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PUBLISHED: Sunday, September 23, 2007
Hornet gridders lose shoot-out to Whittemore-Prescott, 36-28
WHITTEMORE A punishing ground attack by Whittemore-Prescott proved to be the undoing of New Lothrop's varsity football team last Friday as the Hornets lost a 36-28 shoot-out at Whittemore-Prescott. Jake Emmendorfer's Hornets took an early lead, but the host Cardinals erupted for 24 points in the second quarter and 12 more in the third to hand NL its third loss of the season. Kyle Trent scored the first touchdown of the game at 8:32 of the opening quarter when he scooted in from 22 yards out. Ryan Praski ran in the two-point conversion to give the Hornets an 8-0 lead. New Lothrop held onto the lead until Hugh Jenkins scored on an eight-yard run and followed with a two-point conversion to knot the score at 8-all. The Hornets quickly regained the lead, however, as Praski took the ensuing kick-off 94 yards to give his team the lead once again. Praski then hooked up with Marc Confer on a two-point conversion pass and NL led, 16-8, with 7:59 to go before the break. It didn't take the Cardinals long to respond as they capped a quick drive with a 62-yard run to pay dirt. The missed conversion kept the Hornets ahead, 16-14 with 6:59 remaining before intermission. On the next Hornet possession, Jenkins blocked a punt to give his defense a safety and knot the score at 16-all, forcing NL into handing the ball back to the Cardinals on a free kick from the 20-yard line. W-P took advantage by scoring on its next possession to take its first lead of the night. The two-point conversion put the home team on top, 24-16 with 3:25 left in the second quarter. Keith Perizzolo gave the Hornets a golden opportunity when he pounced on a W-P fumble at the opponent's 32-yard line. Two Praski-to-Kyle Moore passes, the second an eight-yard scoring strike with 30 seconds remaining, pulled NL to within 24-22. Leading by just two points, the Cardinals dealt the Hornets a devastating blow when they scored on the first play from scrimmage in the second half. The 70-yard scoring run opened up an eight-point lead again and another Whittemore-Prescott TD at 4:37 of the quarter ballooned the lead to 36-22. Praski gave the Hornets new hope by scoring from five yards away on the last play of the third quarter, shrinking the deficit to 36-28, but the PAT failed and there was no more scoring in the game. The Hornets made a final push down the stretch, moving the ball to within 46 yards of the W-P goal. The Cardinals intercepted a Praski pass with 2:22 remaining in the game, however, and ran out the clock. New Lothrop put together a balanced offensive attack, gaining 149 yards on the ground and 176 through the air, but Whittemore-Prescott picked up all of its yardage on the ground, rushing for a whopping 403 yards. Trent carried the ball 11 times, gaining 50 yards and scoring a TD for the Hornets. Praski picked up 27 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries and completed 11-of-21 passes for 176 yards. Trent caught four passes for 96 yards, Moore hauled in three for 45 yards and Jason Henige had four catches, covering 35 yards. Defensively, Trevor Vincke led the Hornets with 11 tackles while Moore recorded 10 stops and a fumble recovery. Jeremy Emmendorfer registered nine tackles and Marc Confer had eight tackles, two for losses. Perrizzolo had four tackles along with his fumble recovery. The loss drops New Lothrop to 2-3 overall. The Hornets stand at 2-1 in the GAC-Blue heading into this Friday's league contest at Genesee.
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