HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL - WEEK 7 CULBERTSON GETS RECORD BUT HURRICANE GETS WIN
Publication: THE
Published: 10/08/2005
Page: 1C
Headline: HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL - WEEK 7 CULBERTSON GETS RECORD BUT HURRICANE
GETS WIN
Byline: RICK RYAN
rickryan@wvgazette.com
HURRICANE - The game plan for Hurricane was simple: Hog the ball, work time off
the clock and limit the touches for Nitro running back and Kennedy Award
favorite Josh Culbertson.
That's just what the Redskins did Friday night, although they did cut it a
little close - OK, make it way too close.
Jered Chapman fired a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jake
Fields with four seconds left, giving the Redskins a thrilling 23-21 upset
victory over No. 2 Nitro in front of a near-capacity crowd at Redskins Stadium,
which sat through a game-long drizzle.
"I'm just glad it's over," said a smiling Redskins coach Willis May.
"I hate going up against [Nitro coach Scott Tinsley]. He does a
wonderful job. But my staff did a good job this week. We really didn't put in a
whole lot of stuff for them. We really didn't. We just stressed tackling
defensively and putting a hat on a hat offensively, trying to do our
jobs."
Culbertson, who carried 31 times for 264 yards and one touchdown, broke the
state career rushing record of Weir's Quincy Wilson on a 28-yard run late in
the second quarter. But Nitro (6-1) ran 25 fewer plays than Hurricane (3-3),
which utilized a double-wing running formation to control the ball much of the
night.
The running of Culbertson carried Nitro to a 14-6 halftime lead and the
Wildcats stretched that to 21-6 with their opening drive of the third quarter,
moving 67 yards to score on Michael Scott's 18-yard pass to Gideon Casto.
With the way Hurricane's offense was methodically moving the ball - 4 yards
here, 5 yards there - it didn't look like the Redskins had enough time to come
back. But they managed to score on all three of their second-half possessions.
Matt Pelto, a 350-pound offensive lineman who moves
into the backfield on goal-line situations, plowed into the end zone on a
1-yard run in the third quarter and followed with a 2-point conversion run to
bring the Redskins within 21-14.
After Matt Hartsog picked off a Scott pass at
midfield, Hurricane wound up with a 36-yard field goal from Derek Moore with
9:20 remaining, lowering the lead to 21-17.
Nitro's next drive (which proved to be its final possession) started favorably
and reached as far as the Hurricane 39-yard line. But a procedure penalty and
two runs for no gain by Culbertson led to a punt that pinned the Redskins on
their 9 with four minutes left.
Not only was that enough time to get the job done, the Redskins continued to do
it their way. With short running plays.
Ten straight carries, the longest a 16-yard gain by Joe Lamanca,
moved the ball to the Nitro 24 with less than 40 seconds left. On third-and-5, Lamanca took an option pitch from Chapman nine yards to the
15 and Hurricane called its final timeout with seven seconds showing.
"We knew we had to run the football on them," May said. "We knew
we had to keep their offense off the field. By keeping ball control and
continuing the drives, all we wanted was to give ourselves a chance at the
end."
Chapman, who sat out the first series because a leg injury had caused him to miss
practice the week before the game, stood in the shotgun formation for the final
play. He took the snap and waited a few seconds, then drilled a laser to Fields
between two defenders in the front of the end zone.
"We knew they were spreading the field [with defenders]," Chapman
said. "They had three down linemen and everybody else was spread out over
the field, kind of like checkers. They all had their own little spot.
"In one spot in the middle of the field, it's wide open. They didn't have
anybody dropping back. They had one person dropping back to the field-goal
post. About 2 yards into the end zone, we had a receiver go there and do a
slant pattern and he did. We're lucky to come out with
the win."
Fields said he was just fortunate to be the one in Chapman's sights.
"I knew I had to get in between and behind the linebackers in the end
zone," he said. "It was a clutch play, but me
or any of the other receivers on the team would have made the catch. It was a
well-called play and we had to do it. It was a must-have catch."
Just four seconds remained, giving Nitro only a chance to return the ensuing
kickoff. About six laterals ensued before the Wildcats were pushed out of
bounds near the Hurricane 40, but a flag had already been thrown for an illegal
forward pass.
Tinsley, like many others, wondered if Hurricane had enough time to work
its game-ending magic.
"I thought they were eventually going to have to throw it," Tinsley
said, "and they did on the last play. We had five guys back there and they
just made a good play. I thought if they didn't break anything real long, it
would be hard for them to go all the way to the end zone with it."
Before his winning TD toss, Chapman had completed just 1-of-7 passes for
minus-4 yards and had two intercepted. Hurricane ran the ball 58 times for 282
yards, led by Lamanca (128 yards on 24 carries) and
fullback Bruce Collins (97 yards on 16 carries).
"Those guys just stepped up," May said, "and our whole line did
a wonderful job. We've been running the football all year. We've just got to
find a way to keep sticking it into the end zone.
"We had all the confidence in the world we'd go down and score right there
at the end. All we wanted was a shot."
To contact staff writer Rick Ryan, use e-mail or call 348-5175.