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“The rivalry is back on!” Shamokin wins first Coal Bucket game in 29 years.

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News

| October 26, 2024

“The rivalry’s back on”. That’s was Shamokin head coach Marc Persing said after his Shamokin Indians beat Mount Carmel for the first time in 29 loooong years. The town of Shamokin has waited that long to bring home a beat up, old looking coal bucket with a label on it that has the final scores of every coal bucket game played. Some called it a curse. Some called it lack of confidence. Some just called it losing. But last night at the Silver Bowl in Mount Carmel, something special happened for the visiting Indians. They finally won the game that has been out of reach for a loooooong time. Shamokin used a stifling defense that held the Red Tornado offense to just over 100 yard of total offense. And that was enough to allow the 21 points scored by Shamokin to claim the Coal Bucket in front of an estimated 8500 fans.

“This is a special group. They have shown it from week one’ said Persing. “They fight, they claw, they do what they need to do to win the game but make no mistake about it, this is for the school, the fans, the community”. How big was this win?  “It’s huge! We’ve been saying it all year. It’s a vision and a plan that started last year by closing the gap” said Persing. “I’ve had so much faith in these kids and they’ve followed everything that we’ve asked them to do, just look at this!”

The Indian offense got things rolling right out of the gate with a 76 yard, 8 play drive capped on a 2 yard touchdown run by Zakeem Clinton. Quarterback Logan Steele, who played one heck of a game, hit Colin Steinhart for a 52 yard completion the sent the Shamokin crowd into a frenzy during the drive. “Work all the time. even after every game and even on Sunday’s working on our timing making sure everything’s perfect” said a jubilant Steele. “Like even on that one play down the sideline to Rylan (Price). He did a great job with one on one, I just put the ball up to him and he made a great play”.

 

From there the Shamokin defense took over the game. The Red Tornado offense was force to punt twice in the first half and never crossed mid field. After the second punt Shamokin took over at their 18 yard line and went on another long, time consuming drive. Jared Lowry and Clinton carried the Indians to the Mount Carmel 34. Steele hit Chase Pensyl for an 8 yard gain then Clinton did the rest, bursting through a gaping hole, shredding a Red Tornado defender and then jogging the rest of the way for the 28 yard td run to give Shamokin a 14-0 lead just before halftime.

“Our line did a great job and he’s physical and just loves to hit people. Not many players want to hit him more than three times a game” Steele said of Clinton. Shamokin put up their third score of the night on their first drive of the second half. After fumbling the snap for a 5 yard loss, Steele dropped back and saw Price streaking down the sideline in one on one coverage. He laid a perfect pass into the hands of his receiver an it was all Price from there as he coasted into the endzone giving the Indians a 21-0 lead with 7:21 left in the third quarter.


“We just thought hey, they aren’t covering us well so we’re just going to air one out” said Price of the td play. “This is gigantic! We have been working at this one all year. We had this one marked on our calendars”.

One the ensuing Red Tornado drive it appeared as though the Mount Carmel offense came up with a huge 63 yard td pass from Gavin Marselek to Jaylen Delany but the play was called by on an offensive pass interference penalty. The Red Tornado defense picked off two Steele passes in the fourth quarter but never crossed midfield until their last drive of the game.

“They’re big, they’re physical and our lines got things rolling” said Persing of his defense. “We’re going to enjoy this one tonight and then we’ll start preparing for the playoffs and Athens”.

Mount Carmel will face Milton, a team they beat 48-28 just two weeks ago, to begin their playoffs.

See the game gallery HERE

 

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