Montco wins a thriller at Midd-West (Highlight Film Included) @STHSSpartans @MiddWestFB
Tagged under: District 1, District 4, Gameday Hub, News
Billy Splain | September 8, 2019
“Most of my kids have never even seen a cow so this is awesome” said Springfield-Montco head coach Chris Shelly. “I went to school up here at Susquehanna so for us to come up here and get a win this is great. I’m looking forward to getting near this area again next week when we play James Buchannon”.
The 20-19 win didn’t come easy. Faced with a decision to tie the game at 20 or go for the win, Midd-West head coach Brad Hatter sent in a 2 point play following a pass from Oakley Bennett to Hunter Wolfley with 6:01 to play in the game. Bennett’s pass during the conversion try was intercepted by Jack O’Malley. “Boy I thought we had them there” said Hatter. “They were moving the ball and I thought we could change that with some momentum but, that’s how the game goes”.
The Mustangs started the scoring at the end of the first quarter. Thanye Treaster jumped on a pass from Spartan quarterback Gabe Franczyk and returned it to the Springfield 30. Joe Rodriguez busted through the line on the next play and sprinted to the endzone. Rodriquez was injured several plays later and would leave the field on crutches.
That score seemed to wake up the Spartan offense. Francyzk found Cam Dennis for a 1 yard td and then on their next series he called his own number, going 20 yards with just under 5 minutes to play in the first half making it a 14-7 Spartan advantage. “It’s almost cheating with those passing numbers” said Shelly of Francyzk’s over 200 yards of passing. “We run that flip to Dennis and he just makes those plays. He had like 10 catches last week and when they told me I was like, what?”
The Mustangs came right back. Facing a third and 10 at the Spartan 45, Bennett found Hunter Wolfley for a big first down to the 11, then hit him again for an 11 yard score. The snap on the point after would eventually turn out to be the difference in the game as it sailed over the holders head leaving the score at 14-13.
During the third quarter both teams exchanged possessions after failed 4th down attempts. Then during the second Mustang drive of the quarter Keith Grantland ended a nice looking drive by the home team by stepping in front of an Oakley pass at the 11. One play later Frenczyk was on his way to an 84 yard td to put the Spartans up 20-13. The key extra point kick failed.
Springfield had a time consuming drive following the Mustangs final td, reaching the 3 yard line before letting the clock run out. “I don’t think we get enough hype in our area. We been hiding down there with the St Joes Preps and the all them teams down there. We were 2A school all them years and now that we’re a 4A team we wanna make a run. We feel like if we can keep progressing we can get in. We wanna do things like come up here and play these tough hard nosed teams and get into the playoffs and make a run” said Shelly. “But man, I don’t know if my heart can take many of these types of games!”
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