Big plays lift Academy Park to victory over Unionville

EAST MARLBOROUGH—The Unionville defense played tough all night, but a couple of big plays by Academy Park spelled the difference in the Knights’ 12-7 victory on the road at Unionville, in the season opener for both teams.

“This was a big win, a good win, over a good team,” said Academy Park coach Jason Voshesky. “But I think it also shows the need for more than two scrimmages in the PIAA, because I don’t think either team was anywhere near their best tonight.”
Up 7-6 early in the third period, Unionville was on the move, and looked to go to the air to cross midfield. But Knights’ cornerback Jerae Cavanaugh read it all the way, and picked off the pass around the 46-yard line, then outraced any would-be tacklers down the sideline in front of his own bench for the touchdown. Though the Knights failed to convert the two-point try, the 12-6 score would hold up as the final.
“He went in motion, and I just went with it,” said Cavanaugh. “I’m a receiver, so I just reached out for the ball when the quarterback threw it, and I caught it. I’m a pretty fast guy, so once I got past that first wave, I knew I was probably going all the way. This is a nice win to start the season.”
Unionville got off to a very good start, splitting runs between running back Joe King and quarterback Levi Brawley to march 65 yards on 12 plays on its opening drive, eating up much of the first period clock in the process. The Longhorns finished the drive with a 19-yard run from Brawley to go up 7-0.

“We did a lot of things right tonight,” said Unionville coach Pat Clark. “But it’s a long game, and our execution was better early on than it was late in the game. But our young guys learned that you’ve got to go the distance.”
The Knights answered right back, when runningback Terrence Oliver took the hand-off on a third and short, and after getting past the line of scrimmage, broke free and sprinted 51 yards for the score. Oliver finished as the game’s leading rusher, piling up 127 yards on 15 carries.

“We realized they were really trying to chew up the clock, figuring that the less time we had the ball, the better chance they had to win,” said Oliver. “We just stayed patient, made some adjustments, made some plays on defense, and did what we needed to do to win the ball game.”
While the Knights struggled to get sustained drives early on, they stepped it up down the final stretch.

“Second half we held on to the ball a bit better than we did in the first half,” said Volshesky. “But honestly, I think Unionville executed their game plan better than we did. They held on to the ball, they ran what they wanted, and ate up the clock. We’d get the ball and go three and out. The interception was really the play of the game for us. That’s just a player making a play when we needed it.”
Unionville controlled the ball and kept Academy Park’s defense on the field for much of the game, averaging nearly 8 plays per drive. The Longhorns racked up 21 first downs in the game, to just nine for the Knights, four of which came in the game’s final minutes.
“I thought except for a couple missed tackles, I thought we played pretty good defense,” said Clark. “That running back put up 242 yards on us last year in the playoff game. We missed a tackle on him and he made us pay and put up six.”
Leading the way offensively for Unionville was King, who tallied 67 yards on 27 carries. Brawley chipped in with another 47 on 12 carries.

“I thought Levi did a nice job in his first start as quarterback,” said Clark. “We’ve got a lot to work on, but there’s a lot of positives we can take from this game.”

Academy Park 12 Unionville 7
Academy Park 6 0 6 0— 12
Unionville 7 0 0 0—7
First Quarter
UN—Brawley 19-run (Reichert kick) 7-0
AP—Oliver 51-run (kick failed) 7-6

Third Quarter
BS—Cavanaugh 54-INT Ret (pass failed) 12-6

Team statistics
AP—UN
First downs 9—21
Rushes-yards 22-148 46-137
Passing 5-8 7-13
Passing yards 26 44
Total yards 174 181
Punts/avg 2-38.5 3-33
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0
Penalties-yards 6-53 3-40
Individual statistics
Rushing—AP—Oliver 15-127 (TD) Fields 8-22 Hunter 2-2 Billops 1-(-3) UN—King 27-67, Brawley 12-47 (TD) Opdahl 3-8 McIlrath 3-15
Passing — AP—5-8, 26 UN—Brawley 7-13, 44, INT
Receiving—AP—Oliver 2-17, Billops 1-1, Cavanaugh 1-7, Hunter 1-1 UN—Tarr 2-17 Diorio 1-6, King 1-3, Opdahl 3-18
Sacks—AP—Holman
INT—AP–Cavanaugh