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Sharon Knocks Off Meadville 41-21

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

| September 29, 2024

Meadville – Ike Friday rushed for 177 yards and three touchdowns to lead Sharon past Meadville 41-21 Saturday night at Dr. Albert Bender Stadium.

Though it may not have been a rivalry or region game, any time you beat a school larger than you in classification, it’s a big deal.

“I know coach Collins really well, going back to my West Middlesex days. He’s one of my favorite human beings in this profession,” said Sharon’s head coach, Jason McElhaney. “Getting an opportunity to come up here and play was something we’ve wanted to do for a few years. We knew it would be tough and physical. That was the point of coming up here.”

It’s also a big deal when you score six offensive touchdowns after three in the past two weeks. Let’s state the obvious: Farrell and Hickory were state-ranked opponents whose defenses are undoubtedly praiseworthy.

In the two previously mentioned contests, Sharon scored on a kickoff return, passing touchdown, and a blocked punt recovery to knock off Hickory, while a pair of rushing touchdowns was enough to defeat the Steelers.

Sharon had no offensive problems outside of a lost fumble on their second drive and racked up 480 yards of total offense.

“We’ve struggled, we’ve not been good or efficient,” McElhaney said. “We have not done enough offensively for what we have personal wise. I thought we had a good week of practice, and our guys executed really well. Ra’Keem stepped up big time when Kare’mez went out early. Ethan threw the ball well, and Ike was Ike. Of course, we couldn’t do that without those guys up front.”

The Tigers got it rolling early when Kare’mez Norris caught a 37-yard pass from Ethan Engelmore on the game’s first snap. Ra’Keem Hughes then hauled in a short pass and broke free for a 31-yard touchdown to open the scoring.

Though Norris would leave the game with the injury, Hughes caught a team-high five balls for 89 yards.

Quarterback Engelmore had a big game for the Tigers as he completed 14-of-20 passes for 228 yards and accounted for three total touchdowns. His 2-yard run early in the second quarter capped an 11-play 62-yard drive.

Three plays later, Meadville cut the deficit to 14-7 when Jacoby Thompson threw a 56-yard touchdown to Amari Grenaway.

The Tigers then used the legs of tailback Ike Friday, who rushed for 120 yards on 13 carries in the first half. Friday scored on runs of 17 and eight following 81 and 63-yard touchdown drives.

“We were missing key pieces to our line,’ said Friday. “This week, Liam Van Sickles came back, and he’s a major part of our line. When you have a big guy like that, it’s hard to get tackled in the backfield. I got hurt, and I felt like I could have done more. But I’m happy with my performance. I’m not going to underdo myself because I came out here and did what I was supposed to do.”

Sharon led 28-7 at halftime.

“Sharon played a very well-rounded four-quarters of football,” said Meadville head coach Ray Collins. “Their offense and run game was clicking, and they mixed in the pass well. At times, we looked good moving the ball, and then, at others, they turned it on and shut us down. It’s disappointing because I think we matched up with them better than we showed. ”

It marked the second straight week Meadville had struggled in the second quarter, as they gave 28 points to McDowell the prior week.

The Bulldogs opened the second half with a 57-yard touchdown drive. Scoring on A.J. Feleppa’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Grenaway.

“The second quarter mistakes, where we let teams pull away from us, is a problem,” Collins said. “Last week, we gave up 28; this week, 21. It’s been that second quarter; we come out and play a pretty good first quarter, then in the second, it’s just been mistakes. Then we came out in the second half and played fairly decent.”

Amari Grenaway caught five passes for a game-high 115 yards and rushed three times for 27 to lead the Bulldogs.

The Tigers responded with a 32-yard touchdown pass from Engelmore to Cassius Hosey, which succeeded in a 65-yard drive. Hosey had a nice game for Sharon as he caught three passes for 58 yards and the touchdown while adding a rush for eight yards.

Meadville was able to pull within 35-21 with 7:12 left in the game when Bradyn Miller scored on a 1-yard run. Miller led the Bulldogs ground game with 86 yards on 16 carries.

Jordan Lawrence, who entered the game as Meadville’s leading rusher, averaging over 100 yards a game, was limited to 36 yards on ten attempts.

“I love what they do on offense, and they execute it very well,” said McElhaney. “It’s difficult to simulate in practice. If you don’t do it yourself, then you don’t know its nuances. That was definitely something we were concerned about. They’re good in the play action, and their motion was giving us a problem. There’s always things you can correct, so we’ll take a look at that and see how we can fix that as we move forward.”

Sharon responded and ate up over six minutes on an 11-play drive that was capped with Ike Friday’s third rushing touchdown of the night, a 5-yard run with 1:15 to play.

Friday finished the night rushing 27 times for 177 yards.

“Coming off of two rivalry games and then stacking up against another great team is building character and respect that we need,” Friday said.

Sharon moves to Grove City to play the Eagles next Friday night.

“It’s going to be like the Farrell game where you have to throw their record out the window,” concluded McElhaney. “They’re a good football team and extremely well-coached. It’s a place where we have not played well. We’re back to regional football after a couple of weeks off. There’s big-time focus that needs to go into that.”

The Bulldogs will look to bounce back when they host Franklin.

“When you look back at the beginning of the season, we were not great right out of the gate,” Collins concluded. “We were getting our buts kick. We improved our performance, but now it’s that letdown in the second quarter that’s spelling doom for us.”

Game Highlights:

Sharon 41 Meadville 21

Score by Quarters

Sharon – 7 21 7 6 – 41

Meadville – 0 7 7 7 – 21

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

S – Ra’Keem Hughes 31 yd pass from Ethan Engelmore, (Yousef Kanan pat), 10:08 – 5-80

Second Quarter

S – Engelmore 2 yd run, (Kanan pat), 9:41 – 11-62

M – Amari Grenaway 56 yd pass from Jacoby Thompson, (Simon Farelly-Jackson pat), 8:13 – 3-66

S – Ike Friday 17 yd run, (Kanan pat), 4:29 – 8-71

S – Friday 8 yd run, (Kanan pat), 1:49 – 6-73

Third Quarter

M – Grenaway 10 yd pass from A.J. Feleppa, (Farelly-Jackson pat), 7:13 – 8-57

S – Cassius Hosey 32 yd pass from Engelmore, (Kanan pat), 4:19 – 8-65

Fourth Quarter

M – Bradyn Miller 1 yd run, (Farelly-Jackson pat), 7:32 – 11-48

S – Friday 5 yd run, (kick blocked), 1:15 – 11-54

Individual Stats

Rushing: S – Friday 27-177, Terrian White 4-31, A’anavyon Brown 2-7, Cassius Hosey 1-8, Engelmore 7-29. Totals: 41-252. M – Bradyn Miller 16-86, Jordan Lawrence 10-36, Grenaway 3-27, Thompson 5-18, Tymir Philips 1-(-1). Totals: 35-166.

Receiving: S- Kare’mez Norris 1-37, Hughes 5-89, Logan Perks 1-3, Hosey 3-58, Bryson Roberson 1-4, Brock Ondo 3-37. M – Grenaway 5-115, Ryan Elverton 1-(-2), Thompson 1-8, Lawrence 1-8.

Passing: S – Engelmore 14-for-20, 228 yards, 2 T.D. M – Thompson 1-for-2, 56 yards, 1 T.D. A.J. Feleppa 7-for-15, 73 yards, 1 T.D., 2 INT.

Interceptions: S – Ghafir Lampkins, Hughes.

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