Unionville tops West Chester Henderson

WEST CHESTER- Friday night at J Oscar Dicks Stadium, the visiting Unionville Longhorns took another step to claiming the Ches-Mont American Division title by jumping out to an early lead and withstanding a fourth period rally by the west Chester Henderson Warriors, as Unionville came away with a 35-20 victory over the host Warriors.

 

Unionville (5-0, 7-1) rolled up 360 yards on the ground and jumped out to a 21-0 halftime edge as the Longhorns controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball for the entire first half.

 

Unionville took the opening kickoff and went 78 yards on 12 plays and took 6:15 off the clock before Etahn Bennink went untouched around the right side for a early 7-0 lead. Bennink and cagey quarterback Matt McCloskey drove the ball down the field. McCloskey had 150 yards rushing on the night while Bennink added 116 and Joe King totaled another 94 yards.

 

“That opening drive is what we want to do every time we have the football,” McCloskey said. “Our offensive line was pounding them up front and knocking them over. They make me look good with some the holes they make to run through. That is Unionville football.”

 

The Longhorns also showed they could throw the football. Unionville drove down the field after a West Chester Henderson (2-3, 3-5) punt, McCloskey hit Luke Schriver with a pretty 30 yard touchdown pass on a nice slant pattern and it was a 14-0 Unionville advantage after one period.

 

Meanwhile, the Unionville defense was shutting down the Warriors offense as Henderson rushed for just 39 yards on the night and when Nate Holt sacked Warriors quarterback Eddie Smink for a loss, Smink went to the West Chester Henderson bench with an injury. This proved costly as backup quarterback Ryan Trice threw an interception to Bill Carello that led to the third Longhorns touchdown of the half and it was a 21-0 Unionville lead after McCloskey went over the left side for a four yard scoring run.

 

But, West Chester Henderson did not roll over. After McCloskey scored his third touchdown of the night, this one a 12 yard run to make it a 28-0 Unionville lead, the Warriors came alive. Smink came back in the game and the Warriors aerial assault started to carve up the Unionville defense.

 

The Warriors got on the board early in the fourth period when Smink hit Sean Himsworth with a 14 yard touchdown pass and it was a 28-7 game with 10:30 to play. After a successful on side kick, Smink directed the Warriors down the field and went in himself from a yard out and after a botched extra point, the Warriors closed the gap to 28-13, with 7:46 to play. Smink completed 19 of 37 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns on the night.

 

Unionville came roaring back however and Bennink broke free for a 66 yard touchdown run to ice the game at 35-13 with a little over six minutes to play. But, Smink was not done. the Warriors signal caller hit Dylan Grim with a 43 yards touchdown pass and it was a 35-20 game with four minutes left in the fourth period.

 

Unionville recovered this on side kick and the Longhorns used the running game to run out the clock and get one game closer to the Ches-Mont American division title. Unionville head coach Pat Clark talked about the win.

 

“We have always been a ground based team,” Clark said. “But, we run the ball different ways now and the credit goes to Tim Murphy and Brad Schwartz who have given us a lot more looks in the run game. but, I want to give Eddie Smink a lotto fo credit. He threw the ball well tonight. And at the end of the game we at times want to shorten the game and keep the the other team from getting the ball back and we did that by getting some first downs and running out the clock.”

 

West Chester Henderson still has a chance to qualify for the District 1 5A playoffs with a win in one of its two final games and Warriors head coach John Lunardi talked about the game and getting behind Unionville early.

 

“We just made too many mistakes early, myself included,” Lunardi said. “And Unionville did not make any mistakes early. at halftime we asked the kids to give us all they had for four periods and they did that. We came back and showed a lot of heart in the second half.”

 

Unionville 35, WC Henderson 20.

 

Unionville            14 7 7 7 -35

WC Henderson   0  0 0 20-20

    

                                 Scoring

U-McCloskey 17 run (Dym kick)

U-Schriver 30 pass from McCloskey (Dym kick)

                                 Second Period

U-McCloskey 4 run (Dym kick)

                                Third Period

U-McCloskey 12 run (Dym kick)

                                Fourth Period

WCH_ Himsworth 14 pass from Smink (Smink kick)

WCH- Smink 1 run (kick failed)

U-Bennink 66 run (Dym kick)

WCH-Grim 43 pass from Smink (Smink kick)

 

 

                                Team Totals

                      U                WC

First downs   17               17

Yards rushing 360            39

Yards passing 74            247

Total yards      434          286

Passing       4-7-1           19-38-1

Fumbles-lost   2-2             2-0

Punts-avg.       0-0       4-38.5

Penalties-yds   8-72         6-30

 

                           Individual Staistics

Rushing: UNION: McCloskey 12-150, 2TD’s; Bennink 7-116, 2TD’s; King 16-94. WCH: Turman 7 (-2); C.Porter 5-18; Foster 4-14; Trice 1 9-3); Smink 7-12, TD.

 

Passing: UNION: McCloskey 4-7-74, TD. WCH: Smink 19-37-274 2TD’s; Trice 0-1-0.

 

Receiving: UNION: Holt 1-12; Schriver 3-62, TD. WCH: Turman 3-13; Grim 3-77, TD; Porter 2-16; Himsworth 5-57, TD; Krapk 1-30; Pron 1-6; Nelson 1-28; killoran 3-20.

 

Sacks: UNION: Holt. WCH: None.

 

Interceptions: UNION: Carello. WCH: Turman.

EOF-