Hawks Squander Early Lead, Lose B-South Battle to Brick

If you blinked, you might have missed it.

In a span of 2:19 in the middle of the first quarter, the Manchester Hawks built up a 20 point lead in Brick over the Green Dragons. Other than a three-and-out to start the game, everything went as well as a Hawk fan could imagine in the first quarter.

The Hawks opened the scoring at 6:31 when Joe Johnson capped off a 10 play drive with a nine yard run up the middle on fourth down and one yard to go. For the second straight week, Johnson ran for over 200 yards, 201 on 18 carries and a touchdown last night. Bottled up at times, the senior grabbed most the yardage in big chunks, breaking away on a few plays.

A fumbled exchange on the first Brick play from scrimmage after the touchdown resulted in Manchester holding the ball on the Brick 37 yard line. Relying on Johnson as much as they do, the Hawks ran a perfect timed play-action fake to Johnson as Tim Rogers threw a 37 yard strike to Damium Moore for a touchdown.

The scores came 15 seconds apart.

Things became even better when the Hawks recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff.

With the ball on the Dragons 40, Johnson burst through the line for one of his big runs, before being brought down at the two yard line. Two plays later Rogers would run a bootleg and reach the endzone, giving Manchester a dominating 20-0 lead.

"That's the toughest part about the game," said Manchester head coach Gerry O'Donnell, "We had them right where we wanted them and we let it slip away."

Manchester seemed to lose a lot of their momentum going three-and-out, after Nick Galletta picked off Brick quarterback Brandon Kieslor. Taking over in enemy territory once again, the Hawks allowed the Dragons back in the game by not being able produce points.

Manchester did not have an answer for the Brick defense throughout the rest of the game. While Johnson ran for his 201 and a score, and Rogers was 13-26 for 132 yards with three total TD's, the Brick defense turned into a sack machine in the second half with heavy pressure.

To make matters worse, injuries were starting to hit the Hawks. Back/receiver and kicker Tim Sokol went down with an injury, taking away one of the top Hawk options. With Brick gashing the Hawk defense in the second quarter the Hawks trailed 21-20 at the half.

"It was somewhat of an offensive struggle by us for a while," said O'Donnell. "I'm not sure what caused it."

Barrington Rose now handled the kicking duties, and he lifted a perfect ball for the Hawks to recover on an onsides kick to start the second half. Two Johnson rushes put the ball on the 34 yard line of Brick. The next play, Rose stepped up again, splitting two defenders in the endzone to come away with a touchdown reception. 

At the time, it looked as if it could spark the Hawks. Yet it would be the last time they would hold the lead as a 52 yard TD run on the Dragons next play killed the momentum.

The score would stalemate at 34-26 Dragons, in the fourth until an interception was returned for a Brick touchdown giving the Dragons a 15 point lead as there was under a minute left.

Before the final score, Johnson broke off his biggest run of the day breaking four tackles and taking the ball 81 yards down to the Brick 15. Unfortunately for Manchester, they were not able to punch the ball in.

"The interception for a touchdown hurt us at the end, but not as much as not being able to score on the prior drive," said O'Donnell. "Brick played tough, it was like they knew our playbook, too."

Next up for Manchester is a home game against Lacey Township, Friday, Sept. 30, at 7:00 p.m.