Red Tornadoes Run Past Panthers

Tagged under: District 4, News

Dave Fegley | November 11, 2018

MCA gets anticipated rematch with SCA

By: Dave Fegley (11-11-18)

Mount Carmel Area has earned a chance next week to take down the state’s top ranked Southern Columbia Tigers after defeating North Penn-Mansfield 34-14 in a rare Saturday afternoon clash. “The first half didn’t really go our way. The 1:00 start time was a little different and we came out slow,” said MCA running back John Ayres who scored three touchdowns. “We regrouped at halftime and gave everything we had in the second half.”

The Red Tornadoes didn’t have any sort of success passing the football, but their quarterback Tom Reisinger was able to make some plays on the ground. The junior scored the first touchdown of the game on an 18-yard run. The Tornadoes went up 14-0 on the second play of the second quarter on a three yard run by Ayres. “I thought we played pretty good in the first half. Some unfortunate things happened after we went up on them but I was confident in our team especially with how our defense has been playing,” head coach John Darrah said.

With under three minutes left in the first half, the Panthers were faced with a fourth and goal from the ten. Senior Brent Burleigh found senior Dylan Meyer to cut the lead in half. The Red Tornadoes were called for two personal fouls on the drive. The Tornadoes appeared to regain the two score cushion on the ensuing kickoff. Shane Weidner returned it 88 yards for a touchdown, but it was taken away due to a questionable block-in-the-back penalty. “We can’t control what the calls are so you just have to keep playing the game and trying to make more positive plays,” said Darrah.

Coming out of the halftime break, Weidner took over. The junior rushed for 154 yards over the final two quarters to help the Tornadoes extend their lead. “We stress all the time to not say anything to the refs. Just let them do their thing and walk away. We just do what we do,” said Weidner. On the opening drive of the third quarter, the Tornadoes ran nine consecutive running plays to score. After a 26-yard run by Weidner, Ayres scores on a four yard run. On the following drive, Ayres scored on a five yard run after a 47-yard run by Weidner to put MCA up comfortably 27-7 after three quarters.

The Tornadoes defense continued their dominance of stopping the run throughout the game forcing the Panthers to air it out. “We had a couple of blitzes in our scheme this week, but most of the time it was just a four-man rush getting after them,” said Logan Willis who had two of the Mount Carmel’s five sacks in the win. “It helps knowing when teams are going to pass because you don’t have to worry about what kind of run they are going with and what steps to take.”

Weidner officially put the game out of reach with 6:57 left in the fourth on a 24-yard run to make it 34-7. “We keep working each day because we want to go out and showcase our skills,” Weidner said. North Penn-Mansfield scored the final touchdown of the game on a 76-yard pass from Burleigh to senior Justin Shedd, but at that point it was too late. The loss was also the Panthers first one in over two months when they started the season 1-2.

North Penn-Mansfield, who finishes the season 9-3, won the school’s first ever Northern Tier League Division 1 outright title this season. Senior linebacker Garrett David, who finished with over 100 tackles for the third straight year, finishes his career as the school’s all-time leading tackler. The Red Tornadoes advance to next week’s District IV Class 2A Championship to try and avenge an early season loss against the Tigers. “We have a lot of work to do at practice this week. Most of the guys on the team went down to their place last year when they gave us a big loss to end the season and they beat us earlier this year,” said Ayres. The Red Tornadoes are 10-2 and the Tigers are 12-0 and on a 28-game winning streak.

MCA: 7-7-13-7 = 34
NPM: 0-7-0-7 = 14

MOUNT CARMEL AREA (10-2)
Rushing:
Shane Weidner 17-178, TD; John Ayres 21-112, 3 TDs; Tom Reisinger 8-52, TD; Noah Berkoski 5-24; Julien Stellar 1-4; Tyler Owens 1-1; Damon Dowkus 1-0; Dylan Pupo 1-(-3)
Passing:
Tom Reisinger 1-8-2, 17 yds
Receiving:
Shane Weidner 1-17
First Downs: 22
Penalties: 10-79

NORTH PENN-MANSFIELD (9-3)
Rushing:
Garrett David 8-28; Micah Kolb 15-11; Noah Spencer 2-3; Brent Burleigh 9-(-12)
Passing:
Brent Burleigh 10-15-1, 131 yds, 2 TDs
Receiving:
Justin Shedd 3-92, TD; Sawyer Freeman 2-17; Dylan Meyer 2-7, TD; Micah Kolb 1-15; Garrett David 1-3; Noah Spencer 1-(-3)
First Downs: 9
Penalties: 2-10

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