yough.