OGEMAW HEIGHTS - Sept. 14, 2007 - Pinconning was able to stay with Ogemaw Heights for most of a half, but the Falcons just kept coming in waves. Ogemaw used a back-breaking big play just before the half to break open a competitive game and went on to a 46-22 victory over the Spartans.

In what has been a recurring theme for the Spartans, the woefully outnumbered Pinny squad fell victim to ineffectiveness inside the opponents' 20-yard line and wasn't able to recover from a huge play that went in their opponents' favor.

Ogemaw took a quick 16-0 lead, but a 48-yard run by Ryan Kleinhans cut the Falcon lead to 16-6. The score stayed there until less than a minute left in the half, when Kevin O'Neil hit Michael Noffsinger with an 81-yard touchdown pass. O'Neil then hit Alex Rose for one of five 2-point conversions the two executed and it was suddenly 24-6.

Two minutes into the second half, Trevor Zettel broke off a 43-yard touchdown run, and Rose and O'Neil added the 2-pointer to make it 32-6.

"They fought hard," said Ogemaw coach Andrew Pratley of Pinny. "They've got a good group of kids with heart and determination."

Pinny quarterback Barrett Penix connected with Brandon Delgado for a 30-yard touchdown score midway through the third quarter, but the Falcons answered with a 13-yard O'Neil-to-Kelvin Page scoring pass and a seven-yard run by Anthony Carollo. Penix's five-yard run with 1:30 left capped the scoring.

"We thought in the first half we had a couple more trips where we should have scored," Pratley said. "We wanted to come out in the second half and finish things off and get some of our twos and threes in, and that's what we were able to do."

The Falcons scored twice in 60 seconds in the first quarter -- the first time on a one-yard Noffsinger run, and just a minute later on O'Neil's first touchdown pass to Page, this one from 20 yards.

Noffsinger finished with 102 rushing yards on 13 carries and caught four passes for 98 yards. Zettel added 59 yards rushing on six carries, while Gio Roberto caught four passes for 51 yards.

O'Neil was 14-of-27 passing for 232 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Carl Worthy had six solo tackles and seven assists to lead the defense, with Zettel adding five tackles and five assists and Tyson Little three tackles and four assists.

The Falcons (4-0, 2-0) are locked in a first-place tie in the NEMC with Standish-Sterling (4-0, 2-0), which knocked off John Glenn 19-10 last week. Glenn visits Ogemaw this Friday. Remarkably, it's the first time the Falcons will have faced a Bobcat (2-1, 1-1) team coming off a loss since Glenn joined the NEMC in 1994.

"I'm sure we'll get Glenn's best this week," Pratley said. "I'm sure they felt like they didn't play their best game against Standish with the turnovers they committed.

"I reminded the kids that the last five weeks we have a real gauntlet to run. These next five teams (Glenn, SSC, Tawas, Gaylord and Cheboygan) have only lost to each other. Other than that they are all undefeated so we're going to have to step it up and keep playing better if we're going to get through it."

Pinny (0-4, 0-2) hosts Oscoda (0-4, 0-2) on Friday.