Way to Go, Flags!!!

From Ed Case:

WEEK 6

On the road for the second time this year, Kutztown took on the Hamburg Hawks.  This was the first time our kids had a chance to play on artificial turf.  The Blue team taking on a much bigger Hamburg team had a rough start to the game.  Hamburg was able to score on very long runs and went up two touchdowns to zero.  Once the kids started to focus, we were able to put together our first of 3 scores.  The first score was by Noah Delp, as he was able to break into the secondary and streak up the right sideline for the first score.  Other highlights included a broken play where Bryce Bachman initially headed right and changed direction looping around to the left and taking the ball straight up the middle for a 75 yard TD score.  Noah Delp had a great block down field on the outside to clear a path for Bryce as he made his way into the end zone for an extra point.  With the Hawks up 4-2 in touchdowns, first year player Chase Sleboda took the ball up the left side making several Hawk players miss him as he took the ball the distance for Kutztown’s final score.   To cap off the drive, Chase raced into the end zone for the 2 point conversion.  

The White team playing on the opposite field had some early catching up to do from Hamburg’s two long break away runs in the first half.  Some highlights included first year teammates stringing some nice runs together with Tucker Hilliard’s exciting 12 yard run and Nate Montayne’s 15 yard run.  Colton Mathias had a long run for a first down that was chased down at the 10 yard line by the very fast Hamburg defense.  Unfortunately, the cougars were stopped by the Hamburg defense and were unable to deliver a TD in the first half.  In the second half, Edison Case scored on a long run and defensively Kutztown kept Hamburg in check giving up only one touchdown.  Defensive flag pulls for Kutztown went to RJ Batarick (5), Edison Case(5), Wyatt Slostad(2), Allen Whitmore(1).  

WEEK 7

At home, Kutztown took on the Schuylkill Valley Panthers on a wet and muddy Saturday morning.  The Blue teams’ game started off great with Andrew Schell running 60 yards before being taken down at the 15 yard line.  Noah Delp finished the drive as he ran a sweep to the right taking it in for the first score.  Schuylkill Valley tried to even the score when they had the ball at the 5 yard line, and with a total team effort, the Cougars denied them a score.   Another highlight included a 75 yard TD run by Bryce Bachman at running back making several players miss him just before the halftime.  To start the second half, the Cougars opened the lead when Bryce Bachman took the snap at quarterback and started running left and reversed his direction and went right making several Panthers miss tackles en-route to another 75 yard score.  That touchdown was the deciding factor in Kutztown taking the lead for good, which is really good considering most of the game Kutztown played with one less player.  This week Kutztown started doing extra points to get the younger kids involved in scoring.   Although we didn’t score on any extra points, first year players Logan O’Donnell, William Hugi, and Chase Sleboda showed a lot of determination in running the ball in against a lot bigger and faster kids.

The Cougars’ White team playing on the opposite field had a great match up with the panthers.  The cougars were off to a very slow defensive first half with many missed, slippery flags and fell behind 3 touchdowns to 1.  Edison Case had a 25 yard TD in the first half to put the cougars on the scoreboard.  After half time and a good pep talk by the Cougar coaches, Kutztown came on the field as a completely different team stopping SV from not only a single second half TD, but denying a single SV first down as well.  Kutztown would go on to even things up with two 2nd half touchdowns as Colton Mathias scored a TD on a long run and Colin Hamm scoring a TD as well.  From a defensive perspective, Colin Hamm was on fire and flag hungry with a white team 2012 season record of 8 flag pulls in a single game!!!  Colin led the spark for the Cougars and helped to keep the game even.  Other flag pulls went to Logan Lichtenwalner(3), Edison Case(3), Dylan Teel(1), Colton Mathias(1) and Nate Montayne(1).   

Keep up the great work Kutztown Cougars!!!