NORWICH – Norwich football saved its best for last.
Playing out their regular season schedule with nothing to play for other than personal pride, the Tornado recorded their first shutou this season, and rushed for a season-high 314 yards in a 30-0 victory over Susquehanna Valley Friday.
Coming off a third loss in four games a week ago, the Tornado flipped a switch from its recent past and put on a final-game performance that was vintage purple and white.
“We weren’t sure how it was going to turn out, but we wanted our last game to be our best game, and it was,” said Norwich senior running back Mike Moon.
Moon hit the trifecta with two TD runs, two two-point conversions, and adding his first two extra-point kicks in the second half.
Norwich’s first drive of the game, one that lasted over six minutes but didn’t yield a score, foreshadowed the type of ball control and rushing success that would pay dividends the rest of the way.
Tyler Slater busted a 37-yard run early in the second quarter to the SV three, and Moon – on his first carry of the game – scored the opening TD on the next play.
Leading 6-0 at halftime, Norwich turned back the SV attack in the first two quarters forcing a missed 30-yard field goal, holding the Sabers on downs midway through the second quarter on a fourth-and-four, then reaping the benefits of a bad shotgun snap that lost 15 yards to effectively end the final drive of the half.
“We made some mistakes in the first half that hurt us, but the second half was probably the best football we’ve played all season,” summed up Norwich head coach John Pluta.
How good was the second half? Norwich scored on its first three possessions, and was driving for the fourth when time expired to end the game. The Tornado delivered some of their most physical hits and blocks of the game, and the intensity was at the same level as the early-season division games that supposedly carried more importance.
“The kids have played hard every game this season,” Pluta said. “There was no question that the effort would be there tonight.”
Norwich drove 64 yards on 12 plays to launch the second-half scoring. A 10-yard holding penalty was overcome on Tim Clark’s 30-yard pass to Andrew Austin at the five. Moon scored two plays later from the two, and then added the conversion to make it 16-0.
SV was stopped at midfield on a fourth-and-four, and the Tornado picked up where they left off. Slater, who finished with 102 yards rushing, had a pair of first-down runs to set up Alex Williams’ 31-yard dash to paydirt.
Reserve Josh Favolaro, called up last week from the junior varsity for his first varsity action, took the lion’s share of the carries on the next drive. Favolaro had runs of 16 and 20 yards to set up a three-yard scoring jaunt with 5:21 to play. Moon’s second extra-point boot upped the lead to 30 points.
SV was held to just 37 yards of total offense in the second half, and never threatened to score. “They were playing pretty well the last three weeks,” Pluta said. “The shutout is really nice.”
Norwich finishes the season 6-3.
Score by Quarters
SV 0 0 0 0–0
NHS 0 8 8 14–30
Scoring Summary
Second quarter
N: Mike Moon 3 run (Moon run)
Third quarter
N: Moon 2 run (Moon run)
Fourth quarter
N: Alex Williams 31 run (Moon kick)
N: Josh Favolaro 3 run (Moon kick)
Team summary
N SV
First downs 18 10
Rushes-yds 56-314 35-90
Passing yds 30 46
Comp-att-int 1-2-0 4-13-0
Punts-avg 0-0 2-27.5
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties-yds 7-55 3-21.5
Individual Statistics
Rushing: (N) Tyler Slater, 16-102; Alex Williams, 6-54; Josh Favolaro, 6-46; Christian Hotaling, 10-44; Mike Moon, 7-25; Mike Reilly, 4-18; Tim Clark, 4-17; Casey Edwards, 3-8. (SV) Laurent Dure, 11-36; Sean Haughton, 6-35; Jarred Ragard, 6-17; Michael Banko, 6-9; Chad Starzer, 4-(-1) Torin O’Brien, 1-(-1); Ethan Stone, 1-(-4)
Passing: (N) Tim Clark, 1-2-0, 30 yds; O’Brien, 4-10-0, 37 yds; Starzer, 1-3-0, 9 yds.
Receiving: (N) Andrew Austin, 1-30 (SV) Banko, 2-22; Haughton, 1-9; Jake Kachmar, 1-10; Laurent Dure, 1-5.