It was a memorable night at Scranton Memorial Stadium as the NEPA Miners and the New England Knights battled for five quarters only to settle for a 14-14 Tie. The Miners played well as their Thunder Defense held the Knights to 82 yards in the air and contained Knights power back Nick Susko to 65 yards and only one score. The Miners West Coast Offense continues to gel with 359 total yards and eight different receivers touching the rock. Damon Saxon led the ground game with 62 yards on 17 carries. The fans are still scratching their heads as two teams refused to lose and battled for an extra hour only to leave everyone waiting for the September 13th rematch of Northeastern division rivals. The Miners may be lucky coming away with a tie as seven turnovers can doom any team, but it was a wild night as New England had six turnovers themselves. The Miners won the first quarter as their Quarterback J.P. Antosh hit veteran wide receiver Germaine Bolden with a 19 yard touchdown strike with 1:44 seconds left in the quarter. The second quarter was a stalemate until the Knights Special Teams ignited with a 79 yard punt return sending both teams to the locker room with a 7-7 tie. Both teams made sound half time adjustments as the defenses battled in the third quarter. The Thunder defense was led by strong statistical performances from Roy Glenn Jr. who had 10 tackles, Jamie Kendrick who had 7 tackles and two interceptions, a sack from Malcolm Singleton and two more interceptions from Brandon Short and Earl Chapman. Donnie Jackson-Bey also had seven tackles in his conversion to Linebacker. The defensive battle continued until 2:30 in the fourth when the Knights thought they wrapped the game up with a Nick Susko 6 yard touchdown run. The Miners had something different in mind with their undefeated record at home on the line as J.P. Antosh hit Jeremey Kendrick for a 41 yard touch strike as Kendrick refused to be tackled with some elusive moves to the end zone. The Miners won the overtime coin toss and drove down the field only to have a game winning field goal opportunity blocked. The rest is history as the defenses would hold each other in check until time expired. It was a great test of character and a heavy weight battle between two competitive ball clubs. The best football is ahead for the Miners as they retool their roster every week putting the best 53 men on the field each week and continue to improve. Their next matchup is on the road versus the Brooklyn Mariners on July 26th as the Mariners lost a battle themselves 3-6 to the New Jersey Wolves whom the Miners will meet at the end of the season. Our hometown team will return to Scranton Memorial Stadium on August 2nd versus the New Jersey Warriors. Keep up the good work Miners and the sky is the limit!
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 and is filed under Miners News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
The North East Pennsylvania (NEPA) Miners are a minor league football team bringing a first of its kind football league to North Eastern Pennsylvania that will set the Miners apart from their competitors. While the Miners represent all of North East Pennsylvania, their basis of operations is the Poconos, encompassing the areas of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. The Miners play in the Regional Atlantic Football League (RAFL) with home games at the area’s finest facilities.
The Miners’ goal is to serve the people of North East Pennsylvania with year-round community service while providing superior customer service and quality family entertainment on Saturday nights during the football season. Led by their President and Head Coach Daniel LaMagna and supported by Charlie Wysocki — a Wilkes-Barre native and legendary football player — the Miners aim to exemplify the utmost in sportsmanship while entertaining their fans. We are Scranton Football at its finest!
