Connellsville Shuts Down North Star In Non-District Defensive Battle

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Baron Dionis | October 4, 2024

Tonight was all about defense between 2A North Star and 5A Connellsville as the defenses fought, ending in a 17-7 Connellsville victory. Three touchdowns were scored in the contest, all coming in the second quarter. 

The Cougars got on the board first with a four yard touchdown run from Ethan Smith. Connellsvilles Linkon Keller responded on the next drive with a rushing touchdown of his own from two yards out. 

With less than 30 seconds remaining before the half, North Star punted, while the score was tied at seven. 

Connellsville quarterback Keller, who alternated with Parker Lembo all game, threw a jump ball up to receiver Major Stash, who caught it over a defender, for a 36 yard gain to put the Falcons on the goaline with ten seconds left in the half. On the next play, Keller ran it in from two yards out and Connellsville kicked the PAT to go into halftime with a 14-7 lead. 

Keller finished with 58 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns, and 36 passing yards. Coach Jace McClean had high praise for the sophomore back.

Coach McClean stated, “Link is a tough player. He’s one of our true leaders, only a sophomore. You know, just to step up like that and having a game like this, I’m very proud of him and he’ll be very good in the future.”

After the half, both teams’ defenses shut down one another for the rest of the way. Connellsvilles defense in the second half had three sacks, three tackles for a loss, and an interception by sophomore Jeremy Jenkins in the final minute of the game.

On top of that, the Falcon defense finished with six total sacks and held North Star’s strong offense to just seven points. Coach McClean was very proud of his defense’s performance.

“They never stopped and were relentless to the ball,” stated Coach McClean on Connellsvilles defensive efforts. “Gotta give credit to their team, they played a heck of a game. Their quarterback is tough (Kasey Yoder), #2 (Smith), I think #5 (Jesse Samler) not playing hurt them, which hurt their offense.”

A Connellsville field goal early in the fourth was the last of the scoring from the ballgame.

North Star was close to scoring multiple times in the second half, but the Connellsville blitz was too much for the Cougars young offensive line. 

North Star coach Bob Landis stated, “Lot’s of blitz tonight, probably more blitz than we’ve seen all year. Like I said early in the year, we are young up front and there’s a lot we need to work on as far as blitz pickup.”

The Cougar defense played well overall, but a few big plays by Connellsville were the difference makers. North Star nearly scored in the fourth quarter after a fumble recovery on the Connellsville 25, but they failed to move the ball down the field.

Coach Landis also stated, “Defensively I thought we played well. We got big played. When it’s a tight ball game a big play here a big play there. That’s the difference in the game and that’s basically what it was tonight.” 

Smith finished with 23 rushing yards and 38 receiving yards to go with the Cougars lone touchdown. 

Next week, (5-2) North Star will host (5-2) Northern Bedford in a big ICC matchup. 

On the matchup next week, Coach Landis commented, “Huge one next week. We’ve gotta get back on track. This doesn’t affect anything as far as the ICC goes and doesn’t do a whole lot as far as playoffs goes. We gotta get refocused and get focused on Northern Bedford.”

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