Fleetwood muffs chance to top Kennard-Dale
[Due to technical issues, this story could not be published until Sunday evening.]
By Matt Gaffney — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
Football coaches often stress that special teams are one-third of the game. Saturday night in Fleetwood was a perfect example.
Kennard-Dale took advantage of two Fleetwood special teams miscues, converting them into first-quarter touchdowns, in taking down the Tigers 20-14 in non-league action at Tigers Stadium.
The Rams (3-3) went three-and-out on their first possession but recovered a Fleetwood muffed punt at the Tigers’ 40-yard line. Three plays later Connor Wolf broke free for a 30-yard touchdown run and a 6-0 lead.
After Kennard-Dale recovered a second Fleetwood muffed punt, it struck again, on a 21-yard pass from Garrett McCleary to Dominic Smith. Gavin Sparks’ conversion run gave the Rams a 14-0 first-quarter advantage.
The two muffed punts turned out to be crucial in a game dictated by the defenses, with each team limiting the other to less than 200 total yards of offense.
“Special teams bit us tonight,” said Fleetwood coach Steven Pangburn. “Muffed punts can be a deficit that buries you, but we did collect ourselves, we fought back and managed to get back in the ballgame. We just fell a little short at the end.”
The Rams’ ground game controlled the clock for most of the first quarter, with Wolf and Sparks chipping away at the Fleetwood defense; the Tigers ran only seven offensive plays in the opening quarter.
The Tigers (2-4) clawed their way back in the second quarter after pinning the Rams deep in their own territory, thentaking over at the Kennard-Dale 25-yard line following a short punt.
From there Fleetwood grinded out eight plays, converting two fourth-down conversions, the second resulting in a 5-yard Czion Brickle touchdown run. Cole Pennypacker’s PAT cut the Rams lead to 14-7 with 5:09 left in the half.
Kennard-Dale responded with a nine-play, 51-yard drive, capped by a McCleary 1-yard quarterback sneak with 28.6 seconds left to give the Rams a 20-7 lead at the break.
The second half was mostly a battle of field position, with each team unable to put together a sustained drive and the defenses taking over. With 2:54 left in the third quarter, Brickle jumped a McCleary pass and returned it 30 yards for a Pick Six to give the Tigers life and cut the lead to 20-14.
It was all the scoring either team could muster.
The Rams executed a massive 18-play drive that began late in the third quarter and lasted well into the fourth. The drive failed to result in points when Dylan Logue’s 43-yard field-goal attempt was short with 6:26 left.
The Tigers seemed rejuvenated by the missed kick and put together a nine-play drive. The Rams’ Jose Morales stopped the drive with a fourth-down interception with a little more than three minutes remaining.
The Rams’ time-consuming running game, while only netting 80 yards, was enough to keep the Tigers playing against the clock most of the night.
“They had some long, sustained drives and they managed to convert on third and fourth down. We couldn’t get them off the field,” said Pangburn.
One bright spot for the Tigers was the play of Brickle. The junior running back/linebacker gave Fleetwood a jolt on both sides of the ball with his interception return and some hard-nosed runs, including his rushing touchdown, which came on fourth-down.
Not a bad night for a player who was penciled into a secondary role at the start of the season. After the junior’s performance, Pangburn sees more touches in Brickle’s future.
“As we are developing him here, you can see he has some talent,” Pangburn said, “so we are going to try and continue to get him the ball a little bit more.”
The Rams’ McCleary finished 7-for-12 passing for 104 yards with one touchdown to go with his rushing touchdown; Wolf had 65 yards rushing and a touchdown, plus 37 receiving yards.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Kennard-Dale | 14 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Fleetwood | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 14 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Kennard-Dale | Wolf, 30 run (kick failed) | 8:11 |
| 1 | Kennard-Dale | D.Smith, 21 pass from McCleary (Sparks run) | 41.8 |
| 2 | Fleetwood | Brickle, 5 run (Pennypacker kick) | 5:09 |
| 2 | Kennard-Dale | McCleary, 1 run (kick failed) | 28.6 |
| 3 | Fleetwood | Brickle, 30 interception return (Pennypacker kick) | 2?54 |
Team statistics
| Kennard-Dale | Fleetwood | |
| First downs | 12 | 7 |
| Rushes-yards | 38-80 | 23-96 |
| Passing yards | 104 | 70 |
| Total yards | 184 | 166 |
| Passes | 7-12-1 | 7-18-1 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 2-2 |
| Punts-average | 4-22.5 | 3-36.7 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-31 | 4-30 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Kennard-Dale: Wolf 11-65, Sparks 10-47, J. Smith 6-4, Team 2-(-13), McCleary 9-(-23).
Fleetwood: Brickle 7-30, Ramsey 8-28, Riffle 4-18, McFarland 2-12, Killian 2-8.
PASSING
Kennard-Dale: McCleary 7-12-1–184.
Fleetwood: Riffle 7-18-1–70.
RECEIVING
Kennard-Dale: Wolf 2-37, Green 2-30, JU. Smith 2-16, D. Smith 1-21.
Fleetwood: Wamsher 2-37, Kotsch 2-29, Tomes 1-4, McFarland 1-2, Ramsey 1-(-2).
INTERCEPTIONS
Kennard-Dale: Morales.
Fleetwood: Brickle.
MISSED FIELD GOALS
Kennard-Dale: Logue 43.
