For Easton, playoff win just slipped away

FROM THE MORNING CALL

PHILADELPHIA — Easton was only two field goals, and a little luck, away from being an unbeaten football team heading into Saturday afternoon's PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal game against defending state champion LaSalle.

The Red Rovers led the Explorers by four points at halftime, and considering they were controlling the line of scrimmage at that point, it was possible to see all the way to next week, to a possible first state semifinals appearance since 1993, even though it was not sunny in Philadelphia at any point all day long.

But things changed on the first possession of the second half. LaSalle regained momentum and the lead with a 62-yard, four-plus minute drive. Easton made several mistakes and had only 41 yards of total offense in the second half -- 30 of which were in the final minute -- and the Explorers played mistake-free ball and left Northeast High's Charles Martin Memorial Stadium with a 19-7 win, their second over Easton in two years.

"It's painful right now," Easton running back Zack Bambary said. "There's nothing but pain in our stomachs. The way we played this season was spectacular. This is a good group of kids. It hurts so much because it's tough to leave them."

Easton (12-3) lost only twice in the regular season, to Whitehall (17-14) and Phillipsburg (3-0). The Rovers had to fill several roster spots from last year's team which went 13-2; those two losses came by a combined four points.

For a team that had lost its past four games, over two years, by a combined 10 points, a 12-point loss is a downright blowout.

And it was a lot closer than that. It was still 10-7 with three minutes left. It was 13-7 when Easton got the ball with 2:31 left, but hope didn't disappear until 1:53 left, when Villanova recruit Jamal Abdur-Rahman intercepted a Justin Pacchioli pass and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown to make it 19-7.

The Rovers made several mistakes in the second half. An intentional grounding penalty cost them 27 yards. A hold negated a 15-yard gain on a pass play. One play after getting a big first down, Easton gave the ball to LaSalle on a fumble.

The bigger issue, however, might have been the Explorers' domination of the line of scrimmage. Abdur-Rahman did an effective job of limiting star Easton receiver Jonathan Bisci to one reception. And with Pacchioli playing with an injured leg, the Rovers had only 11 yards of second-half offense until their final drive.

"We know we had to focus on the little things," Bambary said. "In the second half, we let them hurt us. We know we had to come out and get the momentum back. When you go into halftime like that, it's kind of a momentum killer. We just didn't do the job we had to do."

"They got off the ball quicker than we did (in the second half)," Easton tight end Justin Souders said. "We definitely made too many mistakes. We didn't do the little things, the way we have all year."

Easton coach Steve Shiffert, the program's all-time leader in wins, knows something about winning. He had to turn over a roster which lost a fair number of good players in a short amount of time.

"It's tough, but we got beat by a pretty damn good football out here today," he said. "Our kids will be hanging their heads for a while, but a week from now, when they watch these guys at North Penn, they'll realize that we're a pretty good football team, too. We graduated 30 seniors, and we got back to this point. That's a pretty good effort from these kids."

Easton also had to show some guts over the course of the season, too, to get back to the state quarterfinals.

The Rovers had to recover from a Thanksgiving Day loss in 48 hours to beat Whitehall in the District 11 quarterfinals. They had to win close games over Emmaus and Liberty and get through three rounds of district playoff games.

"I'm very proud of my teammates and everyone involved," Souders said. "We worked real hard and came together. We have awesome chemistry. We're all like brothers. It's sad for it to end."

"We were in it the whole game, from second one," Bambary said. "We just let it get to us. It slipped away. It's going to hurt for a while, but like I said, we're a good group of kids. We'll get over it."

http://www.mcall.com/sports/varsity/mc-football-easton-lasalle-side-20101204,0,2925010.story