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QUAKERTOWN - There was little doubt where the ball was going.
With 7.8 seconds left on the clock and the game on the line at the Hatboro-Horsham nine-yard line, everyone knew who was going to get the ball.
The Quakertown coaches, players and fans knew it. The Hatboro-Horsham coaches, players and fans knew it.Hatboro coach Dave Sanderson told his defense during the game’s final timeout what was going to happen.
“I told them, ‘They are going to throw the ball, it’s going to be some kind of boot, but 34 is going to get the ball,’” he said.
Quakertown ran the boot action and quarterback Kurtis Roberts lofted a pass in the direction of number 34 – the Panthers’ all-time offensive leader Tony Latronica.
The ball never got there because Hatter sophomore Casey Saverio picked it off at the one-yard line and preserved the Hatters’ 26-21 Suburban One Continental Conference victory over the previously unbeaten Panthers.
“We were thinking jet sweep,” Saverio said. “Then I saw Latronica come out into the flat, so I went out and covered him. (Latronica) wasn’t even looking and (Roberts) threw the ball and jumped the route and picked it off.”
“He was open,” Quakertown coach John Donnelly said of Latronica. “Kurtis was probably forced to throw a little earlier than he wanted and Tony’s head wasn’t around yet.”The play ended what would have been a miracle 87-yard drive in the game’s final one minute, 27 seconds that would have boosted Quakertown to 5-0.
The Hatters, who are now 3-2, overall and 2-0 in league play, were pretty much in control all night. Hatboro accumulated 306 yards on the ground on 52 running plays.
“It’s the old adage with the Wing-T – ‘Run the sweep until they weep,’” Donnelly said. “We couldn’t stop it.”
The Hatters scored on their first two possessions – a 10-yard run by Darryl
Neville and a one-yard sneak by quarterback Matt Hollenbeck – to put the Panthers back on their heels.
“It’s actually the old Buck Sweep,” Sanderson said. “It’s really our staple play, and I’ve been unhappy with the way we’ve run it. But Darryl is learning to run it and we’re learning how to block it. We want to establish it.”
Quakertown got one score back early in the second quarter after getting great field position on a bad Hatboro punt and covered the 36 yards on seven plays, the last one a three-yard keeper by Roberts.
But Hatboro responded immediately when Ryan Mullen made an amazing one-hand stab of a Matt Hollenbeck pass across the middle, then split the Quakertown secondary for a 66-yard touchdown reception to give the Hatters a 20-7 lead at intermission.
Quakertown pulled to within five points, 20-15, midway through the third period.
Latronica returned a Hatters’ punt to Hatboro’s 43 and then Roberts completed a five-play drive with a five-yard touchdown run.The Hatters seemed to put the game away early in the fourth period when Neville, who led the Hatters with 185 yards on 26 carries, capped a 10-play drive with a 10-yard scoring run to make 26-15 with 9:42 left.
“We ran four or five different fronts, we stunted to the tight side, but we just could not stop it,” Donnelly said of the H-H sweep. “The times we got in position to make tackles, we didn’t tackle well. And their backs are good.”
Quakertown closed the gap when Tyler Burke scored from two yards out with 6:18 remaining, but the Hatters then marched to the Quakertown 14 before giving the ball up on downs with 1:27 left – setting the stage for the Panthers’ late drive.
Roberts hit Nick Perrine on passes of 27 and 25 yards to get Quakertown deep in Hatboro territory. But with the clock running down and the Panthers facing a fourth-and-two with 7.8 seconds left, Donnelly dialed up the boot-action pass.
“It was a run-pass option to get (Roberts) on the edge where you have a chance to do a couple of different things,” Donnelly said.
“We got the play and we got the look that we wanted,” Donnelly said. “It just didn’t happen.”
HATBORO-HORSHAM 26, QUAKERTOWN 21
Hatboro-Horsham 12 8 0 6—26
Quakertown 0 7 8 6—21
Scoring
First quarter
H-H—Neville 10 run (kick failed)
H-H—Hollenbeck 1 run (pass failed)
Second quarter
Q—K.Roberts 3 run (Delan kick)
H-H—Mullen 66 pass from Hollenbeck (Dividio pass from Hollenbeck)
Third quarter
Q—K.Roberts 5 run (Roberts run)
Fourth quarter
H-H—Neville 10 run (pass failed)
Q—Burke 2 run (pass failed)
H-H Quakertown
First downs 19 16
Yards rushing 306 184
Yards passing 78 152
Total offense 384 336
Passing 5-3-1 24-11-1
Fumbles-lost 1-0 4-0
Penalties 5-35 6-61
Punts 3-20.3 3-28.6
RUSHING
Hatboro-Horsham—Neville 26-185, 2TD; Coyle 8-40; Dividio 6-37; C.Saverio 5-36;
Hollenbeck 6-6, TD; DeFazio 1-2.
Quakertown—Burke 8-75, TD; Latronica 16-56; Delan 7-35; Able 1-12; K.Roberts
8-6, 2TD.
PASSING
Hatboro-Horsham—Hollenbeck 5-3-1—78, TD
Quakertown—K.Roberts 24-11-1—152
RECEIVING
Hatboro-Horsham—Mullen 1-66, TD; Neville 1-9; Poston 1-3.
Quakertown—Perrine 3-66; Basile 3-40; Olimpo 2-27; Helm 1-11; Latronica 1-5;
M.Roberts 1-3.
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