South Park beats Ellwood City advances to Championship for first time since 2005
Tagged under: District 7, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs
Andrew Schaffer | November 15, 2024
For the first time since 2005 South Park is heading WPIAL 2A Championship. They got there with a 28-7 victory over Ellwood City. “I gotta soak it in here a little bit, it was definitely our goal at the beginning of the year to get down there, now we just got some new goals to set, I’m proud of our guys, I’m proud of the effort our guys put in, last November losing in the Quarterfinals, we said to not let that feeling happen again, they’re holding true to it right now, we’re gonna get back to work and we’ll see what happens” said Coach Abbey
South Park was going to get the ball to start the game with the ball but the ball was mishandled and Ellwood City recovered. The drive started at the South Park 21 yard line. On the third play Chris Smiley found found Dailonn Currie for an 18 yard touchdown pass to make it 7-0 Ellwood City with 11:15 in the first quarter.
South Park started their first drive at their own 24 yard line but they struggled to run the ball and went three and out.
Ellwood City started their second drive on their own 23 yard line. They were moving the ball with success a run by Elijah Palmer-Mccane got them to midfield. Later in the drive though a ball was intercepted in the end zone.
That interception was certainly a change in momentum for South Park. “They’ve done a great job of moving on to the next play, we do a lot of self inflicted things to kind of put ourselves behind, but they always overcome it, it is the veteran aspect of our team, their ability to learn from what they’ve done, we always talk about having a growth mindset, it held true tonight they were able to overcome that” said Coach Abbey.
South Park got the ball at their own 20 yard line and started to get things going and on sixth play of the drive Colsen Heynes scored on a 37 yard touchdown run which tied the score at 7 with 36 seconds left in the first quarter.
Two key plays that got the drive going was 2 big runs by Eric Doerue in the wildcat formation. “The wildcat has kind of sparked us all year, we go to it at times, sometimes more so than others, we got out to a slow start and Eric has been a spark plug for us for years now, so to get him going there, I think that got some momentum going for sure” said Coach Abbey.
On the next drive Ellwood City went backwards on offense with South Park getting a couple sacks and Ellwood City had to punt it away.
South Park got the ball at the Ellwood City 48 yard line and on the first play Eric Doerue was off to the races for a 48 yard touchdown run which gave South Park a 14-7 lead with 10:50 in the second quarter.
Doerue was a key player on offense for South Park he had 138 yards rushing on 26 carries. “I can’t explain it, he’s a special player, fortunate to be a member of our football program, he’s a stand up kid and just a tremendous ball player on both sides of the ball offensively and defensively he should be playing on Saturday’s next year” said Coach Abbey.
Later in the quarter South Park had a good drive going and got into Ellwood City territory but a couple of penalties stalled the drive and they punted it away.
Late in the second quarter Ellwood City had a good drive going and was inside the South Park 20 yard line but the drive ended with a big turnover and Ellwood City came up with zero points. 14-7 would be the score at halftime.
Ellwood City got the ball to start the second half and the drive started at their own 11 yard line. A big play that forced a punt by Ellwood City was a Troy Cunningham sack. Cunningham had a monster night on defense who had a school record 6 sacks in the game. “He had a game, Troy’s had a tremendous season, growing each week, growing each year, he’s another one of our go to guys, he sets that tone up front and everyone else follows” said Coach Abbey.
South Park started their first drive of the second half at the Ellwood City 42 yard line. On the fourth play they capitalized on that great field position on a 30 yard touchdown run by Colsen Heynes which made the score 21-7 South Park with 8:34 in the third quarter. Heynes also had a big night for South Park he had 151 yards rushing on 5 carries.
Late in the third quarter South Park took full control of the game when Eric Doerue scored on a 1 yard touchdown run. A big 38 yard catch by himself set up the touchdown. “Once we got out of halftime we were ready to go” said Doerue.
The score at the end of three was 28-7 South Park. The fourth quarter was more of the same with South Park dominating on defense. Ellwood City’s last drive ended with a fumble. “We knew it was going to be tough upfront, that’s where the game is won so for us to be able to win the game upfront, it’s been the goal all year and we came through we beat ourselves a lot early in the game, but upfront that’s where we get it done, I’m proud of those guys” said Coach Abbey
The final score was 28-7 South Park. With the win they advance to the WPIAL 2A Championship and will play Seton LaSalle at Acrisure Stadium next Saturday at 2pm. “We’re confident , just go in there, get a good week of work and try to bring one home” said Eric Doerue.
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