Lancers breeze by Golden Beavers
Neshannock (62) vs. Western Beaver (6)
Written: Sep 27, 2014
  By Andrew Koob
New Castle News
Neshannock students and alumni packed Bob Bleggi Stadium for their homecoming game last night, anticipating a victory.
The football team did not disappoint.
The Lancers put their foot on the gas early and never let up, coasting to a 62-6 victory over Big Seven Conference opponent Western Beaver.
Neshannock (4-0 conference, 5-0 overall) scored the game’s first 48 points before the Golden Beavers (1-3, 1-4) finally hit paydirt at the end of the third quarter against the Lancers’ second-team defense.
Quarterback Frank Antuono led the attack for Neshannock through the air, throwing for 160 yards and three touchdowns while completing nine of his 13 attempts. Tailback Eli Owens did his damage on the ground, rushing for 147 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries.
“We’re just trying to play one game at a time, each play one play at a time,” Lancers coach Fred Mozzocio said. “We try to do the same thing in practice, we’re just trying to improve as a football team. We’re not paying attention to any outside distractions or what anybody else says, what the scoreboard reads. Whoever is on this team is trying to improve as a football player and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Antuono struck first with a 27-yard strike to a wide-open Rocco Fazio. Owens followed that with a 33-yard scamper to give the Lancers a 14-0 lead after the first quarter.
Both scored again in the second quarter, with Owens rushing for a three-yard touchdown and Antuono hitting Seth Dueitt for a 17-yard score on a fourth-down conversion at the end of the first half.
“We had some things we wanted to work on and that was a time we wanted to take a shot at something,” Mozzocio said of the fourth-down conversion. “We’re trying to improve, we’re playing in game situations just as if we were down six points in that situation. We’re just trying to look at some different things we can use moving forward.”
Owens added a 29-yard score to his night, his third, and Antuono hooked up again with Fazio for an eight-yard touchdown, his third as well.
Western Beaver’s triple-option offense could never produce any traction against Neshannock’s defense. Between seven players, the Golden Beavers rushed for 105 yards, 33 coming on their lone score, and lost two fumbles.
Improvement has been a constant for the Lancers this season. Their win margin of 56 points is their highest, followed by 49, 34, 33 and 27 points.
“We just have to keep working hard and getting better each and every day at practice,” Antuono said. “We have to play our game every week.”
The mercy rule came into effect and the second-stringers hit the field midway through the third quarter with the Lancers leading by 48 points. The backups fared just as well as the starters — after giving up the lone touchdown to Western Beaver, the Lancers scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, a seven-yard run by quarterback Jared Staph and a 35-yard run by tailback Jonah Vitale.
“They work very hard at practice as well,” Mozzocio said. “Earlier in the year they went in and they didn’t execute well and we weren’t very happy with them. We tell them when they get on the field, it’s their turn to execute and their turn to show us what they can do. They were geared up, both last week and this week, they wanted to do a better job tonight and they did.”
Penalties were the only concern for the Lancers, as Neshannock committed 11 for 74 yards. Western Beaver wasn’t without its own mistakes, committing 13 penalties for 77 yards, including three delay of game infractions.
“We weren’t really happy with the penalties,” Mozzocio said. “We’re going to take a close look at them on film and we’ll try to make sure it doesn’t happen next week. I’m sure we’ll see an improvement there.”
With four games left in the season, three against Big Seven opponents, Neshannock could perhaps finish the regular season undefeated. The three conference opponents (Vincentian Academy, Rochester and Union) have only two wins between them, with Vincentian beating Union and Union defeating Rochester.
“We want to win every football game we play, it doesn’t matter,” Mozzocio said. “These kids love to play the game, they love to play football and it doesn’t matter who we line up against, we’re going to play hard football. Right now, we’re doing pretty well and the kids are executing on both sides of the football and that’s what the results show. We just have to keep trying to get better and continue to do what we do.”
(Email: A_Koob@ncnewsonline.com)
W. BEAVER NESHANNOCK
5 First downs 12
122 Yards Rushing 328
17 Yards Lost 6
105 Net Rushing 322
9 Passes Attempted 13
5 Passes Completed 9
0 Passes Intercepted 0
80 Yards Passing 160
185 Total Yards 472
2-2 Fumbles-Lost 1-1
6-27 Punts-Average 1-39
13-77 Penalties-Yards 11-74
W. BEAVER 0 0 0 6— 6
NESHANNOCK 14 14 20 14 — 62
Scoring plays
NESHANNOCK — Rocco Fazio, 27-yard pass from Frank Antuono (Seth Dueitt kick).
NESHANNOCK — Eli Owens, 33-yard run (Dueitt kick).
NESHANNOCK — Owens, 3-yard run (Dueitt kick).
NESHANNOCK — Dueitt, 17-yard pass from Antuono (Dueitt kick).
NESHANNOCK — Owens, 29-yard run (Dueitt kick).
NESHANNOCK — Fazio, 8-yard pass from Antuono (kick failed).
NESHANNOCK — Robert Lindsey, 10-yard run (Dueitt kick).
W. BEAVER — John Sosack, 33-yard run (run failed).
NESHANNOCK — Jared Staph 7-yard run (Dueitt kick).
NESHANNOCK — Jonah Vitale, 35-yard run (Dueitt kick).
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