Lakeview Smothers Mercer and Avenges Regular Season Loss

Tagged under: District 10, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

Phil Myers | November 12, 2023

The Lakeview Sailors did not play perfect football, but they played near perfect football and certainly well enough to earn a solid victory over the Mercer Mustangs, one of the two teams to beat the Sailors during the regular season.  Playing before a pretty full Troy-Alan Stadium on the campus of Slippery Rock High School, Lakeview controlled the first half, then saw their momentum start to slip in the second half before regrouping and posting a convincing 35-6 triumph over Mercer.

In the regular season contest Mercer dominated by controlling the game with 230 yards rushing and running twice as many plays as Lakeview.  The tables were reversed last night when Lakeview rushed for three times as many yards as Mercer did.  In the first half, the Mustangs only ran 12 plays for 64 yards and 46 of those yards were on a pass completion that ended with a fumble that Lakeview recovered.  For the game Lakeview outgained Mercer 308 yards to 162.

Mercer (in white) has the ball and their QB is handing it off (in middle), but the Lakeview defense forces a fumble and #53 Kyle Devinney recovers. #24 is Luke Klonowski.

Lakeview’s well-respected head coach Bill Hickman had this to say, “First, I want to say, hats off to Mercer.  They’re a real quality football team.  Their coach (Jeff Lockhard) is a class act.  Those kids played their hearts out over there.  It’s a rivalry, but it’s a healthy rivalry.  (Tonight) I just wanted to keep it simple and control possession and run the football.  We knew if we did it and did it well, good things would happen.”

Good things did happen.  One, the Sailors controlled the time of possession as they had the ball twice as long as Mercer.  Approximately 32 minutes to 16.  Two, they ran the football effectively gaining 255 yards on 45 carries to Mercer’s 77 yards on 28 tries.  Third, Lakeview won the turnover battle forcing three while only losing one themselves.  Two of those turnovers, the Sailors turned into points, while the other thwarted a potential Mustang scoring chance.  “They can play elite if they want to,” said Hickman about his team.

There may be a fourth good thing to happen, but that happens almost every game.  The thing is that Mitchell Tingley played an excellent football game.  Tingley, who wears #16 scored four rushing touchdowns and gained 163 yards on 18 totes.  The 5’8” 181 lb. senior found some holes his line opened for him, but other times he just made his own gap by running through people.  Tingley has now scored 19 touchdowns and rushed for over 1,400 yards so far this year.

Tingley has the ball (in dark jersey second from right) and appears to be heading right at #50 Myles Glaros of Mercer. Ben Godfrey is #17.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Sailors put up three scores in the second to lead 21-0 at the intermission.  The first score came as a result of an 8 minute, 12-play drive that started in the first quarter and Tingley capped it off with a 3-yard run.  The other two touchdowns came after Mustang turnovers.  Leyton Zacherl and Kyle Devinney both recovered fumbles for Lakeview, with Devinney’s coming at the Mercer five-yard line.  Tingley and Aiden Osborne cashed in for the Sailors by scoring on short runs.

Lakeview’s Mitchell Tingley scores his second TD of game. Lakeview 14 Mercer 0. @PaFootballNews @FootballSailors pic.twitter.com/vIqh61z5Wi

— Phil Myers Sr. (@Protime_PFN) November 12, 2023

With all that said about Lakeview’s good fortune and play in the first half, the second half looked like it was going to belong to the Mustangs and it came down to a big gamble by Hickman to change the momentum.  If it doesn’t work, the game more than likely would have had a vastly different trajectory in affecting the outcome.

Mercer came out on their first second half possession and drove to the Lakeview 28 before the Sailor defense stopped them a yard short of the first down marker.  On the next Mercer possession, after getting a 50-yard punt return from Daemyin Mattocks to set them up in good field position, the Mustangs scored to cut the lead to 21-6.  The touchdown came when Mattocks hauled in a short pass from Rider Chiappini and raced untouched into the end zone to put Mercer on the board.

Then came the play.  Facing a second consecutive three and out with a 4^th and six from their own 24, Hickman had Danick Hinkson, the punter, sweep around the left side.  Hinkson avoided one Mustang and proceeded to gain 16 yards and a very important first down.  That one play swung the momentum back to Lakeview and they never relinquished again.  Tingley scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to ice the game for Lakeview.  The first one in the last quarter ended the drive where the Sailors faked the punt and the second one being a nice reverse field run for 48-yards.

Considering the tragic event that killed three Lakeview students, Coach Hickman was asked what the win means to the school and program.  “It’s even more than that, it’s our community.  It’s twin cities, Sandy Lake, Stoneboro.  We’re doing it for the community also.  Our community has been through a lot.  We’ve had some tragedies, too many.  When you lose people like that, we want to live through them out there on the football field and we’re doing that.  Very proud of our community, our team, our coaching staff, even the media.  I appreciate all the support.  We stick together as a family.  You see, we packed the house tonight.  Those fans are following.”

The win puts Lakeview (9-2) into the District 10 Class A finals against Sharpsville next Friday.  Mercer ends their season with a 6-5 record.

Score by Quarters:

Mercer – 0 0 6 0 – 6

Lakeview – 0 21 0 14 – 35

Scoring Summary:

First Quarter:

No Scoring

Second Quarter:

L – Mitchell Tingley 3-yard run, (Tingley PAT), 11:08

L – Tingley 4-yard run, (Tingley PAT), 4:34

L – Aiden Osborne 2-yard run, (Tingley PAT), 2:37

Third Quarter:

M – Daemyin Mattocks 25-yard pass from Rider Chiappini, (2-pt. conversion failed), 6:24

Fourth Quarter:

L – Tingley 3-yard run, (Tingley PAT), 10:07

L – Tingley 48-yard run, (Tingley PAT), 3:09

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