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Hart typically has really dominated City Section teams. That was not the case here. Here are the details.
Hart took the kickoff and scored in 8 plays on a pass to Kase across the middle. 7-0.
Birmingham took the (short, flat) kickoff and scored in two plays (there are some REALLY speedy guys out there). 7-7.
Hart took the kickoff and scored in 8 plays (plus three penalties) on a pass to Ciccone in the corner. 14-7.
Birmingham took the kickoff (another short flat kick) and scored in 8 plays. 14-14 -- And it was still the first quarter!
Second quarter: still 14-14. Hart blocked two field goal attempts (BIG blocks). Neither team moved well. The only reason
Birmingham got into range was some untimely penalties on Hart.
Third quarter: still 14-14. But Birmingham clearly was starting to wilt under the defensive pressure. The Patriots QB
was getting leveled on almost every play.
Fourth quarter: First play. Quarterback was blind-sided by a blitzing Cody Kase (who came clear across the field from
his outside linebacker spot). The QB coughed up the ball and Bryan Elledge, the Hart middle linebacker, picked it up and run
50 yards for the TD. Hart 21-14.
On the next series, Birmingham managed to get a first down but eventually had to punt.
Hart started at the 15 and had a 14-play drive. Most of the Hart plays were runs and all plays kept the ball in bounds
and the clock running. Hart got to the Birmingham 30 and stalled a bit. On fourth and 3 the Indians lined up for a running
play. Norton, the QB, noticed that there was no one lined up in front of Ciccone on the left wideout spot. He stepped back
and lofted it to Ciccone (Norton was so excited, he almost overthrew it). Ciccone caught it, regained his balance and ran
into the endzone. The PAT missed and Hart was up 27-14 with about 40 seconds left.
Birmingham got a long play on the first play after the kickoff, threw a hail mary to the end zone as time ran out but
because pass interference was called on Hart, they got another chance. Wolfe, Hart's soph corner, made a diving catch for
an interception on the "do over."
The game was very reminicent of the Hart-Alemany game in the 1998 semi-final. Birmingham had a lot of fast guys and could
cover Hart 1-on-1 on defense and blitz. It was effective for much of the game.
I expect that Hart will work more on power running and picking up the blitzers this week. A little more effective run-blocking
and Birmingham would have been in a real hole.
Norton also started back-pedalling after taking his drop instead of stepping forward into the pocket and consequently
got sacked a number of times. Bet he doesn't do that next week.
The defense looked somewhat tenative, hesitating to really tackle people (apparently afraid of somebody putting on a big
move just as they went for the tackle) and instead grabbing at them and thus allowing the runners to pull out of tackles.
The LBs also were taking shallow drops and the Birmingham QB was dropping the ball over the LBs and in front of the safeties
(there was no room in the booth on the other side for our spotters [Coach 3 and Teddy Iacenda] so they were sitting right
behind my son and me and we were getting real insight on the coaching aspect of the game -- kind of interesting to hear what
Coach 3 and/or Iacenda recommended, what Delmatoff sent out on to the field and what actually happened [lots of audibles]).
The defensive deficiencies were partially corrected by the end of the first quarter and completely corrected by the second
half. Birmingham got into Hart territory only once in the second half before the last drive (when Hart was playing a four
deep, prevent defense).
Offensively, I don't think anyone is going to be able to pull off what these guys did defensively. Hart was a little off
balance. I don't think it will happen again.
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