Hackley 24 - King 12: Big Plays Propel Hackley Football in Battle of Unbeatens

By Bill Sweeney: The navy blue and gold King & Low-Heywood Thomas School football team travelled from Stamford, Connecticut to Pickert Field on Saturday, October 20th to play the black and silver Hackley Hornets in a huge battle of two unbeaten divisional rivals. The weather was mischievous; we expected cool, fall crispness, but we incurred a warm, summer-like day. It was fantastic to see our previous head football coach and Hall-of-Famer, Rob Pickert at Pickert Field on Saturday to watch his favorite team in the Battle of the Unbeatens. Also in attendance at the game were Coach Negron and Coach Plato.

Well into the first quarter, the mood was tense. Their players looked much bigger than ours. They might wear us down by the fourth quarter. Our offensive line of left tackle Ben Jurcic, left guard Brandon DiFalco, center Jake Israel, right guard Zach Reeber, and right tackle James O’Keefe faced a stacked interior defense of 3 rows of 3 facing them in the middle. Occasionally, Luke Sweeney would pull up from his slot back position and help out by playing tight end next to Ben. Much would depend on this line.

Our defense hit them very hard and often. They coughed up the ball a lot during the game. They fumbled on their first play from scrimmage, but recovered. On the second play, Jake Israel made a huge hit on their running back. On the third play, Luke Sweeney recovered a fumble on their 1-foot line. Unfortunately, our offense was hampered by a few penalties, and we were pushed away from the goal line. Also, we were having some difficulty with our passing game. Alabaster tried a 20-yard field goal, but missed due to a low snap. On the first play of the next defensive series, Sweeney caused another fumble, but they recovered. They fumbled again on the third play of the drive. So they punted. Then, quarterback McDermott ran 17-yards on the first play. But, on third down, he was sacked. So, Alabaster punted on fourth down. The punt went 37 yards and past the end zone for a touchback. On their first play, a King runner sped 70-yards, and Mustafaa Dais caught up to and tackled him 10-yards shy of the end zone. A King Low touchdown was called back due to a penalty. Milo Lampert had two consecutive stops. Then, on third and goal, Brad Seem made a tackle for a 7-yard loss. At the end of the first quarter, neither team had scored.

At the beginning of the second quarter, their passing game seemed ineffective with three incompletions. They were clearly not a passing team. A hard count by McDermott caused their defense to go off-sides. Reeber and Voss were throwing great blocks. We were helped by a personal foul penalty by King Low. Mustafaa Dais caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Joey McDermott with 4:18 left in the second quarter. Sam Alabaster kicked the PAT. Alabaster tried an on-side kickoff; the ball bounced off a King Low player’s leg and Brad Seem recovered the pigskin on the 50-yard line. A penalty pushed us back fifteen yards. Parnell and McDermott both had fifteen yard runs. Henry Molner had a great block. Parnell had some good runs. Then, McDermott scored on a 1-yard touchdown run. Sam Alabaster kicked another PAT. We were up by 14-0 at half-time.

In the third quarter, we fumbled a punt due to a low snap, and they recovered on our 6-yard line. On the next play, King Low’s Joey Santoro scored on a 6-yard touchdown run. Their PAT kick hit the cross bar and bounced away. McDermott was sacked for a loss of 10 yards. A 10-yard pass to Dais was enhanced with an unsportsmanlike call against King Low that put us on their 36-yard line. On third down, Coach Treglia called a trick play: McDermott passed to Dais who was in the backfield; Dais made a lateral to Parnell who swept around to the outside, and with his great speed zoomed into the end zone for a 36-yard score. Alabaster kicked the PAT. On the next series, there was an outstanding defensive play from the 43-yard line of King Low on a 4th down and 12 yards to go for a first down: Parnell was rushing the quarterback and almost sacked him; the pass somehow did get off. The ball flew deep. Mustafaa Dais, at the very last second, tipped the ball out of the receiver’s grasp. Hackley took the ball on downs. A 36-yard pass to Parnell put us on the 8-yard line. Alabaster hit a 5-yard field goal with 1:40 left in the third. Hackley led at the end of the third quarter by 24-6.

In the fourth quarter, King Low’s Santoro scored a touchdown with a 30-yard run. Their two-point conversion failed. Jake Israel recovered a fumble on the Hackley 40-yard line. Dylan Garvey andLuke Sweeney finished them off as both had interceptions. The final score was Hackley 24 King Low 12. Hackley remains unbeaten with three games remaining on the regular season schedule.

The Overall Player of the Game was Ian Parnell who rushed for 128 yards on 16 carries. He caught 3 passes for 73 yards, and was an intimidating force on defense. Samuel Alabaster was the Offensive Player of the Game with three PAT’s and a field goal. In addition, he kicked-off five times, including kicks of 54 and 40 yards, and contributed 3 on-side kicks (Hackley recovered the first one.) He punted three times for 37 yards (a touchback,) 43 yards (fair catch,) and 37 yards. The Defensive Player of the Game goes to defensive end Brad Seem for his tough interior defensive play with 7 tackles including a couple for losses of big yardage, and a fumble recovery.

Last week, the Journal News reported that Hackley Varsity Football was ranked 23 in Westchester County. Also, Max Preps ranked Hackley Football on 10/16/12 at 196 in New York State, and 6,691 nationally. All those numbers should decrease after such a huge win against a previously unbeaten team on Saturday. Stay tuned!

The next game is against Hopkins School at Pickert Field on Saturday, October 27th at 2:00 PM. This game will be the last home game for the senior class. At halftime, we will hold a short ceremony in honor of the senior parents. Hope to see you at the game!

Authors Note: My wife Jean and I will be two of those senior parents.