Sep. 18—PORTAGE — While Portage was able to take advantage of some big plays on special teams during Friday’s 23-12 victory, North Star wasn’t as fortunate as big moments were wiped out by penalties.
“I knew with North Star coming in, we were in for a handful,” Portage coach Marty Slonac said.
“I don’t look at what happened last week. They found out they had to play Windber at 5 p.m. on Thursday. They were not afraid to go play them on the next night and prepare for what they do.
“That’s a mentally and physically tough team. They are not afraid to battle, they are well-coached, and they are young. We are leaving the WestPAC, but they are going to be a team to reckon with.”
The first of the big negative plays for North Star came late in the opening quarter. Facing a third-and-8 from the Portage 45, the Cougars ran a perfectly executed middle screen pass. Ethan Yoder took the screen pass from Connor Yoder and rumbled 20 yards to give North Star a first down at the 25. However, an illegal man downfield call against the Cougars nixed that big gain.
The penalty led to a North Star punt. However, the snap sailed over punter Ethan Yoder’s head. He ran back and picked up the ball, but was quickly tackled to turn the ball over on downs.
Portage took advantage of the special-teams miscue to get on the scoreboard. The Mustangs moved the ball 34 yards in six plays. Jon Wolford converted a key third down with a punishing inside run. He capped off the drive with a 13-yard scoring scamper to put Portage up 6-0.
North Star was bitten by penalties late in the first half. Connor Yoder scampered almost 20 yards on quarterback keeper for a first down near midfield. However, a holding penalty negated the run and pushed the Cougars deep into their zone. North Star ended up having to punt from its own end zone. Yoder boomed a punt to near midfield, but Gavin Gouse returned the punt 39 yards to the North Star 6. Three plays later Oren Heidler scampered into the end zone from 2 yards out to push the Portage lead to 13-0 at halftime.
“I want to see the film,” said North Star coach Bob Landis of the penalties. “Obviously, they called the penalties. I want to see how we can correct those penalties. We will watch the film and get better.”
North Star looked to take back momentum early in the second half, when they forced a three-and-out on the Mustangs’ first possession.
However, Andrew Miko took the punt snap and ran around the left end for 12 yards and a first down. The drive did not lead to points, but it did prevent North Star from grabbing momentum.
Portage scored early in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach. They used an eight-play, 45-yard drive to push the lead to 20-0. The key play was an 11-yard pass from Miko to Gouse. Kaden Claar scampered around the left side to put the ball into the end zone.
“To be up 13-0 at the half, and getting the ball to start the second half, we felt confident with where we were,” Slonac said.
“They made some plays and kept it 13-0. I thought that next touchdown, the first touchdown of the second half, would be huge. Either they were going to cut it to a one-score lead, or we were going to go up three scores.
“Fortunately, we were able to get it.”
North Star finally put together a scoring drive on its ensuing possession. Connor Yoder hit Mitchel Pristas for a 55-yard pass to push the ball deep into Mustangs territory. Yoder connected with Ethan Smith on the next play for a 10-yard touchdown pass.
However, it proved to be too little, too late for the Cougars. Dylan Tubbs kicked a 33 yard field goal for Portage, and Connor Yoder found Ethan Yoder in the end zone in the closing seconds of the game to set the final at 23-12.
“Defensively I thought we played well tonight,” Landis said. “We were able to slow down their run game. They pride themselves on running the football, and I thought we did a pretty good job of slowing things down tonight. The majority of the scoring drives they had tonight were on short fields. You can’t give a good team short fields”