Oxford clicks on all cylinders in 49-7 win at Sun Valley

Aston >> While Oxford was clicking on all cylinders in its 49-7 win at Sun Valley Friday evening, Hornet head coach Michael Means was most pleased with the way his defense stepped up.
“I thought the key tonight was the way our defense came out,” said Means. “While we’ve struggled in some of the past weeks. I thought we did a lot of good things against Downingtown West last week [a 56-20 loss], I was happy with our players’ effort. That translated into a good week of practice the past week – it was a great week of preparation.”
Means particularly praised senior defensive end Jay Morton.
“Jay played his tail off tonight, he was all over the field,” said Means. “Sun Valley had problems on offense beacuse of some of the things he did, and Jay brought it the whole game.”
The victory gave Oxford (2-4 overall, 1-3 Ches-Mont American) its first win since defeating Interboro 78-47 four weeks ago.
Means said, “After the Downingtown West game, we talked about building for the rest of the year, that we can’t control the losses that we had earlier in the season, but we can control every week going forward. We’re treating the rest of the season like five one-week seasons, and tonight was the first of those one-week seasons.”
Oxford’s 6-foot-6, 230-pound senior quarterback Tom Repetz threw for two early touchdowns – a 56-yard TD pass on the seventh play of the game, and a 39-yard strike to senior Justin Neskie mdway through the second quarter that put the Hornets ahead 28-0.
“Tommy’s definitely the general out there, the point guard of our [spread] offense,” said Means. “He’s made so many strides this offseason to turn himself into the player that he’s become this year.”
Repetz’s first touchdown throw, to wide-open junior wide receiver Joey Morton, came two plays after the Hornets recovered a Sun Valley fumble at the Oxford 37 yard line.
With a 7-0 lead, the Hornets forced the Vanguards into a couple of three-and-outs, and on Sun Valley’s second punt, Oxford returned the ball to the hosts’ 20-yard line. Four plays later, Repetz rolled into the end zone on a 1-yard TD run to make the score 14-0.
The Hornets’ defense stepped up once again to force Sun Valley into a three-and-out; then Oxford sophomore running back Dom Pantalone, in his first game as a Hornet starter, scored on a 40-yard run to make it 21-0 in the first quarter. It was the first of three touchdown runs for Pantalone.
“Dom was phenomenal tonight, was not struck by the bright lights at all,” said Means. “He was calm and ran his feet. [But] it was a team effort tonight. We preach 11 as one, and I thought this game was a definition of what our squad’s all about. We spread the ball around on offense, and we got the running game going.”
Midway through the second quarter, Repetz hit on his second TD pass of the night, this time a strike to Neskie down the right side.
“He [Neskie] was supposed to run outside, but he saw an opportunity on the inside – he read the defense, and made an adjustment,” said Repetz. “I saw him cut inside, I put it up there, and let him catch it. He did a great job.”
Coming out of the locker room at halftime with a 28-0 lead, Oxford took the second half kickoff and scored on a five-play, 50-yard TD drive, the final play a 5-yard touchdown run by Pantalone. When Oxford senior Tyler Brooks’ extra point conversion sailed through the uprights to give the visitors a 35-0 lead, the continuous clock began running.
Sun Valley (0-6 overall, 0-5 Ches-Mont American), trailing 42-0 at the end of the third quarter, kept plugging away and scored on a 57-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Johnny Eskridge to junior Antonio Rivera to make the score 42-7 with 6;07 remaining.
“We’re a really, really young group,” said Sun Valley head coach Greg Bernhardt. “We only have six seniors on our roster, and we were a little outgunned here tonight, but our players have been working their butts off to get better. We have to keep at it every week. Coach Means does a heck of a job over there, their quarterback [Repetz] is a heck of a player, and that No. 2 [Joey Morton] is a heck of a player.”
Following Sun Valley’s touchdown, Oxford came right back with a score as junior Joey Foutrakis returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown with some nifty broken-field running.
Repetz said, “We’ve had a really tough schedule these first five games, but it was great to see our team come together tonight – defense, offense and special teams. We’re hoping that this win will give us some momentum when we go against Unionville next week.”