Mistakes costly for South football

Pirates fall in CJ IV to Howell

By: Justin Feil
   One of the things that had been so consistent all season for the West Windsor-Plainsboro South football team was again there in the opening game of the Central Jersey Group IV playoffs Saturday.
   The Pirates were able to give Ryan Lupo running room.
   WW-P South also enjoyed one of its more efficient passing days.
   But another consistency, problems with the center-quarterback exchange, was again there and combined with a powerful Howell offense that proved stronger as the game went on, it was too much to overcome in a 26-18 loss to the Rebels. The loss ends the No. 4 Pirates’ playoff run and ends their five-game unbeaten streak.
   "We just can’t make needless turnovers," said Pirates head coach Todd Smith after his team slipped to 6-3. "Anybody who makes turnovers like we do, it’s not like they were stripping the ball out. We fumbled the ball on a snap twice, once on the 5 and once when we were driving to go in for the touchdown to tie. You can’t do that, especially in a playoff atmosphere. You make turnovers, you lose games."
   Two turnovers were too many against No. 5 Howell, which did not turn the ball over once and was stopped just once after its second possession of the game. That made it even tougher on the Pirates who had to play from behind almost the entire game. The Pirates scored first, with 26 seconds left in the first quarter, on a 27-yard run by Lupo, but they had a bad snap on the extra point and failed in the impromptu two-point conversion. Howell scored on the ensuing drive and never trailed after making its extra point.
   The Rebels took a 14-12 lead to halftime after the teams traded touchdowns, with Lupo scoring his second of the day two minutes before the half. When the Pirates took possession to open the second half, they appeared in good shape, but fumbled on the first play from scrimmage.
   "We thought we addressed it," Smith said. "It was a problem at Princeton. Obviously it was a problem today. Against Princeton, we can get away with it. Against these guys, you can’t.
   "You give a ball up on the 5. You give it to them on the second play of the half. It’s ridiculous. We’re chasing points. We could have been up and we could have been trading points that way if we would have just held on to the ball. We gave it away."
   Howell scored three plays after the fumble for a 20-12 lead before South answered on Lupo’s third score of the day, around left end with 1:22 left in the third quarter. Howell answered back with a long drive that consumed 5:20 of the clock to take a 26-18 lead, but the Pirates put together a drive of their own. They reached the Howell 21 before fumbling again. The Rebels offense took over with 2:41 left and the Pirates never got the ball back.
   "There’s no question we were going to score," Smith said. "They were sucking wind. They were on their heels. They didn’t know what was going on in some of the formations. And we just turned the ball over, gave it to them."
   The Rebels were led by the feet and arm of quarterback Sean O’Reilly. The senior signal caller ran for three touchdowns and kept several plays and drives alive by scrambling to buy time before finding a receiver.
   "We knew what he was going to be," Smith said. "We saw film on him, we saw plenty of film. We knew that was the kind of kid he was. Obviously he’s much more athletic than most of the kids on our team and he made us look that way most of the game. Hats off to him. He’s a great football player. They use him in the right way.
   "Hats off to them," he added. "They were mostly a passing team. They came out and their offensive line did a great job against our defensive line. We just weren’t playing tough. Nine times out of 10, we had a kid ready to make a tackle. He just didn’t make it. That’s on us. That obviously has to be our focus for next year. I think we have a good nucleus coming back. We’ll see what we can do. Now is next year. We have to start getting ready for it."
   The Pirates know they can block with the best of them. They were able to use their bread and butter on offense and Howell had few answers. Lupo ran for 166 yards on 22 carries and scored all three WW-P South touchdowns. While the yards were harder to come by in the middle, the Pirates found plenty of running room when Lupo would bounce to the outside.
   "That’s the design," Smith said. "We teach our tackles to block for that. Eldred Richards did a great job all day dominating the defensive end which gives Ryan the option to bounce it outside. Ryan does that great. He’s a fantastic runner. He’s got great hips. His lateral movement is fantastic."
   The Pirates also had success mixing in the pass. Connor Farrell threw for 118 yards on just six attempts, four that were completed. The shortest of those was a 5-yard pass to J.B. Fitzgerald to sustain the Pirates’ final drive.
   "This team allows it," Smith said of Howell. "They walk so many up in the box. We kept hitting them on the same play every time. It wasn’t anything fancy."
   Farrell later hit Fitzgerald with a 19-yard pass to move them into Howell territory, but three plays later the Pirates fumbled the center exchange and Chris Tash fell on his second fumble of the day for Howell.
   "That’s something that’s plagued us all season long, fumbling snaps for no reason, needless turnovers," Smith said. "That’s what lost this game for us today. I thought the kids played well on offense. Our defense struggled most of the time out there. Kids just weren’t paying attention, following the rules. We lost the game on our own today. We helped Howell out a lot.
   "They won the turnover battle," he added. "I thought we dominated the game up front. I thought Lupo ran it well. I thought we could run it well on them. We were doing a great job of mixing it up there in the fourth quarter. We just shot ourselves in the foot."