Emerson-Hubbard defeats Pender on road

The Emerson-Hubbard Football Team won 58-26 at Pender Friday night.

The Pirates led 16-12 after one and won the second quarter 6-0 to take a 22-12 lead into the locker room.

Emerson-Hubbard outscored the Pendragons 22-8 in the 3rd quarter to go up 44-20 at the end of three.

The Pirates won the 4th quarter 14-6.

Spencer Burcham had 110 yards rushing on 15 carries while Nolan Ostrand had 95 yards rushing on 14 carries, including two scores. Nolan Belt had 54 yards on the ground on 10 carries and was 5-12 passing for 64 yards with two touchdowns.

Ostrand and Burcham had 15 tackles apiece while Micah Lamprecht and Jacob Kniefl had 13 and 12, respectively. Belt added 7.

Emerson-Hubbard had 330 yards of total offense, including 266 on the ground, while giving up 245 yards of total offense, 206 coming through the air.

Big win for the Pirates. I think Emerson-Hubbard secured a playoff berth with a win.

Head Coach Joe Kvidera on the win. "Our win over Pender was a very big win. Pender is a pretty good football team so to be able to beat them is good in itself, but getting the W against an old traditional rival does make the victory a little sweeter. My hats off to Pender though as they played us very tough."

The Pirates (5-2) host Clarkson/Leigh (5-2) for the D2-2 District Title Friday night.

The Patriots won 54-16 at home over Mead last week.

Kvidera says Clarkson/Leigh is a complete football team. "C-L is a very good all-round football team. They are athletic and well coached so it's going to take an all out effort to win this game. I think the team that makes the fewest mistakes is probably going to be the winner of this game."

Emerson-Hubbard has won 4 in a row while the Patriots have won 5 straight.

Kvidera adds his team has been playing mistake free football as of late. "The elimination of costly mistakes has been the biggest factor. The two games that we lost we had some costly penalties and we were struggling with bad snaps out of the pistol formation. Those things were drive killers and really cost us in some games. We are also tackling better now then we did at the beginning of the season."

The biggest thing for the Pirates, in my opinion will be trying to slow down Tommy McEvoy, who has over 1200 yards rushing and 23 touchdowns so far this season.

Kvidera says controlling clock and wrapping him up will be critical. "That's a great question. I don't think anyone has been able to slow him down very much through the season. Probably the best way to slow him down is to keep him on the defensive side of the ball! Beyond that the best way to neutralize a player as dynamic as McEvoy is to take away his running lanes and make sure you have him wrapped up."

This figures to be a great game as Emerson-Hubbard has some solid backs in Burcham, Ostrand, and Belt.

Clarkson/Leigh also has Travis Stanley, who had 130 yards rushing and four touchdowns against the Raiders.

This is for the District Championship....the whole ball of wax!!!!

I look for the Pirates to be fired up and give the Patriots all they can handle.

Clarkson/Leigh will be tough, but Emerson-Hubbard has them at home and anything can happen in these types of games.

This is a big one and could come down to the final quarter or drive.

I expect both teams to bring their A game and play at a higher level than they have all season.

I'm sure both teams want this one badly so may the best team win.