Defense Leads Jersey Shore To D4 4A Title
Tagged under: District 4, News, Playoffs
Ed Weaver | November 11, 2022
Stingy defense led the Jersey Shore Bulldogs to a 35-7 win over Selinsgrove in the District IV 4A championship game on Thursday night.
It is the Bulldogs’ 5th consecutive 4A title and their 6th in the past 7 years since 2016.
Jersey Shore accumulated 5 sacks on the night and held the Seals to just 122 yards of total offense.
The Bulldogs struck first with 9:05 remaining as Tate Sechrist scooped up a loose ball on a Mark Pastore fumble and took it to the house putting the ‘Dawgs up 7-0 early.
In the 2nd quarter the ‘Dwags intercepted Pastore to retake the ball at their own 44. Brady Jordan then dialed up his own number to make it 14-0 in favor of Jersey Shore with 10:04 remaining before the half.
Shore held onto their 14-0 advantage until late in the 3rd when they added 7 more points. Following a Selinsgrove punt, the ‘Dawgs broke out the “Wishbone” to attack the Seals D. Shore ran the RPO effectively moving the ball down to the Selinsgrove 21 on a carry by Elijah Jordan. A carry by Brady Jordan setup the ‘Dawgs with a 1st & goal from the 8, where Hadyn Packer finished it, putting Shore up 21-0 with 3:54 to play.
Just over two minutes later Packer was at it again. This time, the 6-foot, 225 lbs. senior broke free up the middle, fought off two would-be tackles from the Seals, and rumbled 60 yards for the touchdown with 1:23 left in the quarter. Shore now led 28-0.
Selinsgrove found the end zone, eliminating the shut out, with 7:44 remaining. After picking up a 1st down on 4th & inches at the 40, Pastore connected with Gavin Bastian to the 27. A Tucker Teats run on the next drive picked up 26 yards down to the one, where Pastore would sneak his way in for the score.
However, Shore would tack on another score with 6:54 remaining. Brady Jordan scored for the second time of the evening, this time from 58 yards out, pushing the lead to 35-7.
“We knew there would be a time we’d run into a weird circumstance that’d we’d have to shuffle the line up and use a few different formations,” said Bulldog head coach Tom Gravish. “Tonight we went with our Wishbone for quite a few plays, going back to the Wingate, PA days, and Brady did a great job calling the plays. We know that if we play hard for 48 minutes that we feel we’ll have our way. Not to take anything away from our opponent, they have a lot of talented players that they didn’t have the first ‘go-round’ with us. It’s always tough to beat team twice once you get to districts. I’m proud of winning in a different fashion and we look forward to resting up, having our meetings and film tomorrow, and then getting some scouting in. We know both sets of coaches and we’re looking forward to the opportunity.”
“In the first half we rallied to the football and played very well defensively,” Selinsgrove coach Derek Hicks said. “Their defense is just that good. We struggled to move the ball, we struggled to get first downs and the second half their tempo offense started to wear our guys down. That’s why they run the tempo. When we were fresh I thought we played well, but they just wore us down.”
Jersey Shore (12-0) will take on the winner of Bethlehem Catholic / Allentown Central Catholic next week at a date, time, and location to be determined.
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