Krishnan’s 43-Yard Kick Lifts Clarksburg Over Urbana
The Clarksburg Coyotes improved to 4-2 this season with an exciting and emotional victory over the Urbana Hawks, thanks to a 45-yard field goal that bounced tantalizingly on the crossbar goal post before falling through to secure the victory.
The Coyotes are on a two game win-streak after a 20-12 road victory over Wootton last week. With Friday’s home victory over Urbana Clarksburg improves to 4-2 for the season.
“It was an extremely physical football game,” said Clarksburg Head Coach Larry Hurd, Jr. in a phone interview on Saturday afternoon. “There are a lot of kids that are sore today.” This is the first time the two schools have played each other, even though they are just 7.8 miles from each other.
Clarksburg got on the board early scoring on the opening drive. Senior quarterback Hunter Reimers connected with junior wide receiver Ian Krishnan on a 55-yard touchdown pass to put the Coyotes up 6-0 less than two-minutes into the game. The point-after-attempt would fail.
The Coyotes would take that six-point lead into halftime, but the Urbana Hawks would not go quietly, they were able to put together a drive which would start on their own 34-yard line with 11:01 left to play in the game. Urbana would drive down the Clarksburg five-yard line. The Hawks would go off-tackle punch the ball into the end zone to take 7-6 lead.
After the kick, Clarksburg would move the ball down to the Urbana 28-yard line before being stopped on third down. The Coyotes faced a fourth-and-eight with 3:30 left to play, down by one point. “The game was back and forth the entire way,” said Hurd.
Coach Hurd decided to go with for 45-yard field goal, and the kicking team took the field. “Ian Krishnan is quite the athlete,” said Hurd. “He is a football player and basketball player, and he put it through the uprights and got us the win.”
Krishnan’s kick sailed 45 yards, bounced on the bottom cross-bar of the goal post in through to give the Coyotes a 9-7 victory.
“Ian accounted for all 9 points but it was a great effort by our entire team,” said Hurd. “The defense played extremely well to hold a tough opponent to seven points. All the kids did what they had to do to win the game for us. Urbana is one of the top programs in the state, year in and year out. Coach Dave Mencarini does a great job with them. We feel real good about the win.”
The 4-2 Coyotes will travel to Gaithersburg to take on a tough Trojan team next week. Gaithersburg is 3-3 after eking out a two-point 28-26 victory over Whitman on Saturday. Gaithersburg is another tough, tough team,” said Hurd. “Every team that Coach Kephart coaches is going to come. They are going to be physical. They are going to hit you. They are well coached, Coach Kephart and Coach Carter do a great job with their team. It is going to be another game where we are going to be have to play extremely well to win.”
Captions:
Top: Junior Ian Krishnan (18) scored all the points tonight in the Coyotes 9-7 victory. The first points came on a 55-yard TD reception. But it was his memorable 45-yd FG with three minutes left in the game that hit the cross bar and went over the post for the winning points.
Next: Although Senior RB Stanley Perry failed to score for a sixth straight game, it was his 30-yard run with four minutes left that set-up Ian Krishnan's game winning field goal.
Photos by Ed Sheahin.
