Published: October 04, 2008 12:31 am            

Pulaski downs North Laurel 40-23

Somerset — One would have to give North Laurel head coach David Abbott an A+ for a perfect game plan for last night’s contest at Pulaski County.

With the Jaguars coming into the matchup with the Maroons sporting only a 1-4 record, Abbott’s plan on Friday night at PC Field was to play a version of keep away, attempting to melt the clock while at the same time keeping Chris Muse and a red-hot Maroon offense on the sidelines.

And, it almost worked.

PC only managed a total of 13 plays in the first half, but the problem for Abbott and the Jaguars was that Pulaski County averaged over 11 yards per play in the opening half, as Johnny Hines crew hit big play after big play all night.

As a result, PC rolled up 468 yards of total offense and knocked down win number three in a row with a hard-fought, 40-23 victory over North Laurel, dropping the Jaguars to 1-5 on the season.

“We had several big plays tonight and I thought we did a very good job on the line of scrimmage,” stated Hines, after watching his club move to 3-2 with the victory.

“We ran the ball well early and throughout the game, and Chris (Muse) did a good job of throwing the ball downfield,” added the PC coach. “Offensively, we were clicking pretty good tonight. Defensively, it’s just frustrating to play a team like North Laurel, because it seemed like they had the ball for the whole time in the first half.”

Indeed, the Jaguars did have the ball for much of the first half; 17:49 to be exact, while PC managed to possess the pigskin for only 6:11 of the opening half of play.

But, as the old saying goes, ‘It’s not how long you have the football, but it’s what you do with it when you have it.’

To that end, Pulaski County did some big-time damage in the first half each and every time the Maroons touched the football.

After North Laurel took a 3-0 lead on the first drive of the game, thanks to Nick Armstrong’s 23-yard field goal, PC came right back with the big-time answer.

Taking over possession of the football at midfield, the Maroons scored on a 3-play drive, taking only :52 off the clock, thanks to a Muse 9-yard TD run.

The extra point attempt by Tyler Lester failed, but with 6:16 left in the first period of play, PC led the Jaguars 6-3.

Later in the first stanza, the Maroons extended the lead to 13-3, on a 62-yard scamper by Winston Hines.

After North whittled the lead to 13-10 on a 1-yard run by Robert Lewis, the Maroons closed out the scoring in the first half, on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Muse to Hines.

That drive went 80 yards on only three plays, taking 1:15 off the clock.

Thanks to that score, PC had only managed 13 offensive plays in the first half, yet went into the intermission with a 19-10 lead over North Laurel.

“Our goal coming into this thing was to keep this game tight going into the fourth quarter,” stated North Laurel head coach David Abbott.

“We felt condition-wise, we were better than they were from what we had seen on film, because they’ve got a lot of guys going both ways,” stated Abbott. “As the game went on, I thought they got pretty worn out and we were able to push and drive the ball. I think they scored five touchdowns tonight on drives that totaled only 12 plays. They just hurt us with the big play all night long.”

Adrian Wardrup was a one-man wrecking crew for the Jaguars early, as the junior almost single handily kept his club in this one in the first half.

Wardrup gained 85 of his team-high 115 yards rushing in the opening half of play, and he figured into both of North’s touchdowns late in the fourth quarter.

Wardrup had a two-yard TD run with 5:48 left in the game, and later in the fourth period, he hooked up with Justin Jones for a 7-yard touchdown pass, which at the time whittled the Pulaski County lead down to 10 points, 33-23 with 3:21 remaining in the contest.

However, as would be the case all night long, Pulaski County would have the answer, and almost immediately.

PC stormed right back, as Alex Abner tallied his second touchdown of the night on a 10-yard scamper with only 2:02 left in the contest, easing the lead back out to a 40-23 margin.

In the third period, Abner raced into the end zone for his first score of the evening, on a 48-yard scamper, and the Maroons also hit one more big play on the night.

Muse threw his second TD pass of the evening with 8:58 left in the game, as he hooked up with R.C. White for a 79-yard scoring pass.

“Chris made a nice read on the throw to R.C. that he took in for that long touchdown, and he made a nice read on the TD early in the game that Winston caught,” pointed out Hines.

“North Laurel is a pretty good football team and they were able to run the football tonight and run the clock and shorten the game,” said Hines. “That was their game plan tonight, and they did a good job with it.”

North Laurel did indeed execute its game plan to perfection, and while the Jags, with the setback to Pulaski County fell to 1-5 on the season, Abbott’s club looked like anything but a team that was four games under the .500 mark when the night had ended.

To the contrary, the Jags looked to be a much better team than their record indicated.

“The kids played their guts out tonight, and we’re a very, very young team with a lot of sophomores and juniors out there playing, and they’re playing with a lot of heart,” stated Abbott.

“The key for us is to get some stability built into this program, and you just can’t do that when you’re changing head coaches every couple of years, and things are looking like a revolving door,” Abbott continued. “We’ve got some good young players, and if we can stay together and get a couple of wins coming down the stretch, we’re going to be a pretty good football team down the road.”

For PC, several Maroons had big nights at the ole’ ballyard.

Hines led PC with 114 yards on the ground on only six carries, while Muse rushed for 94 yards on nine attempts.

Abner meanwhile gained 78 yards on six carries, on a night when PC rolled up 285 yards on the ground, while Muse hit on 11 of 15 pass attempts for another 183 yards.

In all, PC followed up last week’s 501 yard performance against South Laurel with 468 yards against North Laurel last night, as the PC offense is all of a sudden looking to be like the juggernaut from the ‘07 campaign.

That’s 969 yards over the past couple of weeks, so coach Hines, is the PC offense finally on track with a seemingly healthy Muse back at the controls?

“We’re still a work in progress, but we’re getting awful close,” stated Hines. “We’re getting better each and every week. We’ve still got some things to work on, but we’re slowly getting there.”

The Maroons, now 3-2 on the season and riding a modest, three-game winning streak, will play arguably their biggest game of the season next Friday night.

The Maroons travel across town to Southwestern next week, and with both clubs coming in with only one district loss each, the game next week between the Maroons and Warriors will no doubt decide the second seed in the district seedings, earning the winner of next Friday’s game a home playoff game, while the loser next week is more than likely on the road in week one of the post season.

Kickoff for the Maroons game at Southwestern next Friday is set for 7:00 p.m.



NL—3 7 0 13—23

PC—13 6 7 14—40

NL—FG Armstrong 23

PC—Muse 9 run (Kick failed)

PC—Hines 62 run (Lester kick)

NL—Lewis 1 run (Armstrong kick)

PC—Hines 15 pass from Muse (Kick failed)

PC—Abner 48 run (Lester kick)

PC—White 79 pass from Muse (Lester kick)

NL—Wardrup 2 run (Armstrong kick)

NL—Jones 7 pass from Wardrup (Conv. run failed)

PC—Abner 10 run (Lester kick)



RUSHING—NL, Wardrup 32-115 TD, Lewis 8-46 TD. PC, Hines 6-114 TD, Muse 8-94 TD, Abner 6-78 2 TD.

PASSING—NL, Fugate 7-17 123, Wardrup 4-12 32. PC, Muse 11-15 183 2 TD INT.

RECEIVING—NL, Shears 5-97, Baer 2-32. PC, White 1-79 TD, Hines 4-39 TD, Shepherd 3-40.

        

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