By Ben Dojutrek
Staff Writer
Together we win. Together we win. In the freezing cold stadium, these were the words the varsity football team chanted as the Knights secured their first win of the year against Wheeling 45-42 in a double-overtime thriller, Friday, Oct. 10 at George Gattus Memorial Stadium.
On the last play of double overtime, Wheeling needed to tie the game so the Wildcats set up a field goal. The kicker began to kick, but before the ball traveled to the posts, junior defensive back De’angelo Roberson blocked the attempt. The moment brought true pride and spirit into the crowd and team as they erupted into screams and cheers.
“It’s the greatest feeling seeing the U go crazy coming through for my teammates, it’s the best feeling in the world,” Roberson said.
Both teams had something riding on this game. Wheeling had a 3-3 record and needed a win to make playoffs. Prospect was 0-6 and was competing for a win before the season’s end.
“It’s just about the fact it’s been a difficult six weeks,” head coach Mike Sebestyen said. “To finally have the situation where we made the plays and earlier in the year we didn’t and have the situation where we come out with a victory.”
And what a victory it was with junior quarterback Matt Drew scoring the tying touchdown in the fourth quarter on a rushing touchdown.
In the first quarter, Wheeling fired first with a trick touchdown pass from Jalen Davis to Tyler Urban for the early lead. Prospect offense stalled letting Wheeling take the ball letting Amani Dennis getting his first of four rushing touchdowns.
At the beginning of the second quarter Prospect was down 14-0. After a well ran drive by the Prospect offense, Drew scored the first of his two rushing touchdowns. Then on the next Knights drive, sophomore running back Andrew Shafis ran for a 29 yard touchdown.
But, Wheeling scored at the end of the half leading, 21-14. From here the Wheeling offense rushed Prospect’s defense into submission making it 35-21 by the fourth quarter. Only the Knights would not give up. Drew threw for his only passing touchdown of the night tosenior Mike O’Malley to slowly take away Wheeling’s lead, 35-28. Then on the next drive Drew ran for his third touchdown of the night, bringing it to 35-35. Time expired and the Knights went into overtime.
In the first overtime, Prospect and Wheeling were evenly matched with both sides resulting in another touchdown to end the first overtime tied 42-42.
Starting the second overtime, the Wheeling defense stopped the Knights offense, causing sophomore Jack Pruban to kick the field goal to have Prospect leading for the first time that night, 45-42.
Prospect’s defense had the challenge of blocking Wheeling’s high powered offense. The Wildcats offense relied on three running threats in quarterback Ammani Davis and running backs Isaac Branch and Josh Diaz; combined the boys ran for a total of 334 yards. Davis was the lead rusher with 198 yards.
The most interesting thing about this game is the consistency and promise of young players on the team. Pruban and Shafis are both sophomores with promising futures. Pruban didn’t miss a single kick and Shafis ran for 152 yards.
“It’s an honor playing in varsity when I should be playing with sophomores,” Pruban said.
Categories:
Double-overtime victory marks first win for football team
October 12, 2014
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