Big Piney High School Football
Big Piney at Newcastle, Friday, October 27, 2006
Final: Big Piney 12 - Newcastle 6
October 28, 2006

Coach Joel Eskelsen Comments:

Game Recap:

1st quarter – Both teams were able to move the ball. Newcastle’s throwing game helped them, but the Dogies could not muster any yards on the ground. The Punchers got good field position after a poor Newcastle punt. An 11-yard screen to Mackie, and a 24-yard run by Lynn, put the Punchers inside the 10-yard line. After Newcastle defense stiffened, the Punchers would attempt a 27-yard field goal. The kick went way left and neither team threatened for the rest of that period.

2nd quarter – Newcastle scored early in the second quarter on an impressive pass play. The pass covered 42 yds and the Sylte to Sylte combination got the Punchers in an early hole. At that point, the offensive line of the Punchers started to take control. A number of first downs and the Punchers found themselves again inside the Dogies’ 20-yard line. From there, the Punchers got on board with Parker Greenwood scoring from 11 yards out. The PAT was blocked and the score stayed that way for most of the rest of the day.

3rd quarter – Neither team mounted much of a drive during the third quarter, although Big Piney did have an impressive 16-yard play drive only to come up short of scoring. Newcastle was completely shut down by the Puncher “D”.

4th quarter – Again it was the Puncher “O” moving the ball but failing to get into the end-zone. In the meanwhile, the Puncher defense again was all over both the running and passing plays of Newcastle. The Punchers came up with two interceptions. The last gave the Punchers the ball on the Dogie 40-yard line with 1:30 minutes left in the game. At that point, the Punchers went to their 2 minute game and promptly hit passes to Greenwood, Forrester and Lynn to move the ball down field to the Dogie 30-yard line. A delay of game penalty moved the Punchers back to the 35 yard line. A 2nd down pass fell incomplete and the Punchers found themselves 3rd down with 9 second to go. With time for one play, or possibly two, the Punchers went to the air and Moffat put the ball up in the end zone and Linn made a catch as the punchers led with 2 seconds left in the game. After a number of unsportsmanlike penalties on Newcastle, Jay Von Wagoner put the kickoff through the end-zone and Newcastle had 2 seconds to go the 80 yards. After at least 6 laterals, Zak Redden finally secured an errant lateral and the Puncher win!

Comments: Defense was the highlight of the game as the Punchers held Newcastle well below their scoring and offensive averages. The Red picked off 3 passes and had opportunities to have picked off others. Linebackers Linn, Colton and Wilson each came up with an interception.Offensively, the Punchers gained right at 200 yards on the ground and another 77 through the air. Linn had 131 yards rushing and Greenwood added a tough 50 yards including his TD run. Moffat completed 6 of 10 passes but did have one picked off in the third period.

Overall, it was a total team effort and hats off to the team who had to travel the nearly 600 miles to Newcastle and still played hard, inspired football. It is not an easy task to stay focused after such a trip and overnight stay away from home.

It is the 10th straight year that the Punchers have made it to State Semi-finals. The Punchers host Glenrock on Friday for the opportunity of playing in the Championship game. The Herders ended the Punchers dream a year ago and they are already aware of that and should be charged up and ready for play.

Game time for Friday has yet to be set but look for a 1:00 or 2:00 kick-off.

Come out and support the Punchers in their attempt to gain entry to the Championship game.

Score by Quarters:

Scoring:

Coach Joel Eskelsen