Ioanilli leads Ellwood past Burgettstown
Ellwood City (40) vs. Burgettstown (13)
Written: Sep 27, 2014
 By Greg Huston
New Castle News
Ellwood City Lincoln High football coach Don Phillips knows opposing defenses have their sights set on Nick Ioanilli.
That hardly seemed to matter last night at Ewing Park’s Helling Stadium, as the Wolverines’ tailback posted five rushing touchdowns and two interceptions in leading Ellwood to a 40-13 nonconference romp over visiting Burgettstown.
This week’s game belonged to Ioanilli. After Burgettstown (1-4 overall) controlled the clock with three first downs on its opening possession, it finally ended for the Blue Devils when Ioanilli picked off an errant Brad McLaughlin pass.
Four minutes later, Ioanilli capped a five-play drive for the Wolverines (3-2) with his first touchdown, scoring on an option pitch from quarterback D.J. Barrett from 39 yards out to put Ellwood City up 6-0.
The teams traded possessions, but Ioanilli struck again with 8:33 left in the second quarter, this time running it in from 14 yards out. Ioanilli added the exclamation point to the possession by scoring on a two-point conversion run around the right end to push the score to 14-0.
Two possessions later, defensive back Logan Sarver picked off another McLaughlin pass, returning it 12 yards to his own 48. The turnover proved to be big, as Ioanilli again finished off a long eight-play drive with a touchdown run, this time scoring from the 8. Ioanilli also converted a third and 9 during the drive when he caught a 14-yard pass from Barrett.
That score with 1:07 left in the second quarter made it 21-0 heading into halftime, giving the Wolverines a nice cushion as they entered the locker room.
“Nick (Ioanilli) is special, I’ve always said that. He runs hard, he’s a gamer,” Phillips said. “Obviously he’s got a bull’s-eye on his back, and I knew that that would be that way, especially after last week (a 188-yard, 18-carry effort against Freedom). After tonight, he’s still going to have a bull’s-eye on his back, and that’s okay,” Phillips said.
Ioanilli picked up where he left off after halftime, scoring on the Wolverines second possession with a 46-yard jaunt through the Burgettstown defense. Ioanilli shed several tacklers and outran the last line of the Blue Devils defense on his way to the end zone to push the score to 27-0.
Burgettstown got on the board late in the third quarter when McLaughlin hit Brandon Sell down the left sideline for a 22-yard, over-the-shoulder catch to cut the Wolverines’ lead to 20. But that was as close as the Blue Devils would get all night as Ioanilli again answered the bell, scoring from 5 yards out with 10:58 left in the fourth quarter to make it 33-7.
“The line blocked really well and on both of my catches I had, my step-brother (Barrett), threw two great balls to me. We really just played hard and came ready to play,” Ioanilli said.
The Wolverines capped their scoring when Norm Ballard ran in from 9 yards out.
Despite the lopsided score, the Wolverines did have issues holding onto the ball, putting it on the turf six times and losing four. The final fumble was returned 93 yards for a touchdown by Blue Devils defensive lineman Brandon Krynak.
“I told the kids on the sidelines how we’re going to approach that,” Phillips said about the fumbles. “Right now, that’s very uncharacteristic of us to fumble the ball like that. But again, that’s something right there that we got to get out of our system because you can’t beat anybody doing that. Fortunately, we were up enough that they didn’t come back to hurt us. But down the stretch, starting next week, they will hurt us if we do that again.”
That stretch run begins next week as Midwestern Athletic Conference foe Beaver Falls pays Ellwood City a visit. Ioanilli likely will need another big game for the Wolverines to win next week, but Phillips is confident he has other players who can carry the load.
“We still feel we have other weapons, and we’re still trying to develop those to get a little bit more efficient. I think we’ll see in the stretch run that it will work,” Phillips said.
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
BURGETTSTOWN ELLWOOD
7 First downs 15
70 Yards Rushing 373
22 Yards Lost 19
48 Net Rushing 354
20 Passes Attempted 3
6 Passes Completed 2
4 Passes Intercepted 0
97 Yards Passing 58
145 Total Yards 412
2-1 Fumbles-Lost 6-4
5-31.2 Punts-Average 2-35
5-25 Penalties-Yards 7-32
BURGETTSTOWN 0 0 7 6 — 13
ELLWOOD 6 15 6 13 — 40
Scoring plays
ELLWOOD CITY — Nick Ioanilli, 39-yard run (Kick failed).
ELLWOOD CITY — Ioanilli, 14-yard run (Ioanill run).
ELLWOOD CITY — Ioanilli, 7-yard run (Devin Cortez kick).
ELLWOOD CITY — Ioanilli, 46-yard run (Kick failed).
BURGETTSTOWN — Brandon Sell, 23-yard catch (Dylan Dhans kick).
ELLWOOD CITY — Ioanilli, 5-yard run, (Kick failed).
ELLWOOD CITY — Norm Ballard, 9-yard run (Cortez kick).
BURGETTSTOWN — Brandon Krynak, 93-yard fumble return (Kick failed).
|