After Postponement Kennett Takes Down Unionville in Battle of Route 82
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Willie McGonigle | October 13, 2024
EAST MARLBORO: When your schools are separated by a mere 3.3 miles and you share youth football program like Kennett and Unionville do it’s understandable that you look forward to playing each other every year. The Kennett Blue Demons and the Unionville Longhorns were supposed to renew their rivalry on Thursday evening but thanks to threats of violence on social media and for the safety of everyone involved the game was postponed. On Saturday Night the two rivals finally got to get at each other and in the end it was the visiting Blue Demons that walked away from Unionville Stadium with a hard-fought 32-15 victory.
“It was a mood killer we were all ready to rock Thursday, it took a lot out of us to take that day of rest.” Blue Demons’ Sr. RB Ian Guyer said of the postponement adding “It killed the mood on Friday, we got it back at our walk-through today, we’re just happy we got the job.”
While the scoreboard read a 17-point difference the Blue Demons and Longhorns were nearly evenly matched in every statistical category except two, the Longhorns were flagged for 11 penalties compared to only two for the Blue Demons and the Blue Demons forced two Longhorn interceptions one a piece by Drew Clancy and Hunter Taylor while the Blue Demons’ offense didn’t commit a single turnover on the evening.
“If you play a penalty-free game and you take care of the football, you give yourself a chance,” Blue Demons Head Coach Lance Frazier said adding, “I thought we were very opportunistic for how our defense was playing. We got the ball back in good spots and we were able to get the ball in the end zone when we needed to.”
After a scoreless first quarter of play the Blue Demons struck on the first play of the second quarter with a 20-yard pass from Garrett McCracken finding Conner Schumacher. On the PAT Taylor had trouble with the snap but kept his composure and managed to get to the Longhorn sideline and in the endzone to put the Blue Demons up 8-0.
On the ensuing drive, the Longhorns responded with a seven-play 78-yard drive that was capped with a 32-yard touchdown scamper by Brody McLaughlin cutting the Blue Demons’ lead down to 8-7.
On the next Longhorn drive, Taylor intercepted McLaughlin and on the very next play from scrimmage, Aiden Ritch found the endzone from 19 yards out putting the Blue Demons up 15-7 at halftime.
In the third quarter a mere couple of hours after his older brother Ryan played hero in the Penn State at USC, Kennett’s Shay Barker showed that he has just as powerful leg booting a 39-yard field goal to extend the Blue Demons lead to 18-7 after three quarters of play.
Joalex Carbajal extended the Blue Demons lead with his 9-yard touchdown to put them up 25-15.
The Longhorns pulled to within 10 when McLaughlin connected with Tristan Mcllrath for 14-yard touchdown making it 25-15.
McCracken put the icing on the Blue Demons victory with a one-yard sneak with 2:04 left to play.
The Blue Demons have reeled off three consecutive victories and currently sit at 4-3 on the season and next week they host Avon Grove. The Longhorns fall 5-3 and will look to get back into the win column when they travel to Sun Valley. Both games kick off Friday at 7 pm.
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