Splash-fest: Mustangs pull away from Red Raiders in game of big plays
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Laurel Highlands’ John Pletcher sacks Uniontown quarterback K’Adrian McLee for a 4-yard loss during the first quarter of Friday night’s game at Bill Power Stadium.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Uniontown’s Cam Jackson (24) turns the corner on a running play and follows the blocking of Cam Watkins (70) during Friday night’s game against Laurel Highlands at Bill Power Stadium. Jackson rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown but the Mustangs won, 50-13.
Laurel Highlands' Jessiah Lewis (9) catches a 21-yard touchdown pass over Uniontown's Notorious Grooms with one second left in the first half of Friday night's game at Bill Power Stadium.
Uniontown's K'Adrian McLee uses a block by Kelan Milsom on Laurel Highlands' Antwan Black (4) to pick up some extra yards during Friday night's game at Bill Power Stadium.
Laurel Highlands' John Pletcher gathers in the football for a touchdown after he blocked a Uniontown punt late in the second quarter of Friday night's game at Bill Power Stadium.
Splash plays can make up for a lot of mistakes in football.
Laurel Highlands produced enough big moments on offense, defense and special teams to offset an inconsistent overall performance which led to a 50-13 victory over crosstown rival Uniontown at Bill Power Stadium on Friday night.
“It was sloppy,” LH coach Rich Kolesar said. “We did enough to make sure we won the game but we’ve got a lot of work to do next week.”
The Mustangs were led by returning star Antwan Black, who scored three touchdowns including a 78-yard interception return, and new starting quarterback Noah Lion, who threw a trio of TD passes while also rushing for 95 yards and a score, in their first game of the post-Rodney Gallagher era.
The Mustangs proved they can still manufacture big plays even with Gallagher gone.
Laurel Highlands blocked two punts, one of which led directly to a touchdown, and recorded a safety while also getting Lion touchdown passes of 21 yards to Jessiah Lewis with one second left in the first half and 25 yards to Black to all but put the game away in the fourth quarter.
Uniontown made a few splash plays of its own in the non-conference clash, most notably a 65-yard touchdown run by Cam Jackson who finished as the game’s leading rusher with 102 yards on 13 carries.
Neither coach was satisfied with his team’s overall performance, though.
“We did some good things tonight and we have things we’ve got to work on,” said Kolesar, whose team was penalized 14 times for 105 yards. “I told our kids after the game we’re happy with the result but we need to play better. We have to take where we are now and try to build and improve every day next week.”
Uniontown coach Keith Jeffries, who guided his team to a 5-5 record last year, echoed those thoughts when discussing his team’s showing.
“At times we did execute the game plan really well and at times we executed it very poorly,” Jeffries said. “We made way too many mistakes to be successful. We’ve got to make sure we execute more consistently and we as coaches need to do a better job making sure we have everybody where they’re supposed to be.
“We’ll get back to the drawing board to try and fix that this weekend and get where we need to be. Hopefully, we improve and get a little bit better week to week.”
Laurel Highlands, which is striving for a third consecutive playoff berth and victory, struck first thanks to its defense.
Uniontown opted to go for a first down on fourth and 14 from the LH 30 late in the first quarter but K’Adrian McLee’s pass was intercepted by Black near the right sideline at the 22 and he raced downfield untouched for the opening score. Tanner Bruzda kicked the first of his six extra points to make it 7-0.
The Mustangs got their first blocked punt from Tristen Baker early in the second quarter but LH fumbled attempting to return the ball and Mason Kuhn recovered to give the Red Raiders a new set of downs.
Laurel Highlands got a second defensive score two plays later when Tristen Baker tackled Notorious Grooms in the end zone for a safety and a 9-0 lead.
Lewis returned the free kick 54 yards to the Uniontown 7 and Lion powered his way across the goal line on a 3-yard touchdown run two plays later for a 16-0 lead.
The Red Raiders finally got a spark on the next play from scrimmage when Jackson motored around right end and out-sprinted the Mustang secondary for his 65-yard score. Sam Fitzpatrick’s extra point made it 16-7.
Undaunted, Laurel Highlands scored twice late in the second quarter to take a commanding 30-7 halftime lead.
John Pletcher gave the Mustangs their second blocked punt of the night and recovered the ball himself in the end zone for a touchdown with 2:56 remaining.
Kolesar stressed his team’s effective play on special teams isn’t by accident.
“Coach (Rusty) Richards does a really good job with our special teams,” Kolesar said. “We understand how important that part of the game is and put a lot of time into it.”
Laurel Highlands forced a punt and Black caught the Red Raiders flatfooted when he alertly picked up the ball as it was settling at the LH 41 and returned it 23 yards to the Uniontown 36 with 14 seconds left in the half.
Lion ran for 15 yards to the 21, then lofted a perfect pass to Lewis along the right sideline for a touchdown with one second remaining as Grooms just missed tipping the ball away.
“Jessiah is a very talented kid,” Kolesar said. “We wanted to take one last shot at the end zone before maybe trying to kick a field goal. Noah made a nice throw and Jessiah made a nice catch.”
“Defensively we were in good position most of the night,” Jeffries said. “We’ve just got to finish the plays and make the tackles when we’re there. We just had too many botched plays.”
Uniontown came up short on a fake punt midway through the third quarter with LH taking over at the Red Raider 29. From there, Lion ran for 4 and 21 yards, then threw a 4-yard shovel pass to Black for the touchdown and a 37-7 advantage.
The Red Raiders got on the scoreboard again thanks to a blocked punt of their own late in the third quarter. David Ranitu got his hand on Bruzda’s punt and Grooms pounced on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown to get the hosts within 37-13.
The Mustangs answered with Lion’s 25-yard TD toss to Black with 9:41 left in the game.
“He’s a special player and he steps up when we need a big play,” Kolesar said of Black. “I thought he had a really big game for us tonight.”
Black had three receptions for 25 yards and one carry for 11 yards in addition to his contributions on defense and special teams.
Lion completed 5 of 15 passes for 57 yards but all but two of his tosses went for touchdowns in a performance that pleased Kolesar.
“Noah battled and worked hard this off-season to make himself a great player,” Kolesar said. “He keeps getting better back there and he’s starting to get some confidence. I thought he did a really good job tonight. He’s a dual threat. He’s a good athlete and a tough kid. I was proud of him tonight.”
The Mustangs capped the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown run by Jaiden Tucker with 5:09 remaining.
“I don’t think the score was indicative of how the game was played,” Jeffries said.
Tucker had two carries for 23 yards and Parker Hoff ran three times for 19 yards for LH. Josh Reed had one reception for 11 yards.
The Mustangs defense limited McLee to one completion — six yards to Nathan Serock — in eight passes with one interception. LH also got an interception from Dameon Pratt on a halfback option pass by Jackson. McLee picked up 34 yards on the ground in nine carries.
The Red Raiders still lead the all-time series, 23-20.