Quick start fuels New Castle’s Northwest Eight victory over Highlands

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, October 20, 2018 | 12:12 AM

The Highlands football team took the field on Friday with thoughts of a 17-year old classmate who was severely injured in a car accident shortly after school and battled under the circumstances, but fell 38-14 to New Castle in a WPIAL Class 4A Northwest Eight Conference game at Taggart Stadium.

“We played with heavy hearts, but I’m proud of the way the kids still came out and competed in such an adverse situation,” Highlands coach Dom Girardi said. “It was not easy.”

The loss eliminated Highlands (2-7, 2-5) from postseason contention.

The Golden Rams needed a win and some help to keep their postseason hopes alive, but a slow start and an opportunistic New Castle defense proved too much to overcome.

Highlands committed a half dozen turnovers and trailed 21-0 after the first six minutes.

The Red Hurricanes returned two interceptions for touchdowns: one for 42 yards by Trenton Kimbrough on the second possession of the game and a 55-yard return by Drew Cox in the fourth quarter.

New Castle (4-5, 2-4) stayed alive for a postseason berth. The Red Hurricanes play Ambridge next Friday with several scenarios that can play out to see who gets the final playoff berth between them, Knoch and Montour.

“It’s hard this time of the year when you’re scoreboard watching,” New Castle coach Joe Cowart said. “As a coach you want to be in a position to control your own destiny, but we’re not. I’m proud of the seniors for playing the way they did tonight against a good team in Highlands. The turnovers were huge for us in the passing game. I thought the guys put a good game together.”

On the opening possession, Kimbrough intercepted a Seth Cohen pass near midfield and returned it down to the Highlands 18. Four plays later, Josh Thomason punched it in from 5 yards out to give New Castle a 7-0 lead.

On the next possession, Kimbrough picked off another pass and ran down the sideline 42 yards for a touchdown.

Then, after a penalty on the kickoff put Highlands inside its own 10, it punted to midfield. Three plays later, New Castle quarterback Demetris McKnight broke free on the right sideline and rushed 43 yards to the end zone to make it 21-0.

“We talked about some of the playoff scenarios that we don’t normally talk about, like that we needed to win and that we needed to win by a certain amount, so we were spotting them before the game started,” Girardi said. “I joked with them at halftime that we took that too literally.”

Highlands turned to senior running back Cam Taylor, who rushed for 33 yards on four straight carries to set up a 29-yard touchdown run by Cohen. Cohen connected with Loveland on a two-point conversion to cut the lead to 21-8.

The Golden Rams played without kicker Jaci Bowser, who was injured in Highlands’ final girls soccer game at Burrell on Tuesday, so they were forced to go for two all night.

Dashawn Holley caught a pass in the end zone that was tipped by Kimbrough for a 10-yard score on Highlands’ next possession that cut the lead to 21-14.

“We’ve had some ups and downs all season, and I think you saw that tonight,” Girardi said. “We spotted them a few touchdowns right away, and then we battled back to make it a one-score game, but it’s tough to overcome those things. They’re a good team, and you have to play four quarters to play with any team in this conference.”

McKnight, who had 125 yards rushing, added a 3-yard score midway through the second quarter to make it 28-14. New Castle’s Brayden Cartwright connected on a 32-yard field goal in the third.

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer.

Tags: Highlands, New Castle