By Ed Farrell
Herald Assistant Sports Editor
Any win over arch-rival Hickory normally would jump-start a celebration for Sharon High and head football coach Bob Fromm. But the 6th-year Tigers’ taskmaster’s tears told the real story following Friday night’s 14-7 success at Hornet Stadium.
“When you deal with kids, you put a lot of time into them. There are a lot of parallels in this game and life. We had one hurting tonight, and as a team, as a family, we kind’ve rallied around him,” Fromm said after giving the game ball to senior James Hosey.
Hosey’s 18-year-old twin brother John was slain in an early-morning shooting Friday.
“We just wanted (James) to know that, with all this going on, he’s still in the forefront of our thoughts,” related Fromm, while taking a tissue from his wife. “We’re a tight-knit group, and we faced a lot of adversity this whole year. We’re just worried about James and his family right now.”
A focused Fromm forged Sharon (6-1, 8-2) to what he termed a series of four 1-game winning streaks to conclude the campaign, with wins over Titusville, Greenville, Seneca (by forfeit) and Hickory, thereby earning a share of the District 10 Region 3-AA crown with Wilmington and a 4th consecutive playoff appearance.
In his initial varsity start, Jason Ondic orchestrated a game-winning 5-play, 46-yard, 2-minute, 7-second, 4th-quarter drive, culminated by Kevin Brown’s 7-yard burst with 7:46 remaining. Steven Bittler’s 24-yard punt return set up Sharon at Hickory’s 46-yard line.
Ondic optioned for a game-high 98 yards rushing and completed 8 of 9 pass attempts for another 59 yards as the stand-in for Sharon’s starting signal-caller Ronnie Howard (lower leg stress fracture).
“He did just fine. ... We know he has some ability. We know he’s a tough kid and a heady kid and he takes care of the football,” Fromm said in praise of Ondic. “We put some easy pass plays in there for him, and the kid was on the money all night long. Running the football, our offensive line really played a game (Friday night). Our kids really stepped it up.”
The loss — the 3rd in 4 games — was more heartache for Hickory (4-3, 5-4), which 2 weeks ago was in playoff position with its own regional championship aspirations.
“We had three opportunities to get into the playoffs and we didn’t get it done,” lamented 3rd-year Hickory head coach Frank Antuono. “These kids are hurting. They’ve done everything I’ve asked, and these seniors ... changed the culture of football here.”
When Akeem Fields picked a fumble out of mid-air and sprinted 59 yards with 5:44 remaining in the 1st frame and Sean Zippie converted the PAT, Hickory held a 7-0 lead.
But Sharon responded immediately. After Hickory was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty following Fields’ score, Bittler’s 25-yard kickoff return gave Sharon a short field. An 8-play, 45-yard drive was culminated by Cam Brown’s 4-yard run. Jason Sypolt’s PAT knotted the count at 7 with 56 ticks to play in the opening period, and there it remained until the 4th frame.
However the Hornets’ huge opportunity to take a halftime lead did not materialize. A 13-play, 56-yard march consumed 6 minutes and 16 seconds, but Zippie’s 21-yard field-goal attempt with 51 ticks to intermission was pressured by Vandell Spicer and blocked by Nick Juranovich.
Sharon’s initial 2nd-half series took the Tigers 84 yards in 13 plays and 8èminutes. But on a 4th-and-1 play from the Hornets’ 6-yard line Sam Hosey recovered Cam Brown’s fumble with 1:33 remaining in the 3rd period.
Hickory had only 3 second-half possessions, ending in a pair of punts and on downs. On the latter, Tyler Gargano’s 4th-and-7 pass from his own 33-yard line was KO’d by Marc Martell with 1:57 left.
“We do a lot of talking about our traditional goals and our values,” Fromm related. “A ‘paw on the wall’ for a Sharon High team, our senior class, is something that can never be taken away ...
“Technically,” Fromm continued, “we got six hundred (wins) last week as a program. Didn’t like the way we got it, figured we needed to earn it for all the people who’ve won games before us, so (Friday night), for us, was number six hundred, to put a paw on the wall for our football program and our seniors.”
Hickory’s seniors included Jake Smith, El’Rico Jones, Zippie, Hosey, Fields, Matt Durisko, Brandon Smith, Dom Dupre Freeman-Otey, Ryan Hayes, Deondray Walker, Anton Fellner, Nick May and Joe Boulware.
“I’m proud of all of our kids and the way they turned the bend this year,” Antuono admitted. “We had some great moments this year, but it seemed like it was an up-and-down season. This was the first time all year we lost two in row ...
“We had three goals this year,” Antuono continued. “One was to finish better than last season — we did that; two was to have a winning season — we did that; and the other was to get into the playoffs, but we didn’t accomplish that, that’s still dangling out there. ... But it’s because of these seniors that we’ve turned the bend. We’ve turned the corner, there’s no question about that.”
———
SHARON 7 0 0 7 14
HICKORY 7 0 0 0 7
Scoring plays
H — Fields, 59 fumble return (Zippie kick)
S — C. Brown, 4 run (Sypolt kick)
S — K. Brown 7 run (Sypolt kick)
Team stats
SHARON HICKORY
12 First downs 7
175 Rushing yards 109
59 Passing yards 11
9-8-0 Att-comp-int 6-3-0
234 Total yards 120
2-2 Fumbles-lost 1-0
5-61 Penalties-yards lost 8-67
Individual stats
Rushing: SHARON — Ondic 19-98, K. Brown 15-48, L. Brown 3-25, C. Brown 3-4; HICKORY — Pegues 10-55, Hayes 12-51, Hosey 5-22, Jones 1-3, Gargano 6-(-22).
Passing: SHARON — Ondic 9-8-0, 59; HICKORY — Gargano 6-3-0, 11.
Receiving: SHARON — L. Brown 3-11, Bittler 2-30, Smith 2-18, Spicer 1-10; HICKORY — Jones 2-10, Hosey 1-1.
Missed Field Goal: Zippie, 21 (blocked).
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