ALMEDIA – Most football teams and coaches have that “next man up” mentality when it comes to injuries. Those happen in football, and when someone is out due to an injury, whoever plays in his place is expected to step in.
However, there comes a time when a team may have too many injuries to sustain what is an expected performance. For Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech, it may have reached that point.
CMVT had already lost two running backs for the season, as well as three offensive and defensive linemen, and as a result, was forced to adapt to almost exclusively a passing offense the last two weeks, which is the opposite of the ground and pound offense it usually runs. In an effort to at least balance it out and make his offense less predictable, CMVT head coach Mark Varner decided to move senior Matthew Allen from receiver to the offensive backfield for Saturday’s game against Jenkintown.
For one drive, it looked like it might work, as the Rams scored on that drive and led Jenkintown after a quarter. But Allen unfortunately joined the Rams’ injury parade at the end of that scoring drive, and in addition to once again hurting the offense, his absence on defense proved to be even more significant as the Drakes proceeded to score on their next seven possessions after CMVT’s first quarter touchdown, and the Drakes walked away with a 55-22 victory.
“I should just come out and not run any back I guess,” joked Varner. “Matthew was all ready and started out the game so well but unfortunately, he’s the leader of our defense and then when he went out on offense that really hurt as well. I feel so bad for him, he worked so hard, but hopefully he’ll be back for next week.
“I was extremely happy in the second half. Half of the team was freshmen in there and they played their hearts out and they may have been in the wrong gap or the wrong spot or come up when they should have gone back but they gave us full effort. Unfortunately, I think what has happened is when a starter goes down, the kids are little bit in shock and they’re almost ‘oh, no, what do we do?’ Instead of just doing their job and rallying around the guy that goes in. But that’s tough, these are kids and when a team leader like Tyson (Brown) or Matthew goes down, it’s a shock to their system, but it’s next man up, we’ll keep coaching them up, but yes, I’m running out of running backs.”
The Rams’ put together an eight-play, 67-yard drive with Allen out of the backfield that ended with a 33-yard touchdown pass from Myles Koser to Axton Koser and a successful two-point conversion that gave the Rams an 8-7 lead that they would hold as the first quarter ended.
But Allen visibly threw up after picking up six yards on the play preceding the touchdown pass, and he left and did not return to the game.
Jenkintown then put together a six-play, 62-yard drive capped by a 32-yard touchdown pass from Liam McIntyre to Manny Bowens on the first play of the second quarter, and the Drakes would not trail again.
Combined with its first touchdown of the game in the first quarter, Jenkintown actually scored on its first eight possessions of the game before missing a field goal and then turning it over on downs in the fourth quarter when the game was in the mercy rule. And the Drakes did so despite amassing fewer than 400 total yards – just 382.
That was largely the product of some advantageous field position. Jenkintown took over possession four times in CMVT territory, and not just on the other side of midfield but deep on the Rams’ side. On four of Jenkintown’s next five possessions, beginning at the 10:47 mark of the second quarter, the Drakes took over on the CMVT 16, 10, 16 and 24-yard lines.
Not surprisingly, all four drives were short and ended with touchdowns. Three possessions took just three plays to reach the end zone, and the other required just a single play. The other drive in that sequence began near midfield on Jenkintown’s own 49, but that drive, too, required just a single play to end with a touchdown, a 51-yard strike from McIntye to Wesley Ritter.
By the time Quinn Eichert recorded his third touchdown run of the second quarter with just :26 remaining in the half, Jenkintown had opened up a 48-8 halftime lead. Eichert would record a fourth rushing touchdown on the Drakes’ first possession of the third quarter after receiving the second half kickoff, and he would end his day with 90 yards on 11 carries.
“Matthew is a big part of our defense,” said Varner. “He keeps the edge and it’s very hard to get outside of him but when he went out, they just got the edge at will. And then when you start moving guys around, you weaken two spots and it just snowballed in the first half. Once we got everyone calmed down at halftime and made some adjustments, it went better, but it’s a tough situation when guys go down.”
The Rams did manage to notch a pair of second half touchdowns despite its lack of a running game after the first quarter. Myles Koser, who himself missed a pair of offensive possessions due to injury in the first half, returned in the second half and threw for 147 of his 194 yards, hitting Axton Koser for another touchdown from 30 yards out late in the third quarter, and then Blake Sponenberg for a 68-yard score in the fourth quarter. Sponenberg stretched out to make a near one-handed catch in full stride without slowing down and then used his speed to outrun two pursuing defenders in a highlight-reel moment.
Jenkintown 55, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 22
Jenkintown (3-3) 7 41 7 0 – 55
CMVT (3-3) 8 0 6 8 – 22
First quarter
8:29 – (J) Manny Bowens 11-yard run (White kick), 4-57, 1:47
3:50 – (VT) Axton Koser 33-yard pass from Myles Koser (Steward pass from M. Koser), 8-67, 4:39
Second quarter
11:51 – (J) Manny Bowens 32-yard pass from Liam McIntyre (Ritter pass from McIntyre), 6-62, 3:59
10:37 – (J) Quinn Eichert 16-yard run (White kick), 1-16, :10
8:57 – (J) Liam McIntyre 2-yard run (run failed), 3-10, :37
5:01 – (J) Quinn Eichert 11-yard run (kick failed), 3-16, 1:23
2:54 – (J) Wesley Ritter 51-yard pass from Liam McIntyre (White kick), 1-51, :09
:26 – (J) Quinn Eichert 24-yard run (White kick), 3-24, :18
Third quarter
6:26 – (J) Quinn Eichert 13-yard run (White kick), 8-58, 5:34
1:27 – (VT) Axton Koser 30-yard pass from Myles Koser (pass failed), 7-67, 4:59
Fourth quarter
5:42 – (VT) Blake Sponenberg 68-yard pass from Myles Koser (A. Koser pass from M. Koser), 3-80, 1:58
Statistics
J VT
First downs 17 7
Rushes-net yards 28-164 24-(-10)
Passing yardage 218 194
Passing 9-16-2-0 6-15-3-0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 4-1
Penalties-yards 9-80 8-42
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Jenkintown: Quinn Eichert (11-90-4), Liam McIntyre (7-2-1), Manny Bowens (6-90-1), Wesley Ritter (2-4), Andreas Kergides (1-(-5)), Team (1-(-17)); CMVT: Keegan Moyer (8-(-6)), Matthew Allen (6-15), Axton Koser (4-(-3)), Myles Koser (3-1), Team (3-(-17))
PASSING: Jenkintown: Liam McIntyre (9-16-218-2-0); CMVT: Myles Koser (6-14-194-3-0), Axton Koser (0-1-0-0-0)
RECEIVING: Jenkintown: Andreas Kergides (4-66), Manny Bowens (2-71-1), Wesley Ritter (2-62-1), Branden Saunders (1-19); CMVT: Axton Koser (2-63-2), Jason McCarty (2-49), Blake Sponenberg (1-68-1), Matthew Allen (1-14)