Little things cost Black Knights in loss

All season long Towanda coach Craig Dawsey has preached the same thing before each game.

'We have to take care of the little things,' he says, it sounds simple enough and for 11 weeks it never caused a problem for the Black Knights.

Towanda played 11 games going into Friday and all 11 times they took care of the little things well enough to end the night with a victory.

Sure, there were turnovers and penalties, missed blocks and dropped passes, every team has them during a season, but in the end every week Towanda took care of those things well enough to win the games.

Every week until this week when Lewisburg took advantage each time Towanda had a mistake and the Green Dragons left town with a 19-14 victory, ending Towanda's season in the District 4, Class AA semifinals.

"There's not much you can do, we wish this didn't happen, but I'm proud of the kids, I'm proud of how they worked," Dawsey said. "It's all about making plays, you have to make plyas like this and we didn't make enough of them."

With just four teams left in the district going into the day, Dawsey knew that those little things would take on a really big part in deciding Friday's winner.

"It comes down to those little, tiny details," he said. "We practice them all the time, but tonight we just didn't take care of all of them.

"We made some plays, we got an interception and scored off the interception. They made some mistakes, but we made some mistakes that hurt us."

Right from the start those little mistakes started showing.

After forcing Lewisburg into a fourth-and-three at the Towanda 16, the Black Knights jumped off-sides, giving the Green Dragons a first down.

Towanda wound up stopping them on the drive, but then a Towanda interception gave Lewisburg the ball and just like that the Green Dragons had the lead.

Towanda started a drive of their own, but they came up short on a fourth-down play, one of three fourth-down plays they were stopped on in the game.

Towanda got their interception and Dakota Roof took advantage for the score, but again some miscues hurt Towanda.

The Black Knights missed a number of tackles as Lewisburg's Ryan Lopes caught his second touchdown of the game.

Towanda drove down in the final minute of the half, looking to score, but after a 38-yard run by Roof, the Black Knights dropped a pass at the goal line and Roof then missed a field goal to end the half with the Black Knights down 13-7.

Lewisburg forced Towanda into a three-and-out to start the second half, but again a special teams miscue, this time a bad snap over Roof's head, gave the Green Dragons the ball deep in Towanda territory and they scored to go up 19-7.

"That's one of those things that hurts, we had our long-snapper get hurt and someone new stepping in," Dawsey said. "I wish it didn't happen, wish we had done something different. He probably should have been up in varsity all year, but you can't change that.

"You go into a game like this, you know it's going to be tight and you have to play well in all aspects, and it didn't work out today."

Throughout the second half there were some dropped passes and Lewisburg constantly was able to get some pressure on Roof and the Black Knights.

And, while the little things weren't working out for the Black Knights, Towanda kept fighting and in the final minutes they had the ball, inside the Lewisburg 40 with a chance to win the game.

"We had a shot to win it, you can't ask for more, we just weren't able to do it," Dawsey said. "14-19 and it was just a great football game, the kids played hard, I'm proud of them, unfortunately it's a game we didn't win."

And while Dawsey knew all year long that if the team didn't take care of the little things they could lose, he also knew that the upperclassmen on this team weren't going to go out without a fight.

"Senior leadership is absolutely paramount, and these seniors lead," Dawsey said. "They are great leaders, the one thing we have from this senior class is big-time leadership and determination."

The last time the Black Knights really struggled to take care of the little things this year was week one, when they just escaped North Penn with an overtime win, and Dawsey knows how much they grew from then to now.

"I can't tell you how much this team has improved from day one," Dawsey said. "Again, it just came down to doing the little things."

And those little things are the reason Towanda won't be playing in the district final next week. The reason why there is now a one in the team's loss column.

While one day of struggling with the little things ended the season, Dawsey knows that eventually the kids will look back at all those weeks where they took care of those things.

"They showed a lot of determination and heart today," Dawsey said. "This is hard, but I'm proud of them, they accomplished a lot. Eventually they will look back and see that."

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