PENNSYLVANIA Blackhawk hands New Castle first defeat

The Hurricanes saw their seven-game unbeaten steak snapped 42-24.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Like Old Man River, the New Castle High football team rolled through the first seven weeks of the season untouched. During that time, seven opponents tried, and all seven failed.
But Friday night at Taggart Field, all that changed as Blackhawk deflated the Hurricanes 42-24 in a key Parkway Conference clash.
"Last year in the ninth game of the year, we knocked off West Allegheny when nobody said we could do it, and tonight we knocked another one off," said Blackhawk coach Joe Hamilton. "It just shows what our program goes through during the year.
"We just get better and better and as it turned out, we scored a lot of points this year," Hamilton said.
New Castle coach Gary Schooley had nothing but praise for the Cougars.
"Personally, I think they just out-played us in every phase of the game tonight," said Schooley. "Tonight they were just a much better football team than we were. I don't think our kids were focused as to what they needed to do. We gave them nine million opportunities and they took advantage of them. That is a sign of a good team."
Deadlocked through three
The two teams took turns exchanging touchdowns through the first three periods for a 21-21 stalemate.
On their first possession of the final period, the Hurricanes took a 24-21 lead when Joey Harvey kicked a 39-yard field goal with 8:29 remaining.
However, as it turned out, that was the end of the good things happening for New Castle (8-1, 5-1) as the Cougars dominated the final eight minutes to score 21 unanswered points.
Blackhawk drove 80 yards in 10 plays for the go-ahead score on a 15-yard pass from Sean Conley to Devin Walsh with 4:15 remaining, and as it turned out, the Cougars scored two more touchdowns in a span of two minutes to set the final.
On the first play following the ensuing kickoff, Conley, who threw for 201 yards and three scores on offense, did his thing on the defensive side when he picked off a New Castle fumble in mid-air and returned it 36 yards for the score.
Fumbles costly
Blackhawk (5-3, 2-3) recovered yet another New Castle fumble on the ensuing kickoff. Six plays later, Adam Gumbert went in untouched from 5 yards out for the game's final score.
"I was really disappointed on how we responded when we took the lead on the field goal," said Schooley. "I didn't think we did a very good job of stepping up and making plays when we needed to."
While Conley was passing New Castle dizzy, the Hurricanes were doing their offensive work over land as they featured a pair of backs totaling 329 yards rushing. Robert Calhoun led the attack with 20 carries for 184 yards and two scores, while Zach Mariacher complemented Calhoun's effort with 145 yards on 15 totes.
Already in the WPIAL playoffs, Schooley doesn't see any problems with his team rebounding from the loss.