Bobcats’ offense overwhelms Mohawk
Mohawk (7) vs. Beaver (46)
Written: Sep 27, 2014
 By Shawn Fox
New Castle News
BEAVER — Beaver Area’s “Pink Out” left Mohawk High seeing red.
The Bobcats’ balanced offensive attack piled up 344 yards last night as they handed the Warriors their third straight setback, 46-7, in a WPIAL Class AA Midwestern Conference game on breast cancer awareness night at Pat Tarquinio Field.
“Right now we’re not a very disciplined football team,” said Mohawk coach Joe Lamenza, whose team dipped to 1-3 in the conference and 1-4 overall. “We had a lot of personal foul penalties (three) that are uncharacteristic of us. We just need to get better at the little things.”
Beaver (3-1, 4-1) finished with 203 yards rushing and 141 yards through the air.
Mohawk, meanwhile, managed just 151 yards of total offense in the game, with 80 yards coming on a drive late in the game as both teams substituted freely.
“We just had to get back to some basics on defense and drill those things home,” Beaver coach Jeff Beltz said. “We wanted to keep being aggressive and let our kids play.”
The Bobcats got on the scoreboard with 3:07 remaining in the first quarter, as quarterback Zach Royba hooked up with Pat Hanagan for a 32-yard touchdown pass. Luke Scheidenmantel, who kicked four of Beaver’s six PATs, added the kick to make it 7-0.
Following an ill-advised fake punt by Mohawk on its own 27-yard line, Beaver again cashed in as Te’Vierre Williams scored on a 16-yard run to give the hosts a 14-0 lead with 11 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
Scheidenmantel increased the lead to 17-0 at the 6:48 mark of the second quarter as he booted a 32-yard field goal.
The Royba-to-Hanagan duo teamed up again for a 55-yard touchdown pass with 1:16 remaining in the first half to hike the Bobcats’ lead to 24-0 at the break.
Beaver took the second-half kickoff and put together its longest drive of the game — a six-play, 60-yard march. Royba tossed his third touchdown pass of the game, this time an 11-yarder to Nick Barney, to cap the drive and give the Bobcats a 31-0 lead four minutes into the third quarter.
“We need that position to perform well in the spread offense,” Beltz said of his quarterback. “Zach’s a senior leader for us, and he played well.”
The Bobcats’ defense gave the ball right back to the offense on Mohawk’s first offensive play of the second half, as Chris DiNuzzo recovered a fumble at the Warriors’ 3-yard line.
Royba scored from 2 yards out on fourth down, and Drew McElrath added the PAT kick to give Beaver a 38-0 lead and bring the mercy rule into play with 5:37 remaining in the third quarter.
“Beaver’s been 50-50 (run and pass offensively) this year,” Lamenza said. “That didn’t surprise us at all, we just missed some tackles in space. We’ve got to tackle better and not beat ourselves.”
Mohawk finally got its offense going early in the fourth quarter, driving 80 yards in 11 plays to find the end zone. Cayne Yakubik was the workhorse on the drive, carrying the ball seven times for 52 yards. His 12-yard run capped the drive. John Zagotti added the kick to cut it to 38-7 with 5:02 remaining in the game.
Beaver polished off the scoring as Oliver Neish ran for a 13-yard touchdown and Landon Pontoli ran in the conversion to set the final.
“We played with energy, which is the first ingredient that you need to win football games,” Beltz said. “It was far from perfect, but still a good effort.”
Mohawk will host Laurel on Friday.
“We’ve got to turn the page, watch the film and try to get better everywhere,” Lamenza said.
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
MOHAWK ...... BEAVER
11 First downs 18
160 Yards Rushing 211
42 Yards Lost 8
118 Net Rushing 203
14 Passes Attempted 16
6 Passes Completed 7
1 Passes Intercepted 1
33 Yards Passing 141
151 Total Yards 344
3-1 Fumbles-Lost 1-0
5-29 Punts-Average 1-38
6-60 Penalties-Yards 5-51
MOHAWK 0 0 0 7 — 7
BEAVER 14 10 14 8 — 46
Scoring plays
BEAVER — Pat Hanagan, 32-yard pass from Zach Royba (Luke Scheidenmantel kick).
BEAVER — Te’Vierre Williams, 16-yard run (Scheidenmantel kick).
BEAVER — Scheidenmantel, 32-yard field goal.
BEAVER — Hanagan, 55-yard pass from Royba (Scheidenmantel kick).
BEAVER — Nick Barney, 11-yard pass from Royba (Scheidenmantel kick).
BEAVER — Royba, 2-yard run (Drew McElrath kick).
MOHAWK — Cayne Yakubik, 12-yard run (John Zagotti kick).
BEAVER — Oliver Neish, 13-yard run (Landon Pontoli run).
|