Indians lose football finale

Like so many times in recent weeks, the Berkeley Springs High School Football Team found itself in a deep hole after the opening 15 minutes of the game, and once more they were unable to dig their way out, losing their final game of the year, 43-7, to Northern Garrett in Accident, Md. on Friday, October 28.

The Indians caught a break when they recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff at the Huskie 39 yard line, but four plays later, Northern intercepted a pass by Mark Cowles at their own 30 yard line, and made Berkeley pay.

On the very next play Northern's Josh Mason took a handoff and raced 70 yards to paydirt. The 2-point coversion was successful, giving the Huskies a quick 8-0 lead.

The next Indian drive ended in a punt and the Huskies took over at their own 28 yard line. On first down Northern ripped off another big run all the way down to the Berkeley Springs five yard line. On the next play Mason scored again, giving Northern Garrett a 14-0 lead with 6:49 remaining in the opening quarter.

The Huskies forced a three-and-out on Berkeley Springs’ next possession and took over at their own 36 following a nice punt by Derrick Swink.

They quickly pulled off another big run from scrimmage, but a holding call down field brought the ball back to their own 45 yard line. Alex Baker then took a handoff and out sprinted the Indian defense the final 55 yards, as Northern took a 20-0 lead with still 4:21 remaining in the first quarter.
Northern had five plays from scrimmage – all runs – for 206 yards of total offense, three touchdowns and 20-lead.

The Indians made defensive adjustments that limited Northern to only 11 yards of offense for the remainder of the half, and had an opportunity to cut into Northern's 20-0 lead in the final seconds.

The Indian scoring threat consumed 13 plays and covered over 60 yards. Most of the yardage came on the legs of tailback Zach White and fullback TJ Patrick. But, after Patrick ripped off a seven yard run to set up a first-and-goal from the Huskie 6-yard line, the Northern defense stiffened and stopped the Indians short of the goal line with just 28 seconds remaining in the half.

"A score there could have made a difference," said Berkeley Springs coach Angelo Luvara.

The second half could not have started better for the Indians, as senior wide receiver, and return specialist, Andrew Truax fielded the second-half kickoff and sprinted 81 yards to the end zone. Zach Wise added the PAT and just that quickly the Indians had cut Northern's lead to 13 points, 20-7.

But, the defense, that played so well in the second quarter, was unable to sustain the effort. Northern put together seven and 8-play scoring drives in the third quarter and then scored on a 4-yard touchdown pass with 10 minutes remaining to put the game on ice.

"We got behind and it was tough for us to run our offense effectively in those weather conditions," Luvara said of windy and snowy night.
Although the Indians, 2-8, ended the season with six consecutive losses, Luvara saw no quit in his team.

"I thought our kids played as hard as they could," Luvara said. “They faced a lot of adversity, but they never gave up. The effort was there until the final snap of the season."
Stats
BS NG
First downs 8 14
Rushing yards 30-120 49-229
Passing yards 2-13-29
6-10-35-1 td
Total yards 43-159 59-264
Ind. rushing - White 17-98; Patrick 7-38; William Colliflower 1-2; Cowles 5 (-20).
Receiving - Truax 2-29.
Tackles - AJ LaFollette 4, CJ Gosey 4, Steven Wolfe 4, Cody Burch 3, Matt Arrowood 3, Kyle Shambaugh 3, Preston Hovermale 3, Loguen McKee 3, Devin Gagey 3, Tyler McCumbee 2 and Richard Montelius 2.