Mistakes spell doom for 'Cats in quarterfinal setback
Shenango (13) vs. Frazier (14)
Written: Nov 14, 2015
By Shawn Fox
New Castle News
HOUSTON — In a little more than four minutes, the season unraveled for the Shenango High football team.
The Wildcats were cruising with a 13-0 lead late into the third quarter Friday night, but two miscues gave Frazier life.
And the Commodores took full advantage.
Fourth-seeded Frazier cashed in on both Shenango mistakes to post a 14-13 victory in the WPIAL Class A football quarterfinals at Chartiers-Houston High’s Buccaneer Stadium.
“I’m proud of them,” Shenango coach Mike Commesso said. “I’m proud of what they accomplished this year, and proud of the effort they gave tonight. We just made too many mistakes to come away with the victory.”
The Commodores’ comeback began with a special teams mistake with 4:23 remaining in the third quarter, as punter Dylan Kleckner was stopped for a yard loss on fourth-and-six from the Shenango 23-yard line.
“I think Dylan saw somebody coming to block it, so he pulled it down,” Commesso said.
Five plays later Frazier (11-0) got on the scoreboard, as quarterback Hunter Patterson connected with Josh Cox on an 8-yard touchdown pass. Cox added the point-after kick, to draw his team to within 13-7 with 2:29 remaining in the third quarter.
“We knew we had been in this position before,” Frazier coach Mike Steeber said. “We’ve been behind and fought through adversity before. It was all business at halftime, and we just made the adjustments we had to make.”
On the ensuing kickoff, disaster struck again for the Wildcats.
Tyler Root fumbled the kickoff, and the loose ball was recovered by Cameron Roebuck at the Shenango 16.
“I knew special teams was going to play a critical role in this game,” Steeber said. “It really proved to be important for us tonight.”
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Patterson scored from a yard out. Cox added the kick to give Frazier a 14-13 with 11:57 to go in the contest.
“He runs around a little crazy out there sometimes, but he has a big heart and he wants to win football games.” Steeber said of Patterson.
Shenango never got closer than its own 48-yard line in the final stanza. The Wildcats got the football back with six seconds remaining in the game, but a pair of incomplete passes ended their season.
Things started off much better for the Wildcats than they finished.
Shenango took the opening kickoff and drove 59 yards in nine plays to take the lead. Root, who opened the game by returning the kickoff 26 yards to get the Wildcats going, capped the drive with a 6-yard TD run. Kleckner added the kick, and Shenango had a 7-0 lead at the 7:15 mark.
Vinnie Turco got the ball right back for the Wildcats, as he recovered a fumble at the Frazier 44. Kleckner made the Commodores pay, as he booted a 28-yard field goal to hike Shenango’s lead to 10-0 with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter.
Another Kleckner field goal, this one from 26 yards, with seven seconds remaining in the first half gave the Wildcats a 13-point cushion at the break.
“Dylan was very valuable for us this year,” Commesso said. “One of the reasons we were so good was that we were a complete football team. We were able to execute on offense, defense and special teams. His leg punting and kicking was a big part of that.”
Shenango, which was seeded fifth in the tournament, wrapped up the season at 8-3. Along the way, the Wildcats won the Big Seven Conference title for the first time since 2003.
“I’ll remember what we accomplished together,” Commesso said. “We’ve come a long way since they were sophomores. They won the first conference championship in over a dozen years.”
The Wildcats also said goodbye to 19 seniors.
“The senior class was huge,” Commesso said. “This is an experienced bunch and a good bunch of kids. We didn’t have any Division I athletes, but we just had a lot of good, hard-nosed football players. They won a lot of games and accomplished a lot.”
Frazier will face top-seeded Clairton, a 46-21 winner over ninth-seeded Avonworth on Friday.
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
SHENANGO FRAZIER
7 First downs 7
171 Yards Rushing 97
15 Yards Lost 45
156 Net Rushing 52
15 Passes Attempted 13
5 Passes Completed 6
1 Passes Intercepted 1
52 Yards Passing 47
208 Total Yards 99
3-2 Fumbles-Lost 2-1
4-34.3 Punts-Average 7-31.4
7-60 Penalties-Yards 6-55
SHENANGO 10 3 0 0 — 13
FRAZIER 0 0 7 7 — 14
Scoring plays
SHENANGO — Tyler Root, 6-yard run (Dylan Kleckner kick).
SHENANGO — Kleckner, 28-yard field goal.
SHENANGO — Kleckner, 26-yard field goal.
FRAZIER — Josh Cox, 8-yard pass from Hunter Patterson (Cox kick).
FRAZIER — Patterson, 1-yard run (Cox kick).
|