Norwich ‘zeroes’ in on Sabers
By Patrick Newell
Sun Sports Editor
NORWICH – It was a revival of traditional – make that prototypical – Norwich football, and Tornado mentor John Pluta said his team zeroed in its focus on one thing.
“We didn’t care who we were playing, our focus was on ‘what can we do better?’” he said.
What did the Tornado do better?
How about putting last week’s road loss in the past and putting a “W” on the board. Secondly, and perhaps most satisfying, was the points allowed to Friday’s opponent.
Norwich has four sacks and two interceptions, plus it allowed the Sabers just one offensive penetration into the red zone finishing with a 21-0 shutout. Meanwhile, junior running back Chris Mattingly ran for a season-high 139 yards and two scores.
“We’ve looked at the last four times we played (Sus Valley), and they all been really close,” Pluta said “They play physical football, and it started out that way again.”
Norwich ran just eight plays the entire first quarter netting one first down and six total yards. Thankfully, the stout defense was equal to SV’s forcing two punts.
The lack of offense from each side changed in a hurry on the first play of the second quarter, one in which Mattingly brought back fond memories. Mattingly burst up the middle on a quick-hitting trap that went 62 yards to paydirt. Lead blocker Brennan Ryan executed a perfect fake taking several would-be tacklers with him, and he was also in on the superb blocking. “They were taking away some of the outside tackle stuff that had been working for us the first two games,” Pluta said. “That play (Mattingly’s run) was like the old days when the back gets kind of lost in the middle, then breaks loose.”
From that point forward, Sus Valley seemed to wilt on offense and bend to Norwich’s ball-control attack. Mattingly intercepted an Eric Novobliski pass on the subsequent sequence and returned that to the Norwich 36, a Mattingly 18-yard first-down run on fourth down led to Ryan’s two-yard scoring plunge.
Sus Valley’s answer was another interception, and negative total yards the rest of the quarter in large part due to three Tornado sacks. Jose Santos, Amos Parry, Marco Knuth, and Robert Martin all came up with big defensive tackles for negative losses in the first half. For the game, SV finished with just 119 yards of total offense, a 300-yard defensive improvement for Norwich over last week.
“The first couple of weeks, we didn’t play very good defense,” Pluta summed up. “Johnson City had some big plays, and Sidney didn’t punt the ball. John Martinson (Norwich defensive coordinator) had a great scheme tonight, like he always does.”
Susquehanna Valley mounted a 15-play drive in the third quarter, one that tested the Tornado defense. Twice the Sabers were deflated by 10-yard penalties, but big first-down runs totaling 40 yards by junior back Tyrone Smith had the visitors as close as the 17-yard line.
After the second of two holding calls, sophomore Tyler Slater tackled Terrell Irvine for minus three yards, and intense quarterback pressure from Amos Parry on reserve QB Chad Starzer led to an intentional grounding and 14 more negative yards. At that point, SV was at its 41 yard line and no longer a threat to the shutout.
Early in the fourth, Sus Valley muffed Jesse Prosser’s punt, one that was recovered by senior Shane Thompson. Mattingly scored on the next play from 18 yards – the same play that netted the first touchdown of the day. It was Mattingly’s second 100-yard game this season on just 12 carries. Norwich finished with exactly 301 yards in total offense – 295 of those after the first quarter. “This was a really important game for us tonight – to come out and win our division opener,” Pluta said, as Norwich is 2-1 on the season and plays at Windsor next Saturday.
JV Notes: The junior Purple Tornado’s rally from 16-0 down fell short as SV handed the local club its first loss in three games. Eric Owen scored on two TD runs and Alex Williams converted a pair of PAT runs allowing Norwich to tie the contest. The Sabers won the game scoring with 1:39 left in the fourth quarter.
Football Summary
N SV
First downs 12 10
Rushes-yds 38-254 38-90
Passing yds 47 29
Comp-att-int 2-5-0 5-13-2
Punts-avg 4-31.8 4-26.8
Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-0
Penalties-yds 5-45 6-50
Individual statistics
Rushing: (N) Mattingly, 12-139; Ryan, 9-52, N. Foote, 4-27; J. Prosser, 3-21; Bazarnik, 2-7; Kornegay, 2-6; Famolaro, 1-4; Labor, 2-4; Martin, 3-(-6). (SV) T. Smith, 10-70; Irvine, 5-21; Shafer, 7-11; Wolfe, 4-10; Barnes, 4-3; Starzer, 2-(-10); Novilbilski, 6-(-15).
Passing: (N) R. Martin 2-5-0, 47 yds; (SV) Starzer, 4-8-1; 19 yds; Novobilski, 1-5-1, 10 yds.
Receiving: (N) Edwards, 1-44, Foote, 1-3. (S) McKercher, 2-14; Newton, 1-10; Irwin, 1-3 Wolfe, 1-2.
Score by Quarters
SVall 0 0 0 0–0
NHS 0 13 0 8–21
Scoring Summary
N: Mattingly 62 run (Ryan kick)
N: Ryan 2 run (kick failed)
N: Mattingly 18 run (Ryan run)
Sun Sports Editor
NORWICH – It was a revival of traditional – make that prototypical – Norwich football, and Tornado mentor John Pluta said his team zeroed in its focus on one thing.
“We didn’t care who we were playing, our focus was on ‘what can we do better?’” he said.
What did the Tornado do better?
How about putting last week’s road loss in the past and putting a “W” on the board. Secondly, and perhaps most satisfying, was the points allowed to Friday’s opponent.
Norwich has four sacks and two interceptions, plus it allowed the Sabers just one offensive penetration into the red zone finishing with a 21-0 shutout. Meanwhile, junior running back Chris Mattingly ran for a season-high 139 yards and two scores.
“We’ve looked at the last four times we played (Sus Valley), and they all been really close,” Pluta said “They play physical football, and it started out that way again.”
Norwich ran just eight plays the entire first quarter netting one first down and six total yards. Thankfully, the stout defense was equal to SV’s forcing two punts.
The lack of offense from each side changed in a hurry on the first play of the second quarter, one in which Mattingly brought back fond memories. Mattingly burst up the middle on a quick-hitting trap that went 62 yards to paydirt. Lead blocker Brennan Ryan executed a perfect fake taking several would-be tacklers with him, and he was also in on the superb blocking. “They were taking away some of the outside tackle stuff that had been working for us the first two games,” Pluta said. “That play (Mattingly’s run) was like the old days when the back gets kind of lost in the middle, then breaks loose.”
From that point forward, Sus Valley seemed to wilt on offense and bend to Norwich’s ball-control attack. Mattingly intercepted an Eric Novobliski pass on the subsequent sequence and returned that to the Norwich 36, a Mattingly 18-yard first-down run on fourth down led to Ryan’s two-yard scoring plunge.
Sus Valley’s answer was another interception, and negative total yards the rest of the quarter in large part due to three Tornado sacks. Jose Santos, Amos Parry, Marco Knuth, and Robert Martin all came up with big defensive tackles for negative losses in the first half. For the game, SV finished with just 119 yards of total offense, a 300-yard defensive improvement for Norwich over last week.
“The first couple of weeks, we didn’t play very good defense,” Pluta summed up. “Johnson City had some big plays, and Sidney didn’t punt the ball. John Martinson (Norwich defensive coordinator) had a great scheme tonight, like he always does.”
Susquehanna Valley mounted a 15-play drive in the third quarter, one that tested the Tornado defense. Twice the Sabers were deflated by 10-yard penalties, but big first-down runs totaling 40 yards by junior back Tyrone Smith had the visitors as close as the 17-yard line.
After the second of two holding calls, sophomore Tyler Slater tackled Terrell Irvine for minus three yards, and intense quarterback pressure from Amos Parry on reserve QB Chad Starzer led to an intentional grounding and 14 more negative yards. At that point, SV was at its 41 yard line and no longer a threat to the shutout.
Early in the fourth, Sus Valley muffed Jesse Prosser’s punt, one that was recovered by senior Shane Thompson. Mattingly scored on the next play from 18 yards – the same play that netted the first touchdown of the day. It was Mattingly’s second 100-yard game this season on just 12 carries. Norwich finished with exactly 301 yards in total offense – 295 of those after the first quarter. “This was a really important game for us tonight – to come out and win our division opener,” Pluta said, as Norwich is 2-1 on the season and plays at Windsor next Saturday.
JV Notes: The junior Purple Tornado’s rally from 16-0 down fell short as SV handed the local club its first loss in three games. Eric Owen scored on two TD runs and Alex Williams converted a pair of PAT runs allowing Norwich to tie the contest. The Sabers won the game scoring with 1:39 left in the fourth quarter.
Football Summary
N SV
First downs 12 10
Rushes-yds 38-254 38-90
Passing yds 47 29
Comp-att-int 2-5-0 5-13-2
Punts-avg 4-31.8 4-26.8
Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-0
Penalties-yds 5-45 6-50
Individual statistics
Rushing: (N) Mattingly, 12-139; Ryan, 9-52, N. Foote, 4-27; J. Prosser, 3-21; Bazarnik, 2-7; Kornegay, 2-6; Famolaro, 1-4; Labor, 2-4; Martin, 3-(-6). (SV) T. Smith, 10-70; Irvine, 5-21; Shafer, 7-11; Wolfe, 4-10; Barnes, 4-3; Starzer, 2-(-10); Novilbilski, 6-(-15).
Passing: (N) R. Martin 2-5-0, 47 yds; (SV) Starzer, 4-8-1; 19 yds; Novobilski, 1-5-1, 10 yds.
Receiving: (N) Edwards, 1-44, Foote, 1-3. (S) McKercher, 2-14; Newton, 1-10; Irwin, 1-3 Wolfe, 1-2.
Score by Quarters
SVall 0 0 0 0–0
NHS 0 13 0 8–21
Scoring Summary
N: Mattingly 62 run (Ryan kick)
N: Ryan 2 run (kick failed)
N: Mattingly 18 run (Ryan run)
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