E-H Wins Homecoming with Big 2nd Half
by Max Renning
September 22, 2009
Emerson-Hubbard welcomed the Allen Eagles to town for homecoming on Friday night. A large crowd saw Emerson take a come-from-behind 20-14 win over the Eagles with a touchdown in the final two minutes.
The first half saw the Pirates offense come out flat. Allen scored two 2nd quarter touchdowns to take a 14-0 lead into the half.
"We were prepared to play but didn't show up until the 2nd half," said Coach Northwick.
A new team came out of the locker room for Emerson in the 2nd half as the Pirates scored on the second play from scrimmage in the 3rd quarter on a 30 yard run by Scott Servine. He added on the extra point to make it 14-7.
After a 3 and out, Emerson ran down a lot of clock on a long scoring drive headed by fullback Michael Hassler. It ended on a 2 yard quarterback sneak by Max Renning. Servine hit the PAT to make it 14-14.
The offense began to slow for Emerson, but the defense kept on going. Allen was unable to move the ball throughout the 2nd half. The Pirates forced 7 turnovers for the game, including 5 interceptions by safety AJ Bormann. Renning led in tackles with 18, followed by Austin Gutzmann and Justin Hogan with 11 each.
Emerson got the ball with 5 minutes left to play. After a first down on the ground, they went to some trickery. Servine found Derick Lux behind the Allen defense for a 51 yard gain on a fullback pass that did most of the work for the Pirates on their final drive. Hassler finished it off with 2 1/2 minutes to play on a 4 yard run to the end zone. The Pirates took a 20-14 lead they would hold for the rest of the game. Allen's final drive was ended on Bormann's 5th interception with under a minute to play.
"We came out flat in the 1st half, but shut them out in the 2nd," said senior center Trent Stork, "It felt good to win our last homecoming."
For the running game on the night, Servine led the the Pirates with 107 yards. Mike Hassler added 71 and Renning had 27.
Passing, Renning was 3-8 for 56 yards and Servine was 1-1 for 51 yards on the trick play to Derick Lux.
Justin Hogan was leading reciever with 34 yards.
Helping out with Bormann's 5 interceptions in the turnover department was an interception by Servine and a fumble recovery by senior Trevon Emmons.
The Pirates moved to 2-1 with the win. Next week they travel to Osmond to take on the 2-1 Tigers, who are coming off a tough, one-point loss to Bloomfield. The kickoff is at 7 pm on Friday night.
