Monaca gets best of Neshannock
Neshannock (10) vs. Monaca (38)
Written: Oct 18, 2008
 By JOHN D’ABRUZZO
jd’abruzzo@ncnewsonline.com
The damage had already been done.
As the Neshannock High football team came out in the second half trailing Monaca by 17 points, the Lancers quickly found the end zone and seemed to control the pace of the contest.
Neshannock, though, couldn’t keep up the tempo and allowed the Indians to cruise to a 38-10 WPIAL Class A Big Seven Conference victory.
Monaca (5-1 conference, 7-1 overall) entered the matchup as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s fourth-ranked WPIAL Class A team. The Indians have won five straight and move into second place in the conference tied with Western Beaver (4-1) behind 6-0 Rochester. Western Beaver hosts Laurel at 12:30 p.m. today.
“They came out ready to play in the second half,” Lancers coach Pat Cuba said. “If we would have done that in the first half, we probably would have been in better shape.
“We were more prepared in the second half and we were ready to play. I told them at halftime there’s nothing they can do different, they just had to go out and block and tackle. And that’s what they did.”
After trailing 24-3 at the half, Neshannock (2-4, 3-5) closed the gap when Jake Tappe found the end zone on a 2-yard run with 3:05 into the third quarter.
Monaca then went 3-and-out and gave the Lancers great field position. Neshannock found itself with third-and-15 on the Indians’ 18, but turned the ball over on a fumble.
The Lancers coughed up the ball seven times in the game and lost it on three occasions.
On its next series, Neshannock put together a 16-play drive down to the Monaca 4. The Lancers, though, turned the ball over on downs.
“We got down there again and had an opportunity to put it in and when we didn’t, the wind kind of went out of our sails,” Cuba said. “If we would have put that in, it would have been a new game with eight minutes to go.”
The Indians quickly drove down the field and scored on a Tony Reda 9-yard run. To make matters worse for Neshannock, the Lancers fumbled the ensuing kickoff and allowed Skyler Schultz to score on a 4-yard dive six seconds after Reda’s score.
Reda, Schultz and Zach Garda amassed 293 yards on the ground for Monaca.
Reda rushed for 102 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. His 47-yard run opened Monaca’s scoring 23 seconds into the game. Schultz ran for 84 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, while Garber gained 107 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. Garber also had three receptions for 31 yards.
“All three have been running well,” Monaca coach Sam Cercone said. “We want to put the ball in their hands and see what they can do, and it seems like every game another kid steps up.”
Monaca’s backfield trio wasn’t the only factor that hurt Neshannock.
The Lancers, who also were intercepted three times, turned the ball over six times through the course of the game and accumulated 90 yards of penalties, 55 of which were accounted for in the first quarter. The Indians were penalized seven times for 50 yards.
“They have not quit,” Cuba said. “You try to get them to believe and got out and play. They do believe and they have had to overcome a lot of adversities. I cannot say enough good things about them.”
Quarterback Josh Brown led Neshannock’s offense with 236 all-purpose yards. He ran for 166 yards on 21 carries and completed 7 of 20 attempts for 70 yards.
“Neshannock’s got a nice football team; they got some hard-nosed kids and we expected that,” Cercone said. “We jumped on them a little bit early in the first half and we preached to our kids to finish it off, but we had a little bit of a slow start there in the second half.”
MONACA NESHANNOCK
15 First downs 13
302 Yards Rushing 232
14 Yards Lost 14
288 Net Rushing 218
7 Passes Attempted 21
4 Passes Completed 7
0 Passes Intercepted 3
50 Yards Passing 70
338 Total Yards 288
2-1 Fumbles-Lost 7-3
3-33.3 Punts-Average 2-36.5
7-50 Penalties-Yards 9-90
MONACA 17 7 0 14 — 38
NESHANNOCK 3 0 7 0 — 10
Scoring plays
MONACA — Tony Reda, 47-yard run. (kick failed).
MONACA — John Lord, 31-yard field goal.
NESHANNOCK — Chase Falba, 22-yard field goal.
MONACA — Zach Garber, 2-yard run (Garber run).
MONACA — Garber, 30-yard run (Lord kick).
NESHANNOCK — Jake Tappe, 2-yard run (Falba kick).
MONACA — Reda, 9-yard run (Lord kick).
MONACA — Skyler Schultz, 4-yard run (Lord kick).
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