Avonworth starts fast with a big win over Neshannock @Nesh_Sports @AvonworthFB

Tagged under: District 7, Gameday Hub, News

PFN Staff | August 26, 2019

Mark Ross

With the 2018 season not finishing the way that they had hoped the Avonworth Antelopes left little doubt they are all business heading into the 2019 season. “We are playing with a chip on our shoulder, we are a veteran team, our goal is to win the WPIAL, and states – we didn’t like the way the season ended last year” said senior leader Jax Miller. “We feel like we are being overlooked, we wanted to come out and set the tone right from the start.” Behind a veteran line, new quarterback Park Penrod came out throwing hitting many early throws that kept the Neshannock defense on their heels for most of the first half. Miller started the scoring with a 4 yard TD run, then later Penrod hit newcomer Kyros Thorpe with a 61 yard TD pass to extend the lead to 14-0. “This was an important game for us” said Senior two way lineman Josh Elm. “This game has developed into a rivalry game over the past two years, our line played well tonight we have guys like McKinney, Bouvy, and Felter that really stepped up and played great. We picked it up in camp – we felt as an O-Line we had to come out and get after it right away.” Closing out the scoring at the end of the second quarter was Theo Newhouse who hauled in another great pass from Penrod from 9 yards out to make the score 21-0 at the half.

For as good as the offense looked in the first half the defense looked even better. Led by a ball hawking secondary, and a defensive line that pressured and harassed Neshannock most of the 1st half resulting in multiple turnovers, this Avonworth team looks a lot different than the one from last year. One player that stood out throughout the first half was playmaker cornerback Andrew Tedesco “Every play we all want to make the play, we want to play as physical as we can, we want to set the tone, creating turnovers, or making the big hit – which we did tonight, we practice this – we work on drills in practice to create turnovers and it works, it showed tonight.

Neshannock closed out the scoring for the night scoring on a short TD run but that would be as close as the Lancers would get as Miller took over in the second half as the Antelope ground game imposed its will. “This was a great win, it was important for us to come out fast as a team, we have 19 seniors – tonight was important for us, said senior linebacker Jake Horigan, “I am excited for this season, we hit the weight room hard during the off season, we worked hard – we are ready.”

Next week Avonworth will stay home for another home game against Valley, while Neshannock will try to regroup with a home game against Riverside. Said Elm “We need to keep this momentum, we had the momentum last year but let it get away from us, it’s a win now season – we got a lot of seniors we need to get it done now.”

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