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North Huskies vs Castle Knights - at John Lidy Field Oct 11, 2019

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Offense

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Game Recap

NORTH DISCOVERS 'HUSKY TIME' IN PARADISE WITH 36-65 O.T. WIN

Trailing by 14 points at halftime, the North Huskies called on their defense to make stand after stand as they ran down the Castle Knights in a thrilling 36-35 overtime victory at John Lidy Field.  The victory marked North’s first win on the road in Paradise since 2003.

The game featured an odd imbalance of field position.  With Castle’s punter enjoying a near perfect night, North’s average starting point on 16 possessions was its 23 yard line.  On only one occasion did the Huskies begin a drive in Castle territory.

Castle, by contrast, began with the ball in North’s end of the field on half of their opportunities.  As a result of some very short fields to cover, they were able to jump out to an early lead.

HUSKIES FIND THEIR FOOTING

To portray the North offense as ineffective would be an inaccurate description.  The Huskies put together a 13 play drive early in the second quarter that featured 11 running plays.  On the drive they converted three third down situations and totaled five first downs in all.  Sophomore quarterback Ethan Brawdy scored the first of his three touchdowns in the game and evened the score at 7 with nine minutes to play in the first half.

A DISASTROUS FINAL FOUR MINUTES

Following the kickoff, Castle was faced with a rare long field to convert and were forced to punt.  Their punter uncorked the second of five punts on the night that would land inside the North 20 yard line.  The Huskies punting game was not up to its usual standards in this contest and disaster struck near the end of the half. 

Starting from their 20, a pass fell short of its mark on first down.  A delay of game penalty cost the Huskies five yards and moved them back to the 15.  A run with junior Capoleton Presswood was stopped at the line of scrimmage.  A second delay of game penalty cost another five yards and put the ball at the 10.  Another run lost five yards and the Huskies had to punt from the five.  A shanked punt went out of bounds at the ten yard line. 

Castle scored on a touchdown pass thirty seconds after taking over at the ten.

Following a mishandled kickoff return, North was forced to start from their ten yard line.  Unable to convert a first down, the Huskies punted from in front of their goal post with 1:39 to play in the half and Castle took over at the North 45.  Their first play from scrimmage saw the Husky defensive backfield miss an assignment and the Knights went up 21-7 on a long touchdown pass just 19 seconds later.

McKINNEY RECOVERS HIS FORM

Following a first half in which he was limited to a single catch for 9 yards and three runs for just three yards, senior Dylan McKinney found his All-Star form in the second half.  Where Brawdy had missed him on a few passes, McKinney had also experienced some uncommon ‘drops’.  In the second half all that would change.

Over the course of the next 24 minutes, McKinney would go on to catch 7 passes for over 150 yards and be ‘there’ whenever the team needed him.  On five different occasions he would keep drives “alive” despite North’s poor opening field position.  It is not an understatement to say that he played one of the great halves of football the Huskies have ever gotten from a receiver.  It was most evident on North’s first possession of the second half when he snared a pass on a seam route running straight up field and then ‘took it to the house’ for a 54 yard touchdown to pull the Huskies within seven points.

When the dust cleared after the exciting finish in overtime, one of the many memories of this night would be McKinney owning EVERY meaningful single-season receiving record in the North All-Time Record book.  His 795 yards receiving on the season are the most in school history with at least two more games to play.  His nine receiving touchdowns are the most ever in a season.  His 42 catches are tied for first in a season.  He is enjoying the greatest single season ever experienced by a North receiver and doing it while also gaining nearly 600 yards rushing and scoring as many touchdowns as a runner.

KNIGHTS CONVERT ANOTHER SHORT FIELD

Special teams play was not a strength of the Huskies on Friday night.  Following the touchdown, a Castle return man broke into the open and returned the kick out past mid-field.  Only a last second grab by kicker Noel Devonshire and senior Shawn McPherson prevented a touchdown.  Given that they were starting at the North 43, Castle stretched their lead back to 14 points a little over a minute later.

THE DEFENSE ‘BOTTLES UP’ THE KNIGHTS

Something very significant happened at halftime.  Where Castle had run for over 100 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, the Husky defense ‘righted the ship’ with halftime adjustments.   When a North seven yard punt gave Castle the ball at the Husky 31 yard line, junior Ty Street dropped a runner for a three yard loss on first down.  Junior Brody Tichenor held a receiver to a short gain on second down.  A third down pass fell incomplete following a heavy rush of the quarterback by seniors Jake Townsend and J.T. Skinner.  The same duo then converged on the quarterback again on fourth-and-seven at the North 28 yard line.  When the whistle blew the play ended with the hapless QB losing the ball while attempting to avoid the rush and then recovering it for a 14 yard loss.  Castle compounded the loss with an “illegal touch” penalty that cost them another ten yards.

Over the course of the second half, the North defense—which had been so generous against the run in the first half—would hold the Knights to NEGATIVE fourteen yards rushing on 14 carries in the second stanza.

FINALLY, GOOD FIELD POSITION

With the advantage of a short field ahead of them, the Huskies put together a seven play drive with a combination of runs by Presswood and Brawdy sandwiched around a crucial McKinney third down catch to keep the drive alive.  Following a low snap at the four yard line of second down and goal to go, Brawdy turned the busted play into a quarterback keeper and scrambled into the end zone to pull North back within seven points at 28-21.

SKINNER ‘TURNS IT UP A NOTCH’

Following a great effort by seniors Tanner Jackson and Tyler Gilman to hold a runner short of a first down at midfield, North stared another disaster in the face.  When Castle’s punter booted the ball into the end zone for a touchback, the Knights intercepted a pass on first down and ended up with the ball at North’s 32.

Where J.T. Skinner had been comparatively quiet in the first half, like McKinney, the second half of this game would be his turn to add to his credentials.  Having already combined with Townsend to stop one drive, he set the tone for this possession with a quarterback sack on first down that changed the trajectory of Castles offense.  They were unable to convert the short field and turned the ball over on downs as the game entered the final quarter.

SKINNER’S BIG SCORE

Starting from their 25, the Huskies again strung together some first downs but were unable to sustain the drive for 75 yards to pay dirt.  As a result, Castle had the ball with eight minutes to play, a seven-point lead, and pretty good field position at their 35-yard line.  It certainly appeared that, playing at home, if they could convert a first down or two, punt the ball back down to the North end zone, and then play solid defense, the game would be theirs.

J.T. Skinner negated that line of thinking on a single play.

On third down, the Knights tried to isolate a receiver in space against a single defender.  The principles of the “spread offense” are to get an offensive player space to run with the ball and a single defender to ‘beat’.  Isolating a receiver with only a defensive end to contain him is considered an ‘optimal’ match up in the spread offense.  It’s the type of situation that offensive coordinators dream of and the moment in a game that usually turns in favor of the offense.

Not when that defensive end is J.T. Skinner.

Skinner is a rare type of player.  He is gifted athletically with a body he has worked hard to develop.  He is fast and explosive—more so than is typical of a high school defensive end.  He also displays an innate sense of knowing where the ball is on a football field.

It was Skinner who was isolated in space and covering a wide receiver in what would commonly be thought of as a mismatch of positions.  When the receiver caught the ball and turned to run up field, he tried to fake to one side and then spin to the other in order to avoid Skinner.

The senior end ignored the fake and ripped the ball from the receiver’s grasp.  Skinner's strength and fast reflexes allowed him to simply strip the receiver of the ball.

He is also fast, faster than most defensive ends.  He routinely plays running back on offense and had 41 yards rushing in this game.  No yards were more important than the 30 he gained on his way to the game tying touchdown.  As he sprinted into the end zone, the score was tied at 28 and the Huskies had momentum.

A CHANCE TO WIN IN REGULATION THWARTED

The defense would force three more punts from Castle in the game’s waning minutes.  After Tyler Gilman TWICE sacked the Knights' quarterback to force a fourth-and-27 situation, North got the ball back for the final time with 2:30 to play and 65 yards between them and victory.  The scene was reminiscent of last week’s game with Reitz.  The stage was set for a repeat.

The lessons learned from the team’s ‘coming of age’ drive in the prior contest was evident as Brawdy carried the ball five times to gain 31 of those 65 yards.  No gain was larger, however, than his critical third-and-seven pass to McKinney.  Despite drawing defenders everywhere he went, the senior managed to break into the clear at the Castle 38 and kept yet another drive alive.

Following Brawdy’s last carry to the four yard line, the Huskies called a time out with four seconds to play.  The Huskies brought out the field goal team for a game winning kick and Alex Ozete split the uprights for a 31-28 victory.  The North faithful celebrated only to find out that Castle’s coach had called time out at the last possible second (some would say it was even later than that).  A repeat of the play ended with the Knights blocking the kick and forcing overtime.

BRAWDY REFUSES TO LOSE

After Castle scored on their overtime possession, the Huskies looked like they might be denied a victory they had worked hard to earn.  Three running plays netted just seven yards and North faced fourth and goal at the three.  Failure to score on their remaining play would give the game to Castle.

Those who were there saw center Jackson Robards and guard Jacob Guest overwhelm the nose tackle.  Tackle Adam Goebel pried his man to the right to create space for a runner.  Presswood ran into the hole as a lead blocker and put a helmet in the sternum of the middle linebacker.

Ethan Brawdy ran into the line through the opening and veered to the right…

…directly into the arms of a pair of defenders.

Waiting for him at the one yard line were a safety and another linebacker.  Brawdy is not big.  Brawdy is not brawny.  Brawdy is not what is considered powerful by football standards.

What Brawdy is will be determined over the course of the next several years.  What we saw on this play was enough to make the statement that this young man is determined.  He drove his shoulder into one defender as he got low with the football.

Low ‘wins’ in football.  The drive of his body was just enough to carry him into the end zone with the determination of a young man who would not be denied.

North trailed 35-34 with only the extra point needed to force another overtime.

THE DREAM COMES TRUE

Perhaps another coach would have settled for another overtime period.  Perhaps another North team would have been satisfied with ‘equaling’ the Knights’ effort.  Perhaps the smart play was to give the defense another chance to bottle up Castle.

For this Husky ball club, there was no choice in the matter.  They stood at a moment where one play could change the direction of a program.  If they went for two points on the conversion they could end the game in one fell swoop.  With that choice came the risk that their collective efforts, this night when so many had displayed their brilliance, could end as just another failure in an attempt to bridge the gap against other schools in the SIAC conference.

North took the risk.

McKinney went in motion before the snap and came from left to right on the football field.  With his motion several Castle defensive backs shifted to match his motion.  Brawdy saw this reaction and got a pre-snap read that indicated he would have single coverage in a zone to his left—away from the motion.

On the snap, Brawdy stepped back immediately to give himself extra time to put something behind his throw.  Without looking left, he continued to scan the right side of the field and the defenders followed his glance.

Every North player was running toward the right side of the end zone—save one.

Crossing the field below the defensive backs, senior Alex Smith ran counter to the flow.  Having lined up at tight end on the right, he ran a shallow drag route in the opposite direction underneath the receivers who were streaming into the right hand side of the end zone.  At the last second, Brawdy turned his glance from the right to the left and lofted a perfect strike into the left hand back corner of the end zone. 

With only a single trailing defender who had noticed his route too late to have an effect, Smith reached up and cradled the pass into his arms for the game winning two point conversion.

North won 36 to 35.

Finally, it was “Husky Time” in Paradise.

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