At the Top: Comets Earn #1 District 6 Seed in Dominant Win Over Colts
Tagged under: District 6, Gameday Hub, News
Luke Rainey | October 17, 2020
What was a 2-7 team in 2019 now sits atop the district leaderboard entering the 2020 postseason.
Through an usually-short 6-game regular season, the Penns Manor Comets remained undefeated against the Northern Cambria Colts, moving to the No. 1 seed in the final week before the District 6 Class 1A playoffs.
Penns Manor’s dominance was propelled by several crucial defensive stops early in the game. Among these included a forced turnover on downs inside their own territory, a botched lateral that turned into a Comet touchdown, and a resilient stop from the 12-yard line before time expired on the opening half.
Offensively, the Comets utilized their array of position players to create a relentless rushing attack. Balanced among seven players, they totaled for more than 300 rushing yards and scored four touchdowns from the ground, passing only five times through their 35-0 victory.
Conner Keith led the night with 139 yards on 14 carries, netting 81 of them on a touchdown run late in the third quarter. Behind him, Dimitri Lieb accounted for 63 rushing yards with a pair of touchdowns, and Ashton Courvina and Kevin Baum followed with 45 and 39 yards, respectively.
“When you have four running backs like we did, we can switch it up,” Comets’ Head Coach Bill Packer said regarding his offense. “Our line did a tremendous job up front today and created a couple of big holes up front with Conner. Once he gets in the open (field), he goes.
“It’s just a nice variety of guys,” Packer added.
The Colts deferred after winning the coin toss. Penns Manor ran the ball on all 12 of their opening plays, gaining six first-downs prior to scoring their first touchdown on a 1-yard run by quarterback Max Hill. An unsuccessful 2-point conversion attempt kept their lead at 6-0.
Northern Cambria mimicked the Comets’ successful strategy, one that initially seemed to work. The Colts attempted only two passes on their 11-play possession and moved inside the Comets 35-yard line. A five-yard penalty on a new set of downs stalled their progress, and failure to convert fourth-and-16 produced a turnover on downs at the 25-yard line.
In identical fashion to their opening drive, Penns Manor stuck with a consistent rushing attack, picking up three first downs throughout the possession. The Comets finished the series with a 7-yard rushing touchdown by Dimitri Lieb.
Three consecutive incompletions ended the Colts’ possession, and the Comets returned the favor after punting pack from their 39-yard line. A 27-yard return by Isaac Noll placed Northern Cambria at midfield with an opportunity to shrink the 14-point deficit, but the drive disintegrated with an immediate turnover on downs.
Penns Manor would suffer the same fate. Despite a 9-yard completion to kickstart their drive, two subsequent runs by Courvina and Conner Keith resulted in no gains. On fourth-and-1, Courvina was stopped in the backfield for a 3-yard loss with less than two minutes remaining in the first half.
Another chance to draw within the Comets’ lead morphed into a catastrophe for the Colts. They opened the possession with a backwards pass to Noll. He was hit by Ashton Courvina, causing him to drop Hoover’s pass for a fumble. The ball was recovered by linebacker Jae Karlinsey and returned for a 58-yard touchdown.
“It was big,” Karlinsey said. “Ashton (Courvina) had the big hit. I picked it up, and Dimitri helped me block and get that touchdown. It was a great moment.”
Northern Cambria’s next possession was steered by numerous penalties from the Penns Manor defense. Five penalties, including one that helped the Colts convert third-and-13, pushed Northern Cambria to the Comets’ 12-yard line.
From there, Northern Cambria received an untimed play, where Hoover scrambled for a 12-yard touchdown. However, the Colts’ lone penalty on the drive for holding negated the score. An incomplete pass on the second untimed play kept Penns Manor’s shut-out intact.
Receiving the second-half kickoff, the Colts returned to a run-oriented offense. They pulled inside Penns Manor’s 30-yard line within four plays, but a 7-yard sack by defensive end Ethan Joiner forced the Colts into another fourth-down situation. Wide receiver Owen Prasko’s run fell short by three yards, but the situation grew worse from the Comets’ 19-yard line. After pushing through tackles, Keith outran the Colts’ secondary on a touchdown run for 81 yards, enlarging the lead to 28-0 with a one-play possession late in the third quarter.
Both offenses stalled with little production into the fourth quarter. Hoover threw two interceptions inside the second half, with the ladder positioning the Comets at Northern Cambria’s 28-yard line.
After five runs, Lieb scored his second touchdown of the game with a 3-yard carry, and kicker Justin Marshall’s third successful extra point attempt put the Comets ahead 35-0, enforcing the mercy rule up to the game’s conclusion.
Following the win, Comets’ Head Coach Packer explained the progression of his program from a lackluster 2019 campaign to becoming the highest-ranked team in the district.
“We just got a lot of the guys back from last year. They were young last year, with a lot of juniors and sophomores, but they just worked so hard in the offseason,” Packer said. “We got bigger, stronger, and faster.”
Northern Cambria Head Coach Sam Shutty discussed how he believes the team can recover from back-to-back losses at the doorstep of the postseason.
“I think we’ve got to go back to the things we did earlier, and the things that made us successful.” Shutty commented. “We have to focus on those types of things, as opposed to focusing on what our opponent is doing. And that’s my fault.”
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