Point Beach stifled by Spotswood

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SPOTSWOOD -- Point Beach knew exactly what it needed to do in order to slow down Spotswood’s running game on Saturday, but for 48 minutes there was no stopping Jack Dalrymple.

The Chargers senior running back rumbled for 161 yards on a whopping 37 carries and scored the game’s only touchdown. The Garnet Gulls could not generate the same type of production in their own running game and fell to Spotswood, 7-3, in a nonconference game.

“Our goal was to stop 44 (Dalrymple), and we just didn’t do a good job up front,” said Point Beach head coach John Wagner. “This was exactly the type of game we expected to be in, but we didn’t expect to score just three points.”

Senior Zach McCartney’s 23-yard field goal that capped Point Beach’s first drive was the only points the Garnet Gulls would muster against the Chargers’ defense. Spotswood (3-0) responded immediately on the next drive to take a 7-3 lead, and that was enough to hand Point Beach (2-1) its first loss of the season.

Dalrymple accounted for nearly all the offense for the Chargers, who did not attempt a pass during the game. Senior running back Marshall Gombos led the Gulls with 70 yards on seven carries, and senior receiver Noah Yates caught eight passes for 69 yards.

Point Beach was done in by untimely penalties in addition to having trouble containing Dalrymple. On its scoring drive, the Gulls had third-and-goal from the one-yard line but were pushed back because of a false start penalty. On Spotswood’s scoring drive, Point Beach had stopped the Chargers on a third-and-five from the 20, but a personal foul penalty gave Spotswood a first down inside the 10-yard line.

“We had two bad penalties in bad places,” Wagner said. “We didn’t finish the job.”

Point Beach had a shot to take the lead in the closing minutes, however. The Gulls’ defense stopped Spotswood on fourth-and-goal from the one to turn the ball over with 9:51 left in the fourth quarter. Gombos broke free down the visiting sideline on the first play, and looked like he could take it all the way, but was chased down at the 40-yard line for a 39-yard gain.

The Gulls moved inside the Chargers’ 20-yard line before the drive stalled. The false start penalty on second-and-10 from the 14 pushed Point Beach back five yards, and quarterback Jake Fioretti was swarmed over for a seven-yard loss on the next play. On third-and-22 Fioretti was looking for Yates on a deep seam route, but there was some miscommunication on the pattern and the ball was intercepted by Chase Fee. Spotswood then picked up a pair of first downs before taking two kneel downs to end the game.

“We made some mistakes at the wrong time and that’s disappointing,” Wagner said. “The kids did a great job on that goal-line stand, and that gave us a chance at the end. We knew it was going to be this type of game, a slugfest. We had a couple of chances and didn’t cash in.”

Box Score

Spotswood 7, Point Beach 3

Point Beach (2-1) 3 0 0 0 – 3
Spotswood (3-0)  0 7 0 0 – 7

Scoring summary
P – Zach McCartney 23-yard field goal
S – Jack Dalrymple 1-yard run (Mike McCloskey kick)

Individual statistics
Rushing – P: Marshall Gombos 7-70, Joe Wegrzyniak 7-23, Jake Fioretti 3-11, Michael Fraunheim 6-12; S: Jack Dalrymple 37-161, Chase Fee 5-21, Mike McCloskey 1-3, Ryan Long 2-1, C.J. O'Connor 4-(-5).

Passing – P: Jake Fioretti 8-12-2 90, Michael Fraunheim 0-1-0 0.

Receiving – P: Noah Yates 8-69, Bill Barry 0-21.

Interceptions – S: Jon Milburn 1-8, Chase Fee 1-15.