It Was South Lakes’ Turn To Be A Point Better Than Yorktown

By BRIAN McNICOLL

On his way to the locker room at halftime, South Lakes High football coach Jason Hesock asked his assistants if he should go off on the team or go with another approach.

“What I heard is they needed some love,” Hescock said. “They needed to be told the product they were putting on the field wasn’t what they were capable of, and if they would perform to their capabilities, they would win the game.”

The locker room strategy worked perfectly. The Seahawks didn’t panic, though they had good reason to, They stayed the course, scored two touchdowns in the final six minutes and hung on thanks to a missed field goal attempt in the final minute for a thrilling 29-28 victory Thursday night in the season opener for both teams at South Lakes’ Pat Bergen Stadium.

Down 28-14 after a Nate Randles 4-yard touchdown run with 11:12 to go with the game, South Lakes drove 80 yards in 15 plays to a 1-yard touchdown run for Dalton Blakeley and scored on a 2-point conversion to make it 28-22. The drive included a gutsy 4th-and-6 conversion from their own 24 when Nick Picarelli skirted the right end on a reverse for an 11-yard gain.

South Lakes then forced a punt and drove 55 yards for another score – 30 of it coming on a touchdown pass on the wheel pattern from quarterback Christian Wyatt to George Zarenchnak for Zarenchnak’s only catch of the night.

There were four options on the pattern, but Wyatt said he chose Zarenchnak because “he was the only one with a path to score, and we had to make a play there.”

The extra point was then itself an adventure. The Seahawks picked up 18 penalties in their season opener last year, but they committed only three on Thursday night. Unfortunately one was for excessive celebration after the touchdown, which meant Nicholas Bertoni, South Lakes’ senior kicker, had to make a 35-yard extra point.

But Bertoni, who was 32 of 34 on extra points last season, blasted it through to give South Lakes a 29-28 lead. “I was completely OK with it being moved back,” Bertoni said after the game. “I knew I was going to make it anyway. And then it just felt perfect.”

But the adventure was not over. Yorktown started deep in its territory after a short kickoff return that led to an injury for the returner. An ambulance came to rescue the player, creating about a 20-minute delay. Hescock said the player has been released from the hospital.

After the delay, Yorktown gained 68 yards on three straight pass completions, which gave the Patriots first down on the South Lakes 9. The drive stalled there, and Yorktown’s Max Yoon came on to try a 23-yard field goal to win the game.

Yoon had had a good night to that point. Yorktown missed an extra point, but the snap was bad and Yoon never kicked the ball. The place kicks he did get off soared through. His kickoffs all came down inside the South Lakes five, and he averaged 38 yards on two towering punts.

But the Seahawks created just enough havoc to throw him off, and Yoon’s kick hit the right upright and bounced away. The miss left the Seahawks with the same margin of victory by which they had lost to Yorktown two seasons ago, when the Patriots spoiled South Lakes’ 10-0 regular season with a 7-6 victory in the first round of the playoffs.

“I was there that night,” Bertoni said. “Making that kick, putting us ahead … that means everything.”

The Seahawks sure didn’t look like they had a big comeback in them early in the game. Yorktown controlled the ball for almost all of the game’s first 18 minutes. The Patriots seemed able to convert whenever they needed to – opening the game with a 15-play march to a 17-yard TD pass from Samson Schneider to Brady Owens.

Five plays and 1:07 off the clock later, the Patriots were at it again, going 85 yards in 15 plays to a 9-yard run by Schneider that made it 13-0.

South Lakes finally responded with a 65-yard march of its own. Wyatt hit three key passes in the drive then capped it with a 1-yard run. Blakeney scored a 2-pointer on a swinging gate play on the extra point to make it 13-8 Yorktown.

South Lakes drove to the Yorktown 1 as the half expired, but a 5-yard penalty and an incomplete pass left the Seahawks with no points out of the drive.

But the momentum had changed at that point. Not even a fumble on the first trip of the second half, nor a Yorktown touchdown later in the half could change that.

“I wish I had given some speech I could bottle up and use later, but that’s not what happened,” Hescock said. “We just reminded them they were better than they thought, and they responded. What a way to start the season.”

Yorktown: 7 13 0 8-28
South Lakes: 0 8 6 15-29

• Yorktown: Brady Owens, 17 pass from Samson Schneider (Max Yoon kick)
• Yorktown: Schneider, 9 run (kick failed)
• South Lakes: Christian Wyatt, 1 run (Dalton Blakeney run)
• Yorktown: Alex Hans, 44 pass from Schneider (Yoon kick)
• South Lakes: Blakeney, 37 run (kick failed)
• Yorktown: Nate Randles, 4 run (Owens pass from Schneider)
• South Lakes: Blakeney, 1 run (Wyatt run)
• South Lakes: George Zarechnak, 30 pass from Wyatt (Nicholas Bertoni kick)

Yorktown/South Lakes

• First Downs: 13/22
• Rushes-Yards: 35-139/33-210
• Passing Yards: 174/193
• Passes (A-C-I): 16-11-0/23-17-0
• Punts-Average: 2-38/1-33
• Penalties-Yards: 1-10/3-25
• Rushing - Yorktown: Randles 29-84, Schneider 6-55.
• Rushing - South Lakes: Blakeney 20-104, Wyatt 9-54, Nick Picarelli 4-12, Joshua Dagby 1-10.
• Passing – Yorktown: Schneider 16-11-0, 174 yards, 2 TDs
• Passing - South Lakes: Wyatt 13-17-0, 193 yards, 1 TD.
• Receiving – Yorktown: Jack McCorry 1-16, Jakob Ford 1-17, Colt Monticello 3-38, Alex Hans 1-44, 1 TD; Owens 2-18, 1 TD
• Receiving - South Lakes: Picarelli 5-35, Blakeney 2-3, Zarechnak 1-30, 1 TD; Henry Strickland 5-41.