Brian HagbergRUSSELL, Pa. – Two fourth-quarter touchdowns pushed Eisenhower to a 28-14 victory in a hard-fought battle with Iroquois on Thursday.
Rewatch the game:
Three minutes after the Braves tied it at 14-14, Shawn Pascuzzi ran in a 9-yard score to put the Knights back in front and Tucker Lindell added the insurance TD with a 13-yard run with 3:49 to play.
“We’ve known they’re a hard-hitting team and they’re just hard-nosed all around,” Eisenhower’s Camron Jakubczak said during the Cole Orthodontic Associate player interview. “We knew it (a battle) was coming.”
Jakubczak’s strong game defensively, along with a 25-yard kick return and 19-yard reception earned him Allegheny Grille of Foxburg Player of the Game honors.
See Jakubczak’s full Cole Orthodontic Associates postgame interview:
Eisenhower looked poised to take command of the game early. The Knights recovered after Chrisian Krysiak and Savion Peoples fumbled the exchange on a handoff on the second play from scrimmage.
Logan Penley took the ball to the doorstep with a 15-yard run, then finished the drive with a 1-yard run to put Eisenhower ahead 7-0.
Iroquois responded with a 76-yard scoring drive. Sam Kightlinger ran the Braves down to the Eisenhower 38. Krysiak dropped a dime to Cole Bennett for a 38-yard touchdown strike. A low snap on the PAT left the Knights with a 7-6 advantage with just under five minutes to play in the first quarter.
Neither team would reach the end zone again until late in the third quarter.
With a little more than two minutes to play in the third quarter, Lindell broke through on the left side, then ran over a pair of defenders on his way to a 57-yard touchdown run. Cole Kellogg’s extra point gave the Knights a 14-6 lead.
The Braves again answered on their next possession. Krysiak connected with Bennett on four plays for 63 yards on the drive. Krysiak then found Micah Pisarski for a 5-yard touchdown. It was Krysiak to Carmelo Hunter for the 2-point conversion to tie it at 14-14.
Big runs by Penley and Lindell, coupled with a 15-yard Iroquois put the Knights at the Braves’ 9. Pascuzzi kept it himself on 1st-and-goal to put the Knights back in front, 21-14.
Jakubczak’s 19-yard reception moved Eisenhower into Iroquois territory on its next possession. Penley and Lindell did the rest, with Lindell’s 13-yard TD run closing out the scoring.
Krysiak finished 12-27 passing for 149 yards and two touchdowns. Bennett had six catches for 107 yards and a score and Hunter had three receptions for 40 yards.
Lindell had nine carries for 99 yards and two scores. Penley ran 16 times for 77 yards and a touchdown.
Pascuzzi was 5-13 passing for 62 yards, and added 42 yards and a touchdown on nine carries.
