Purple Eagles ‘D’ stymies Steelers

By Mike Wertman, Sports Writer Posted 7 September 2018 at 10:56 pm

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Albion’s Ugene Harrison making a leaping one handed interception to help ignite the Purple Eagles to a 43-8 victory over visiting Lackawanna this evening.

A whopping seven turnovers by the defense sparked Albion to a 43-8 victory over visiting Lackawanna this evening in a key early season B2 Division game.

The Purple Eagles defense came up with five interceptions, two by Matt Kovaleski and one each by Ugene Harrison, Kevin Hillman and Brilliance Johnson, as well as fumble recoveries by Ben Restivo and Jonathan DePuy.

“Our defense was just unbelievable,” said Albion Coach Adam Krenning. “They now have had 11 turnovers in two games. That’s outstanding. They just work so well together. And our offense was firing on all cylinders.”

Offensively, the Purple Eagles got three touchdowns from Harrison along with one each from quarterback Bryce Pritchard, Hillman and Ryan Croft as Alex Rustay chipped in with a field goal and four extra point kicks.

Albion defenders Jonathan DePuy, Ben Restivo and Brennan Hughes team up to tackle Lackawanna quarterback Jeremiah Caviness.

Albion jumped out to a 10-0 first quarter lead on a 4 yard touchdown run by Harrison and a 22 yard field goal by Rustay who also added the extra point kick after the TD.

Big pass completions by Pritchard of 30 yards to Harrison and 22 yards to Kovaleski keyed the TD drive while the field goal opportunity was set up by an interception by Kovaleski.

Harrison also stopped Lackawanna’s first drive of the game with a nifty leaping one handed interception deep in Purple Eagles territory.

The Purple Eagles defense kept up the momentum in the second quarter stopping the Steelers first two drives on an interception by Kovaleski and a fumble recovery by Restivo. A sack by DePuy forced the fumble.

That turnover set up an 11 yard touchdown run by Pritchard which helped up the Albion lead to 17-2 at the half. Pritchard had pass completions of 31 yards to Nate Moore and 11 to Tyray White and a 12 yard run to spark that drive.

The Purple Eagles upped the lead to a commanding 31-2 margin in the third quarter after a 1 yard touchdown run by Harrison and a 52 yard TD pass from Pritchard to Hillman. Rustay tacked on both extra point kicks.

Johnson and Hillman both had interceptions in the period for the Purple Eagles.

Albion tacked on a pair of scores in the final quarter on TD runs of 57 yards by Harrison and 3 yards by Croft.

The Albion defense capped off its big night with fourth quarter sacks by the duos of Brennan Hughes and DePuy and Hughes and Ryan Grandy.

Lackawanna’s lone touchdown came on a 10 yard run by De’Marion Johnson in the third quarter.

Albion is now 2-0 in the division while Lackawanna is 0-1 in the division and 1-1 overall.

The Purple Eagles next host Burgard at 7 p.m. next Saturday evening in an inter divisional game.