York Catholic run attack buries Biglerville
The desperation could be seen in Biglerville's final drive, the one that ended on the York Catholic sidelines with a Canners receiver and an Irish defensive back fighting for a pass. York Catholic won the fight for the pass, coming away with an interception with six seconds left to play to seal York Catholic's 27-20 victory.
The desperation could be seen in the reaction of York Catholic coach Eric Depew, frantically waving his arms in the air at the hometown fans in the final seconds.
And the desperation could be seen afterward as Biglerville coach Alex Ramos exchanged words with a York Catholic assistant coach.
Each team desperately wanted to win this game, but York Catholic (3-4, 3-1 YAIAA Division III) managed to ride its running game (203 yards) and timely passes (just five completions but one for a score) to the win, handing Biglerville (4-3, 3-1) its first loss to a division opponent.
"It's a big game, big game — a big win," Depew said.
"I think we're definitely building. ... We're trying to get out of the pit we're in, and this was a great win."
Rotating jet sweeps with quarterback keepers, Jakkar Kinnard ran for a game-high 108 yards on 23 carries, and quarterback Dan Yokemick had similar results rushing for 87 yards.
"At halftime we talked about, if we lose this game that is basically it for us for playoffs, division title that was basically it," Kinnard said. "This was basically our season right here."
Biglerville never led, but the teams rotated scoring touchdowns all game.
The Canners battled, it seemed, all second half to recover from a personal foul called for roughing the kicker on a punt that would have ended a three-and-out series on the first possession of the third quarter. As York Catholic's punter rolled out to avoid pressure, he attempted an awkward rugby-style kick while being hit. The bouncing punt dribbled only about 10 yards. Instead of receiving the ball near midfield, Biglerville's defense stayed on the field as York Catholic extended the drive and ultimately pinned the Canners inside their own 10-yard line. Ramos thought the hit was legal since the punter was running with the ball near the sideline.
"I hate standing here and making excuses ... man, it seemed awful lopsided tonight as far as calls went," said Ramos, who said he expected lopsided officiating before the game even started.
"I told the guys in the room, when we step on their field we're 10 points down off the bus, we better make it up. We didn't."
Biglerville's Ben Hurda completed 17-of-32 passes for 218 yards, but Biglerville never got on track with its running game, using five players to total 112 yards rushing.
"I don't think we were staying on our blocks long enough," Ramos said.
Biglerville's biggest missed opportunity came when a drive inside the York Catholic 10-yard line stalled on a false start penalty and ended with a missed 28-yard field goal attempt with 6:41 to play.
Contact Jim Seip at 771-2025.
York Catholic 27, Biglerville 20
Biglerville01307—20York Catholic7677—27
First Quarter
YC — Brandon Creisher 5 run (Luke Brennan kick), :25.
Second Quarter
Big — Colton Sentz 1 run (Colton Sentz kick), 7:07.
YC — Riley Brennan 13 pass from Dan Yokemick (kick failed), 2:40.
Big — Scott Cooper 20 pass from Ben Hurda (kick blocked), :35.
Third Quarter
YC — Yokemick 6 run (Brennan kick), 3:26.
Fourth Quarter
Big — Dayne Showers 10 run (Colton Sentz), 11:32.
YC — Yokemick 17 run (Brennan kick), 2:12.
BigYCFirst downs1719Rushes-yards27-11248-203Passing17-32-15-11-1Passing yards21871Total yards330274Punts4-29.33-25Fumbles-lost0-01-0Penalties-yards6-604-19
Individual statistics
Rushing — Big, Sentz 11-44, Showers 6-25, Cooper 5-23, Hurda 4-19, Curtis Malakai 1-1. YC, Jakkar Kinard 23-108, Yokemick 23-87, Creisher 2-8.
Passing — Big, Hurda 17-32-1 218. YC, Yokemick 5-11-1 71.
Receiving — Big, Nate Newberry 6-82, Gage McAuliffe 4-74, Cooper 5-55, Showers 2-7. YC, Brennan 2-28, Luke Brennan 2-26, Creisher 1-17.