Pottsgrove rallies to edge West Catholic, 15-14

LOWER POTTSGROVE >> How do you measure a victory?

In the case of Pottsgrove’s narrow one over West Catholic Friday, there were benchmarks aplenty.

Scoring twice in the final eight minutes of their 2018 season debut, the Falcons showed the crucial ability to rally from a two-score deficit while seeking a successor to graduated star running back Rahsul Faison. The 15-14 win at Pennypacker Field validated the yeoman play of a defensive unit that kept the Class AA power Burrs in check long enough to come up with a big play to set up the first score, and a disciplined offense that took advantage of West’s late-game implosion to get the ultimate game-winning touchdown.

There was no discounting the value to new head coach Bill Hawthorne, getting a victory in his debut. The boost in morale for both players and coaches, to come out on the winning end of the score after spending the first 40 minutes seeking a spark, was just as big.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Hawthorne said. “The kids are such good people, we as coaches wanted to put them in place to win.”

Pottsgrove goes ahead of West,15-14, on Isaiah Taylor conversion run with 37 seconds left. pic.twitter.com/eF7xhaxaFM

— Jeff Stover (@MercuryXstover) August 25, 2018

The Pottsgrove defense in general — Ryan Bodolus and Darrian Seaman in particular — did much to give their team the winning feeling.

After West Catholic went up 14-0 with little more than two minutes left in the third quarter, the Falcons ultimately took charge when Seaman recovered a fumble by workhorse West tailback Jacir Savoy at the Burrs’ one-yard line. Quarterback Jay Sisko, on the run from West’s defensive pressure much of the game, went over his left tackle to score with 8:14 remaining.

Pottsgrove then stopped the visitors from Philadelphia on an eight-play possession that netted only eight yards. Sisko put the offense on his back, ripping off a 20-yard run to the West 19 on a drive aided by the Burrs committing a personal foul on another of his runs.

Sisko and Isaiah Taylor covered the remaining distance on four totes, and West was whistled for pass-interference and holding penalties that fueled the drive. Taylor got the go-ahead points on a conversion run set up when West got flagged for offsides, putting the ball at the one.

“It was very exciting,” Bodolus noted. “A two-point conversion for the win … it can’t get better.”

The Pottsgrove defense shone one final time to prevent the Burrs from scoring on their final possession. A Bodolus sack, two forced incompletions and West quarterback Zaire Hart-Hawkins finished West through the final 36 seconds.

“It was two great teams battling to the end,” Hawthorne said.

West Catholic, with Hart-Hawkins completing seven of eight passes in the first half, got on the scoreboard 50 seconds before the break when he connected with Aaron Jenkins (two catches, 26 yards) on a 10-yard pass. It was unable to get the extra points, however, when Tre Johnson’s conversion kick missed the uprights.

In the third, the Burrs took a two-touchdown lead off Zahir Booker’s three-yard plow of the middle with 2:07 left in the third. Hart-Hawkins capped the drive with a conversion pass to Justino Griggs.

From there, it was Pottsgrove’s game to win. Bodolus provided a defensive spark with four sacks and a key tackle, in collaboration with Seaman, to force West to punt the ball away prior to the Falcons’ game-winning march.

“They were beat at the end of the game,” he noted. “In the fourth, we saw they were tired … and we weren’t.”

Seaman teamed up with Bodolus on a second-quarter sack of Hart-Hawkins and a stop of Savoy on third down, in addition to numerous other tackles in the game.

“I can’t say enough about the defense,” Hawthorne said. “Ryan Bodolus, Darrian Seaman and Justin Adams, our captains … they never quit.”

NOTES >> Pottsgrove held its annual military/first responders tribute prior to the game. A number of military veterans, police officers, firemen and emergency personnel formed a runway for the Pottsgrove players and coaches to enter the field. Additionally, the police chiefs of the three Pottsgrove township departments — Matt Stofflet (West Pottsgrove), Francis Wheatley (Upper Pottsgrove) and Mike Foltz (Lower Pottsgrove) — served as honorary captains for the game.