RallyNorth.net

Second half a nightmare for Owls

Saturday, October, 17 By Chuck Frye
Staff writer

EXETER — The story was simple and straightforward, almost as direct as Exeter's relentless running attack.

Timberlane owned the field position battle in the first half against the undefeated Blue Hawks and also, behind the intuitive play of defensive tackle Teddy Gulezian, kept Exeter bottled up in its own end and forced five punts.

However, the Owls had difficulties getting their own attack untracked, and when Blue Hawk kicker James Holler single-footedly changed the field position game, it was all over. Starting seven of eight possessions in Timberlane territory, Exeter ran away for a 28-0 victory before over 1,000 fans at William Ball Stadium.

Head coach Bill Ball was so confident in Holler's abilities that he gave the Owls possession of the ball to start both halves just to have his senior kicking with a moderate breeze at his back. 

A good kick return by senior Derek Furey negated the first-half strategy and monster defense from Gulezian backed it up. The senior got 10 of his team-high 17 tackles in the opening 24 minutes while helping to hold Exeter to a little over three yards per running play and scoreless.

However, a Holler bomb starting the second half dropped at the Owl 1 and stayed in the field. A weak return to the Timberlane 7 was the beginning of the end for the locals as Holler followed with four straight kickoffs into the end zone in the air for touchbacks.

"It looked like it was a tale of two halves," Owl head coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. "We had the advantage most of the first half but we couldn't punch it in. In the second half, it was the complete opposite. It's a weapon to have a kicker that makes you have to go 80 yards."

A fierce Blue Hawk defense made the long fields even more painful. Behind active contributions from lineman Ben Ward (three sacks) and defensive end Donny Denman (one sack, three other tackles for negative yardage), Timberlane was forced to punt 10 times, was 1 for 14 on third-down conversions and only mustered 93 yards of offense. The Owls never had a realistic shot at the end zone, getting as far as the Exeter 34 midway through the fourth quarter.

"Exeter hasn't given up a lot of points and there's a reason for that," Fitzgerald said. "We tried to stuff it (between the tackles) with Derek going north and south, which is a good option for us. We had some success at times (Furey finished with 46 yards on 17 carries) but we had trouble getting anything consistent going."

The Blue Hawks slowly seized control behind senior running back Zach Kelleher (147 yards), first on a 1-yard touchdown tote set up by a 36-yard blast up the right side, then on a 21-yard scramble to paydirt off a broken option pass midway through the third period.

And as bleak as the picture progressively got for the Owls, things only got worse. After losing receiver Jarred Diorio (left ankle) to injury in the first half, quarterback/punter Nate Lawrence (left ankle) and defensive back Lucas Alper (right ankle) were also felled.

"Jarred tried to come back at halftime," Fitzgerald said. "He taped it up and tried to run but couldn't put any pressure on it. Nate is banged up and he might have to get checked out Monday. I don't know what his status is for next week.

"We played well defensively the entire first half," Fitzgerald concluded. "But if you give (Exeter) a short field, that's what they want. And they're very confident with their defense ... with good reason."