Sharon ends Wilmington’s dominance
Wilmington (7) vs. Sharon (14)
Written: Nov 22, 2010
By ED FARRELL
Special to The News
SLIPPERY ROCK — The Wilmington High football team’s dominance in District 10 is over.
Sharon used a strong defense to shut down the Greyhounds and advance to the District 10 championship game with a 14-7 verdict in the semifinals at Slippery Rock University.
The Tigers (10-2) will meet Hickory in a rematch of the Region 3-AA matchup earlier in the season. Sharon won that contest, 13-12 on the Hornets’ home field.
The Greyhounds (7-5) were bidding for their sixth straight appearance in the district championship game and fifth straight title. Sharon, which last won a District 10 crown in 2001, recorded a sweep of Wilmington, the first time that’s happened since the Tigers did it in 1998.
“The focus has been: The stakes are high. At the end of the week you’re going to get to play in a ballgame, and if you’re not successful, you’re done, and I think our kids understand that and they go about their business Monday through Friday like that, and when they get out here they lay it all on the line,” Tigers taskmaster Bob Fromm related.
In a D-10 Class AA contest with little margin for error, the Tigers tattooed two home runs — Marc Martell’s 70-yard, second-stanza scoring sprint and Jesse Rodgers’ 41-yard run in the third period.
“I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say. It’s the second time we beat Wilmington, after they beat us ... how many times in the past,” rhetorically asked one of Sharon’s stalwarts, Justin Yuran. “It’s just great that we finally pulled out a victory against them.”
Said Fromm, “The run that (the Greyhounds) have had in the past, they’re a formidable foe, and we told the kids all week: ‘You have to respect your opponents because you never know when you’re going to end up seeing them again,’ ” Fromm reflected. “The first game certainly was a battle (a 21-14 Tigers’ triumph on a flea-flicker pass from Ian Crawford to Steven Bittler with 3.2 ticks to play), and (Saturday) was another battle, a little bit of a defensive struggle.”
Fromm’s understated description was borne out in the final stats: the Greyhounds’ great ground game was shackled by Sharon as Wilmington was limited to 59 yards rushing. Sutton Whiting’s iconic career concluded with a 15-carry, 19-yard performance. He came into the contest averaging 9.7 yards per carry, with 21 touchdowns.
Anthony Derrick dented Sharon for a 9-yard run to culminate the Hounds’ second half-opening six-play, 75-yard, two-minute scoring series. But that aside Sharon shut out Wilmington, which had a total of 179 yards on 50 snaps.
“They just have two great tackles there, and we knew that coming in,” acknowledged ’Hounds’ headmaster Terry Verrelli. “We tried real hard in practice to get (Wilmington’s O-line) ready to get to block those two, but it just didn’t happen. They’re great tackles, they really are.”
The first and fourth frames were scoreless stalemates. Martell mustered a net four yards on his first handful of carries before making his move out of the Wildcat formation with 8:21 left in the opening half. Ultimately, Martell muscled a game-high 121 yards rushing.
Josh Tekac was Wilmington’s starting signal-caller, but was relieved by Nick Vasko, and the latter directed the Hounds’ lone scoring drive, highlighted by a 41-yard pass to Cameron Rossi on a third-and-five play from midfield.
But Rodgers responded by tallying the Tigers’ second TD on a third-and-five option-read to the right. His 41-yard run and the second of Jason Sypolt’s conversion kicks with 2:22 remaining in the third quarter concluded the scoring. Rodgers responded with 97 yards rushing as he and Martell accounted for the majority of the Tigers’ total of 220 yards.
Two Tigers turnovers and a half-dozen penalties (four false starts) somewhat stymied Sharon’s offense, though Verrelli ruefully acknowledged, “Eventually, with great athletes like Sharon has, you just can’t let them have the ball too often, or somebody’s eventually gonna break one, and that’s what happened.”
Interestingly, Fromm’s referencing the term ‘expectations’ also applied to Wilmington, which won four consecutive D-10 crowns, advanced to the state’s Final Four four straight seasons, and captured the 2008 PIAA title.
“You know I mentioned to someone, here we are feeling bad and we’re in the second round of the playoffs. There’s people that would be excited about making it to the second round of the playoffs,” Verrelli related. “It’s just not satisfactory because of the past, I guess. ... But the five seniors (Whiting, Jake Devido, Curtis Bretz, Jason McFarland and Tom Bober) I feel bad for them ... but you know something? They played hard, they played their best, they hung in there every game. I think they had a much better year than people realize.”
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WILMINGTON SHARON
7 First downs 5
59 Net Rushing 220
18 Passes Attempted 5
9 Passes Completed 3
1 Passes Intercepted 1
120 Yards Passing 22
179 Total Yards 242
2-1 Fumbles-Lost 2-1
3-29 Penalties-Yards 6-35
WILMINGTON 0 0 7 0 — 7
SHARON 0 7 7 0 — 14
Scoring plays
SHARON — Marc Martell, 70-yard run (Jason Sypolt kick).
WILMINGTON — Anthony Derrick, 9-yard run (Harrison Sturm kick).
SHARON — Jesse Rodgers, 41-yard run (Sypolt kick)
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