Abington, PA - After their dominant win over North Penn last week, CB East was looking to continue their success ahead of rivalry week vs CB West.
The Ghosts started off with the ball, and showed some fight on the first set of downs, with Jason Raysor converting a 3rd and 7 to keep Abington on the field. The Patriot defense made sure they wouldn’t stay much longer though, forcing a 3rd and 12 and stuffing QB Kai Taylor to give the offense their first possession of the game.
East QB Hunter Pulford led this drive on the ground and in the air, culminating in a Liam Hoey touchdown to put East up 7-0. Abington wouldn’t lay down and take it though. The Ghosts began to move, with a reverse pass from Smith to Taylor tricking the Pats defense and picking up 21 yards to put the Ghosts in scoring territory.
Now with the Ghosts on the verge of tying the game, the East defense clamped down and held Abington to a field goal attempt.
Then it was the special teams turn to make a play, with the line coming up big and blocking Kaleb Adams field goal attempt to keep Abington scoreless.However CB East’s offense couldn’t capitalize off their special teams success, and the ball returned to the Ghosts.
Jason Raysor again grabbed a big chunk of yards to put Abington in good position within the 20. Unfortunately for the Ghosts, the same mistakes that have plagued the season reared their ugly heads again, with a false start and fumble giving East the ball and squashing any potential to tie the game up.
After the big turnover, East began to move, but found themselves pinned down on 4th and 3. It was Pulford’s turn to step up again, converting and picking up 20 to keep the Patriots moving. After staying on the ground for most of the drive, Pulford hit Owen Grotz for a 14 yard touchdown pass to put East up by two scores. A bomb from punter Cole Wojnicki stuffed Abington deep in their own territory, and we went into the half at 14-0.
At this point the Patriots made some changes. DC Zach Nelsen complimented the adjustments when asked about the defensive success.
“We saw that a certain blitz wasn't working, so we adjusted. The guys told me what they thought was working out there, so we called it.They executed it well.”
East started off with the ball, and after an opening kick return was called back, Liam Hoey made up for it by taking his second touchdown 64 yards to expand the lead to 21-0.
The Ghosts took the ball back, and on third and 8 Taylor looked for Blair Williams for a big gain, but East DB Tom Seiler had other plans, giving the Patriots the ball back with their first interception of the game. After a few close calls in the air, East returned to Liam Hoey ground game, and Hoey would pick up his third TD of the game from 27 yards out to expand the East lead to four scores. After both defenses clamped down, the ball was in Abington’s hands.
After Taylor converted a 4th-and-5 to keep the Ghosts alive, Raysor took the ball to the East 10-yard line to put Abington in prime territory to score.
Now, if I had to pinpoint when CB East delivered the dagger, it wouldn’t be one moment; it would be two. #1 was right here. Kai Taylor scrambled his way down to the 1-yard line, and if the Ghosts were on the doorstep before, they had a foot through the doorway here.
The first error came on a false start to push Abington back to the 6. Then Taylor’s draw attempt was stopped after a 2-yard gain, followed by a one-yard loss.
Now, on 4th & 5, East brings the pressure and forces Taylor to scramble and fire a ball out the back of the endzone. Drive over. #2 came on the first play of East’s drive, when Hoey broke away from the Ghosts' defense for a 95-yard touchdown, which Coach Nelsen aptly described as “a big one”.
It was his fourth of the game, and it would give the Patriots a 35-0 lead that would ultimately be our final score.
Coach Nelsen credited the offensive production to East playing “Our brand of football”, while SOi player of the game Liam Hoey called back to the week's film study.
CB East will travel to arch rival CB West’s home turf for rivalry week.
When asked about how they would prepare, Nelsen said “West is always the biggest rivalry, we play them every year, so this is a huge one. So we're going to build off this and last week's win, and roll into West. It's always a good rivalry game, it's going to be a good one, it's going to be a tough fight.”
Hoey told me “ It’s a huge game, crosstown rivalry so we're definitely gonna practice hard this week, put in all the effort and go get this win”.
On the other side of the scoreboard, Abington will take on a North Penn team that has been struggling since losing star RB Rylei Gray and is in desperate need of a win. Both games will be here on S1insider, so stick around to see what goes down!