Jersey Shore honors fallen teammate with win

Tagged under: District 4, Game Photos, Gameday Hub, News

Billy Splain | September 18, 2023

Jersey Shore won tonight’s game easily over visiting Shikellamy by a 61-12 margin, but tonight’s game was more than a football contest. Tonight was about beginning the healing process after losing teammate Max Engle. “Our thoughts and prayers will always be with the Engle family. We’re one big Bulldog family” said Jersey Shore head coach Tom Gravish after the game. “We’re hurting, we’re hurting and it will take some time. We’re gonna try to do it together and at this moment more than anything our our thoughts and prayers are with the Engle family and you know it’s gonna be hard, hard process you know with going through this, never had to go through anything like this”.

Superintendent Dr. Ulmer said before the game that “this has been an extremely difficult time as you can believe. The kids wanted to play this football game and we told them if they were going to play, they had to show us they were ready to play. So we’ve been watching them and we felt they were ready so here we are”.

Pick six by Payton Samar gives @JSDawgFootball quick 7-0 lead. 9:05 first pic.twitter.com/u6L5gDJakJ

— Pennsylvania Football News (@PaFootballNews) September 18, 2023

They were ready. Especially the defense. But first, a fitting tribute from the visiting Braves. They started the game with just four players on the field for offense. (four was Max Engle’s number). When Jersey Shore’s offense took the field for the first time, they too honored Max.

The Dawgs picked off four Shikellamy passes in the first quarter to jump out to a 33-0 lead in the first quarter.  Payton Samar started the scoring barrage with a 18 yard pick six to put the Dawgs up quickly. “I just had a feeling that he would be the one that which score first touchdown tonight” said Gravish. “He was that close to Max and so we were proud of him, I’m proud of all of them.

Then it was Kaden Walker with the second interception. That led to a four yard td by Tate Sechrist. Dathan Tyson stepped up and picked off Shikellamy qb Brody Rebuck for the third Dawgs interception. He was also on the receiving end of the third Shore td, a 30 yard pass from Jerrin Loomis.

Third interception of the night leads to this 30 yard Td catch by Dathan Tyson from Jerrin Loomis. 19-9 4:31 first pic.twitter.com/WDgx5G8UUN

— Pennsylvania Football News (@PaFootballNews) September 18, 2023

The next Shikellamy possession ended in a punt, but received the same result. The Bulldogs are a quick strike offense and just 5 plays later Tate Sechrist had his second td. Camden Newcomer had the fourth pick of the first quarter and Elijah Jordan went in from the one to make it 33-0. “Max Engle, four picks? All for Max Engle” said Sechrist after the game. “It’s nice to be back on the field as a team. This has been really hard and this just really helped us reel it back and an we understand that this is what Max would have wanted”.

Jersey Shore would score two more times before the break, initiating the running clock in the second half. The Jersey Shore defense was a machine, holding Shikellamy to negative 30+ yards in the first half while the offense churned out over 300.

For Shikellamy, Brody Rebuck hit Thomas Pollock for a 65 yard td pass and freshman Bysaire Baez ran one in. For Jersey Shore, they’ll continue to heal and will face Mifflinburg Saturday at 7. Shik returns home to face their rival from across the bridge, Selinsgrove on Saturday as well.

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