Jets rally to defeat Trojans

After falling behind 14-0, Northeastern scores 28 unanswered points.

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By David Jablonski, Staff Writer 12:09 AM Saturday, October 15, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — There were plenty of reasons Northeastern High School shouldn’t have beat Southeastern on Friday.

The Jets trailed 14-0 after one quarter. They started four new players on the line because of various injuries and illnesses and played without injured captain Josh Rowe. They had lost three games in a row, and their only victories this season were against two teams with one win between them.

But the Jets forgot why they shouldn’t win and instead found a way to win, rallying for a 28-14 victory at Conover Field.

“I told our kids I was really proud of them because they didn’t get their heads down,” Northeastern coach Scott Rolf said. “It was just a team effort. That’s the only way I could describe it. The special teams had huge plays. The defense had huge plays. The offense had huge plays.”

Southeastern (4-4, 1-4 OHC) took the early lead on a 2-yard run by Josh Black and a 53-yard touchdown pass from Luke Pavlatos to Preston Snodgrass in the first quarter.

Northeastern (3-5, 2-3 OHC) cut the deficit to 14-7 on a 23-yard run by Brentyn Stoops, and then Stoops scored again on a 10-yard run with 2:02 left in the first half. A bad snap on the extra point forced Tyler Ford to throw to Mitchell Binkley for a conversion that gave the Jets a 15-14 lead, and that ended up being the winning score.

“The snap was a little low,” Rolf said. “The quarterback had to pick it up off the ground. We know how to deal with that. The quarterback calls fire, and everyone has a designated thing to do. Mitchell did a great job. He was paying attention. He got out where he was supposed to be. He had a hunger for the end zone.”

Neither offense could get much going in the second half. A fumble by Northeastern with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter just as a freak downpour came out of nowhere to send rain flying sideways across the field cost the Jets one good scoring opportunity. Then with 6:11 to go, Cody Parker intercepted a Southeastern pass and returned it 37 yards for a score to make it 21-14.

In the final minutes, Southeastern fumbled on a kickoff, and Cole Howard recovered the ball for the Jets. Ford scored on a 3-yard run with 2:14 left to cap the scoring.

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