|
TR South's late rally stuns Lacey
Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/01/00
By TONY GRAHAM
STAFF WRITER
LACEY -- Toms River South may be battered and bruised, but the
Indians are anything but bewildered.
Behind the senior leadership of backup quarterback Brett Hardie,
halfback Anthony Serafino, and defensive end Craig Casagrande (two
sacks), the Indians staged a rally yesterday at Lacey neither they nor
the Lions will forget any time soon.
The No. 7 Indians (4-0, 4-0), trailing by 10 points at the outset of
the fourth quarter, stormed back for a 23-16 overtime victory over the
No. 4 Lions (2-1, 2-1) in a Shore Conference Constitution Division game.
"We struggled," said Hardie, who alternated at times with
sophomore John Rankin but was at the helm down the stretch. "But we
never gave up."
"I think we played our hearts out," added
Hardie, playing
in place of Matt Martin, who is out for the season with a broken leg.
Serafino's third TD, a two-yard run, gave TR South the lead on its
first possession of overtime and its aroused defense then smothered
Lacey's ensuing possession.
The game ended with Lion quarterback Kyron Dooley, under pursuit from
TR South linebacker Dan Peterson, throwing incomplete on fourth down at
the TR South 26.
"We came back in the fourth quarter," Hardie said. "We
kept our heads up. We knew we could do it.
"We had confidence in ourselves," he said. "Our O-line
took us, Anthony scored three touchdowns, and our defense stepped it
up."
On Lacey's first play in overtime Hardie drilled a 21-yard strike to
Serafino, who scored two plays later.
Lacey appeared in command when it took a 16-6 lead on a four-yard
Dooley-to-Tom Kozo TD flip on the first play of the fourth quarter.
But Serafino returned the kickoff 75 yards to the Lacey 9 and
suddenly TR South had life.
Ricky Browner closed the gap to 16-9 with a 28-yard field goal with
10:44 left and the Indians then drove 43 yards in six plays and tied the
score when Serafino cracked in from the 4 with 6:54 showing.
Lacey coach Lou Vircillo said Serafino's long kickoff return was the
turning point of the game.
"It broke our back," Vircillo said. "I don't think we
really recovered after that in terms of momentum. Our back was against
the wall. We had to play more defensively and we had to be more careful
in what we were trying to do.
"They did a great job of forcing us to do certain things and I
don't know that we did enough to capitalize on what they were giving
us."
from the Asbury Park Press
Published on October 1, 2000
|
