Lake Park takes Neuqua Valley 20-6
Chris Buonavolanto walked to the halftime chalkboard, wrote one word and wheeled it around for all his Lake Park teammates to witness.
Faith.
What a message for an 0-2 team in a scoreless tie in the rain against a school it hadn't beaten since 1999. With its captain and starting middle linebacker in street clothes on a bum ankle.
The Lancers took Buonavolanto's word to heart, beating Neuqua Valley 20-6 on Friday night in Roselle.
"The guys got kind of emotional there, when he did that," Lake Park assistant coach Dave Mikes said. "That geared us up for the second half."
The Lancers (1-2, 1-0 Upstate Eight Conference) really got the wheels turning with their running game. Dormant for much of Lake Park's first 2 games, the Lancers churned out 156 yards on a sloppy track in the second half. Kevin Thomas, Chris Jasinski and Artie Monaco shared in the load, Thomas scoring touchdowns of 5 yards and 1 yard.
"It's the conditioning that we do, nine months of hard work," explained birthday boy Thomas, who gained 67 yards on 19 carries. "We're just in better condition for the second half.
"Especially in the rain, we knew we had to stick with the run."
Neuqua Valley (1-2, 0-1), which thwarted three Lake Park drives in the first half on the strength of Patrick Keeley sacks, struck first and fast in the third quarter.
On the Wildcats' second play from scrimmage Alex Lincoln hit Joshua Schaffer in stride for an 82-yard touchdown down the right sideline for a 6-0 lead.
Lake Park answered quickly, as Larry Nawrot completed a 41-yard pass to Kyle Steiger on third-and-10. After three Lancers runs he found Steiger in the front of the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown and 7-6 lead.
"Probably the turning point in the game was that third down pass that was completed for a long gain on their sideline," Neuqua Valley coach Bryan Wells said. "If we force them to punt, or get a sack, or the ball drops incomplete, they have no confidence. Their confidence just soared after that play."
Thomas took in his first score on Lake Park's next drive and capped things off with a 1-yard plunge with 1:30 left.
"We needed to finally get a win," Thomas said. "It's been nine years since we beat this team."
Nawrot completed 11 of 22 passes for 164 yards. Lincoln completed 8 of 26 passes for 148 yards, but more than half came on the deep ball to Schaffer.
"We rolled the coverages a little bit, and I think that kept them off-balance," said Mikes, Lake Park's defensive backs coach. "We put some pressure on them in the front. We thought if we could get put pressure on the quarterback and get in his face a little bit he might get a little erratic. Plus the weather. The weather kind of helped too."