At times in Saturday’s game against Elmwood Park, you got the feeling it just wasn’t going to be Pompton Lakes' day. Yes, they were able to move the ball on the ground, but the stalwart of the team, the defense, was allowing big plays. Three such plays led to touchdowns for the Crusaders.
They were also the victim of some questionable penalty calls the most egregious was an unnecessary roughness call when Elmwood Park QB Baragon Bradley, who was obviously running towards the sideline , was pushed out of bounds. He had both feet in the field of play and I’m sure his intention was to go out of bounds but with his athleticism, which was on display all afternoon, he could have easily turned up field and picked up additional yards. Plus, if he truly was out of bounds, why wasn’t the whistle blown? Kids are taught to keep going on defense until the play is over. The hit wasn’t hard, if was merely a shove out of bounds. It was a bad call, pure and simple.
Anyway, that led to a score that gave Elmwood Park a 20-13 lead. It looked like it was going to be worse for Pompton Lakes when they had a punt blocked deep in their territory. The Crusaders took over at the Cardinal 11 with 0:18 seconds to go. Instead of trying a play or two into the end zone, their coach Garry Luciani decided to go for a field goal. The kick was missed.
The second half was dominated by the PL defense. EP had the ball for just 5 plays in the third quarter one of which was a punt and another a safety that occurred on the first play for the Crusaders after a valiant goal line stand stopped PL on four successive plays from the 1. Bradley fumbled the next snap and the entire PL defensive line dove on him for the two points.
An illegal block penalty wiped out a 42-yard TD pass from Sean Carey to PJ Rodriguez in the fourth but the offense got one more chance with 3:51 left in the game. Taking over at their 40, Carey engineered a 10-play drive that was highlighted by a Doug Flutie-esque scramble to escape a sack before finding Steve Szwech for a 13-yard hook up and third and eleven. Three plays later, he found Scott Mathews for the game winning touchdown. It was his only catch of the day, but he made it count.
There is no telling what this game will mean to their season until the year is over, but if it ends in a trip to a certain professional Stadium in East Rutherford in early December, everyone will look at this game as the one that propelled them. It was just a great game full of big plays, questionable calls, hard hits, and a game winning two-minute drill.
They were also the victim of some questionable penalty calls the most egregious was an unnecessary roughness call when Elmwood Park QB Baragon Bradley, who was obviously running towards the sideline , was pushed out of bounds. He had both feet in the field of play and I’m sure his intention was to go out of bounds but with his athleticism, which was on display all afternoon, he could have easily turned up field and picked up additional yards. Plus, if he truly was out of bounds, why wasn’t the whistle blown? Kids are taught to keep going on defense until the play is over. The hit wasn’t hard, if was merely a shove out of bounds. It was a bad call, pure and simple.
Anyway, that led to a score that gave Elmwood Park a 20-13 lead. It looked like it was going to be worse for Pompton Lakes when they had a punt blocked deep in their territory. The Crusaders took over at the Cardinal 11 with 0:18 seconds to go. Instead of trying a play or two into the end zone, their coach Garry Luciani decided to go for a field goal. The kick was missed.
The second half was dominated by the PL defense. EP had the ball for just 5 plays in the third quarter one of which was a punt and another a safety that occurred on the first play for the Crusaders after a valiant goal line stand stopped PL on four successive plays from the 1. Bradley fumbled the next snap and the entire PL defensive line dove on him for the two points.
An illegal block penalty wiped out a 42-yard TD pass from Sean Carey to PJ Rodriguez in the fourth but the offense got one more chance with 3:51 left in the game. Taking over at their 40, Carey engineered a 10-play drive that was highlighted by a Doug Flutie-esque scramble to escape a sack before finding Steve Szwech for a 13-yard hook up and third and eleven. Three plays later, he found Scott Mathews for the game winning touchdown. It was his only catch of the day, but he made it count.
There is no telling what this game will mean to their season until the year is over, but if it ends in a trip to a certain professional Stadium in East Rutherford in early December, everyone will look at this game as the one that propelled them. It was just a great game full of big plays, questionable calls, hard hits, and a game winning two-minute drill.
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