Council Rock South tops CB East in double overtime

NEWTOWN – After dropping a pair of earlier season games in tough losses to Pennsbury and Neshaminy, Council Rock South needed a break last night in Newtown.

Holding an 18-6 lead at the end of three quarters, the Golden Hawks had allowed visiting CB East to deadlock the score with a pair of late-game touchdowns.

In overtime, senior halfback Brandon Patterson scored on a 1-yard plunge and senior quarterback Shaun Stackhouse – after escaping near disaster with a bobbled snap and defenders chasing him 20 yards backfield – found Patterson for a 2-point conversion pass that looked like it might help seal South’s third win of the season.

On this night with temps below 50 and winds above 40 mph, neither team had converted a single extra point, much less two. As fate would have it however, Patriots senior QB Jack Lamb scored on his own 1-yard plunge and halfback Alex Gibson beat the Hawk defenders to the pylon on the 2-point conversion to send the Suburban One League Continental Conference battle to a second overtime period.

That’s when South finally caught a break with Lamb fumbling near the goal line, giving the Hawks the chance they needed. From there, it took Patterson only two plays to put the ball in the end zone for the winning score.

“If we want to be contenders in the district playoffs and to win our league, we have to be able to win this game,” said Stackhouse. “Coming into it, we knew we couldn’t take anyone lightly, especially this team; they’re tough.

“We knew it was going to be a battle so it was good that we came out on top.”

South’s 32-26 triumph in a drenching rain at Walt Snyder Stadium handed the Hawks their second league win in as many tries and pushes them to 3-2 on the season. CB East, meanwhile, drops to 2-3, falling to 0-2 in conference.

The way the first half played out, it looked as though South might roll over the Patriots like they did the week before against Truman. But something happened after the third quarter – CB East made some adjustments on both offense and defense.

“We knew we had to shut down (Patterson) and we had to shut down their offense,” said Lamb, who also plays middle linebacker on defense. “We did a good job with that and we fought right back.”

In the fourth quarter, the Pats engineered a pair of touchdown drives, the last one traversing 80 yards after the East defense forced only its second 3-and-out in the contest.

Suddenly, the Pats discovered they could chew up huge chunks of real estate simply by leaving the ball in the hands of their quarterback. Indeed, Lamb accounted for 20 yards rushing in the team’s previous TD drive that was capped by a 1-yard scoring plunge by the CB East signal-caller early in the fourth quarter.

Lamb registered 44 yards rushing (5 carries) on the game-tying drive with Gibson chipping in with 26 yards rushing (7 carries) including a 7-yard TD jaunt up the middle that locked the sides at 18-apiece with a little over two minutes remaining in regulation.

Adding more to the Hawks’ woes was that they suddenly couldn’t put the ball in the end zone. South turned the ball over on downs on its first drive of the second half, went 3-and-out on two of its next three drives then fumbled the ball near midfield with 1:26 left in regulation.

“They were blitzing more – their inside backers,” explained Stackhouse. “We just couldn’t execute. We had a bit of a lapse mentally and that kind of got to us.

“We are a second half team – we just didn’t show it today.

“But the offense persevered and we pulled through.”

Both Patterson and classmate Kyle Hickey gave South’s offense some huge sparks in the first half with Kyle providing a 41-yard touchdown burst on the Hawks fifth play from scrimmage and Brandon accounting for 95 yards rushing on 11 carries.

After Hickey’s first TD strike – he scored twice, both in the first half – the Pats engineered a 14-play TD drive that spanned 74 yards and was capped by Gibson’s 5-yard scoring burst up the middle.

South needed just four plays to answer with Patterson racing 41 yards to the 18 and Hickey taking the ball the rest of the way.

CB East might have won the game in regulation had they been able to get a snap down on an extra point. The Pats couldn’t get a kick off however with one ball snapped at least 15 yards over the holder in the fourth quarter.

“We have no excuses; we have to execute. We just couldn’t do it,” said Lamb.

While East gave gallant second half efforts in both this loss to CR South and its previous loss suffered at the hands of sister school North, that’s two weeks in a row the Pats have come up short against league opponents.

“We lost by a touchdown last week and we came back because we knew we could; we all believe in our team,” said Lamb. “We came back and got to overtime; we just couldn’t finish it.”

In overtime, both sides needed all four downs to reach the end zone in the first overtime. When Stackhouse found Patterson for the two-point conversion, some fans might have been inclined to reach for their car keys.

Lamb knew different.

“We knew we could score and that we were going to get those eight points back,” said the CB East quarterback.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t hold on to the ball on the final series.

NEXT: South hosts CB West next Friday night. CB East hosts William Tennent next Saturday.

Contact the author at ssherman@buckslocalnews.com, or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter

Council Rock South 32, Central Bucks East 26 (2 OT)

(Oct. 2 at CR North)

CB EAST 6 0 0 12 8 0 – 26

CR SOUTH 6 12 0 0 8 6 – 32

SUMMARY

First Quarter

CRS — Hickey 42 run (kick failed)

CBE — Gibson 4 run (kick failed)

Second Quarter

CRS — Hickey 18 run (run failed)

CRS — Stock 9 run (run failed)

Fourth Quarter

CBE — Lamb 1 run (kick failed)

CBE — Gibson 7 run (kick failed)

First OT

CRS — Patterson 1 run (Patterson pass from Stackhouse)

CBE — Lamb 1 run (Gibson run)

Second OT

CRS — Patterson 2 run