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Castles stands tall for Manchester
Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/02/00
By BRYAN HOLT
STAFF WRITER
MANCHESTER -- Wide receiver Dan Castles erupted for 240 yards and
three touchdowns on 10 receptions to lead Manchester to a 30-20 Shore
Conference Federal Division victory over Red Bank yesterday.
The win is the first for a Hawks (1-3, 1-3) team that is coming off a
heartbreaking 41-35 Federal Division loss last week to Middletown South
in double overtime.
"This is a good win for us," Castles said. "We've
played in three real tough games and had some real tough losses. This is
a big win for us to pick up."
Castles, a 6-foot-3 190 pound senior, broke the game open in the
first quarter when he caught a 79-yard touchdown pass from quarterback
Keith Cherney (12-for-24 for 260 yards passing) that gave the Hawks a
14-0 lead.
"They were covering me with a lot of one-on-one to start the
game," said Castles, who scored on receptions of 79, 19 and 21
yards. "I just did my best to get open and Keith did a great job
throwing the ball and the offensive line did a great job blocking up
front, everything just clicked."
The Hawks took a 28-6 lead with 34.7 seconds remaining in the first
half on a brilliant 21-yard TD reception by Castles that saw him tip toe
the sideline to stay in bounds. Castles set up the touchdown on a
35-yard interception return from his safety position.
"I just read the play and jumped on it," Castles said of
his interception.
In the second half and emotional Bucs team rallied behind the play of
its defense.
Led by the play of junior middle linebacker Will Gilkinson and
defensive end Joe Henley (five tackles for losses), the Bucs (0-4, 0-4)
held the Hawks to 40 yards of total offense in the second half. Castles
was limited to one catch for nine yards in the half.
"Our basic philosophy was that if they were going to cover Danny
(Castles) with man coverage then we were going to go to him," said
Manchester head coach Doug Covert. "In the second half, they (Red
Bank) did a pretty good job of taking Danny away from us."
An 8-yard touchdown run by Red Bank sophomore running back Melvin
Pierce and a 29-yard TD reception by sophomore wide receiver Kevin
Kooistra cut the Hawks' lead to 30-20.
But the Hawks defense stepped up and forced two fumbles in the game's
final five minutes to hang on for the win.
Defensively, the Hawks were led by the play of tackle Ray
Gudehus; he
sacked Bucs' quarterback Kevin Snyder for a safety on one of his three
sacks on the day. He also had four tackles for losses.
Gudehus had to leave the game late in the fourth quarter with a knee
injury and could be out for Manchester's game next week at Matawan,
Covert said.
from the Asbury Park Press
Published on October 2, 2000 |
