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COATESVILLE –J.D. Dzurko, banged up and tired, made the slow trek off the field after North Penn’s heartbreaking 19-10 loss to Ridley in Friday night’s District One AAAA title game at Coatesville High School. “I’d like to point out I’m never coming back to this field again,” the Knights’ standout offensive lineman said. “It’s bad luck.”
Dzurko might be onto something.
It was, after all, on that very same field a year earlier that the Knights also saw their season come to an end - that time in a 21-14 loss to Bethlehem Liberty in the Eastern Final.
“It does seem that we are a victim of luck,” Dzurko said. “We haven’t won day games in a while. We haven’t won here ever. It stinks, but we can’t use that as an excuse.
“We had to come out and play our game, and we didn’t tonight.”
The Green Raiders had something to do with the Knights’ woes, playing a punishing style of defense that the Knights had not seen before this season, but as Dzurko noted, luck – the bad kind – also played a part.
How else could you explain losing Ralphie Reeves to an ankle injury after an illegal chop block less than three minutes into the game?
“He’s probably our best player,” Knight quarterback Todd Smolinsky said. “He went down, and that affects offense and defense.
“We had lots of guys step up. They played well – when you lose a player like that and still stay in it the entire time, it’s a really a credit to people stepping up.”
Reeves – who plays tight end and linebacker – went down during the Knights’ second offensive series.
“It was a blitz,” he said. “I was going through the ‘A’ gap, and he came down and chopped me and kind of rolled on my ankle.
“I got up and tried to walk it off, but it was not happening. I could not walk. I was hoping to go back in. I was going to try and jog it off, but there was no way I could come back. It hurt way too bad.”
The Green Raiders received a 15-yard penalty for the chop block, but the price tag was far higher for the Knights, who lost their sophomore star for the night.
“It was awful,” said Reeves, who came out of halftime on crutches. “It’s always tough to watch your team play and not be able to contribute. It was the worst feeling I have ever had.”
It wasn’t long before Reeves was joined on the sidelines by teammate Brenden Mercer. The junior running back had the longest play from scrimmage in the game, an electrifying 64-yard run during a drive that ultimately wound up with Dylan Harris booting a 32-yard field goal. While Reeves sat on the bench with an ice pack taped to his sore ankle, Mercer had an ice pack on his injured shoulder.
If that wasn’t enough, junior running back Craig Needhammer was forced to play with a shoulder injury, and senior fullback/linebacker Mike Culbreath was knocked out momentarily on the final play of the third quarter and was lost for the remainder of the game.
Suddenly and without warning, the Knights – after a 13-game stretch where very little went wrong - found themselves in a 48-minute game where nothing went right.
“It seemed like every time something good happened, something bad happened,” said Smolinsky, who – in addition to playing quarterback - filled in for Reeves at linebacker. “We just couldn’t break through.
“Normally, when something would go wrong this season, we’d come back and make a big play, but they didn’t let that happen tonight.”
A telling sequence late in the first half effectively captured the story of the night.
North Penn – behind the superb play of Smolinsky – drove 80 yards in just over two minutes for a score that culminated with a spectacular grab by Dom Taggart for a 31-yard touchdown. The Dylan Harris extra point put the Knights on top 10-6 with 39 seconds remaining.
That lead was short-lived.
A 92-yard return by Alex Nicolino on the ensuing kickoff sent the Green Raiders into halftime with a 13-10 lead.
It was that kind of night for the Knights.
“This is horrible right now,” Smolinsky said. “But we’ll realize it eventually, I guess, what a special season it was after coming in without really any expectations.
“We played well all year, and we played our worst game in the most important game of the year.”
Some credit for that has to go to Ridley’s defense.
“They had an amazing defense,” Dzurko said. “They flew to the ball, they played physical, they stayed low – they did everything our defense does, and we were having trouble with it.
“(People) said - this is probably the best defense in the state, and we just couldn’t get things going. They were a great team. I have to give them all the credit.”
Knowing they lost to a good team didn’t make the loss any less painful for the Knights’ football family.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Reeves said. “We played good, we played tough, but it’s hard not to be able to contribute, to sit there and watch.
“We just have to come back next year and rebuild and try and have a good season like we did last year.”
No one was expecting anyone to be talking about next year after Friday’s game, but then again, no one was expecting things to go bad at the most inopportune time for the high-flying Knights.
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