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Danville finds a way to pull out a victory over Mount Carmel in Heartland Athletic Conference thriller.

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News, pfn

| October 5, 2024

Bo Sheptock scores three times to keep the Ironmen unbeaten through seven games.

DANVILLE- Homecoming is a special time of the football season for high school football teams across the Commonwealth. The Pageantry and all the preparations the entire week has the school abuzz for the most part: Homecoming queen and queen, homecoming dance and of course there is a football game to played, and sometimes the home team gets lackadaisical on game day.

In a key Heartland Athletic Conference Division II showdown Friday night at Ironmen Stadium, Danville showed some of the characteristics of being focused on those things, rather than what was going on on the gridiron in the first half. They seemed to get things sorted out at halftime, and behind running back Bo Sheptock’s touchdown in the waning moments pulled out a victory 22-19 over a feisty and well-prepared Red Tornado Friday night before a standing-room-only crowd on a perfect night for football. Keeping their unbeaten record in tact.

Sheptock, took a hand off on and end around to the left side and was able to make a leap at the pylon, over a couple of would-be-tacklers with 1:46 left. After Danville started the drive at their own 40 after forcing a punt, on the first play Maddon Patrick connected with Sheptock on a screen pass, the play went for 41 yards and three plays later Danville found themselves in the end zone.

Danville opened the game with an electrifying opening kickoff returns of 67 yards to the 29 yard line of Mount Carmel, but a fourth down conversions was incomplete and the Red Tornadoes took over a 12 play 71 yard march began and was capped off by a one yard quarterback sneak by Gavin Marshalek at the 6:52 mark of the first quarter put the visitors on top 7-0.

Danville came right back on the ensuing drive, again going off the left side, Sheptock sprinted down the home sidelines for a 59 yard jaunt to the promised land, with Garrett Hoffman making the point-after and a 7-7 tie with 5:18 left in the quarter. Sheptock finished the night with 98 yards on 16 touches, as a team Danville only ran for 123 yards compared to 294 for Mount Carmel on 55 attempts.

A 14-play 80 yard drive by the Red Tornadoes made the score 13-7 at intermission when running back Andrew Lukoskie scooted in for a score on the first play of the second quarter but the extra-point was blocked. Mount Carmel controlled the clock and yards gained by a significant margin in the first half.

“The first half was a struggle for us, but you just got to keep pushing in a game like this.” Patrick said after the game. “We challenged each other coming out in the second half. The guys up front played tremendously and Bo had a heck of a game everything just came together.” He concluded.

Speaking of Sheptock, he scored to give the Ironmen their first lead of the game going in from 14 yards out and with the Point-after converted making the score 14-13 as that would be the only score of the third quarter.

Jaylen Delaney of Mount Carmel would give his team the lead back with 9:21 left on the clock as he dashed in from 14 yards out, but the try for the two-point conversion came up short leaving the score 19-14.

The Red Tornadoes had the ball and using the ground and pound attack and picked up a couple of first downs to try to milk the clock and preserve the win, but Danville’s defense was up to the challenge after stopping them for a couple of loss of yards plays, they were forced to punt a high but short punt gave Danville the ball 60 yards away from end zone, setting up Sheptock’s winning touchdown.

What may have been the key stat of the contest was that Danville was only penalized once for five yards while Mount Carmel were issued 8 yellow flags for 90 yards.

Danville improves to 7-0 with another tough game next week on the road at Loyalsock (5-2). The Lancers nipped Warrior Run Friday night 24-23. Mount Carmel (5-2) will be back at the Silver Bowl next Friday to face 0-7 Central Mountain. The Wildcats dropped a a 44-7 decision to Mountoursville Friday.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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