Aliquippa blanks Ellwood City
Ellwood City (0) vs. Aliquippa (47)
Written: Sep 06, 2008
 SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
First-year Ellwood City Lincoln coach Don Phillips was asked before last night what he thought of powerful Aliquippa.
“They aren’t the biggest Aliquippa team,” Phillips said after seeing the Quips up close at Helling Stadium in Ellwood City. “And anybody who plays Aliquippa knows they are going to see speed. But what they are is physical.
“We’re striving to get to that point.”
Phillips is the first to admit the Wolverines have a long way to go.
Aliquippa outhit and outplayed overmatched Ellwood and waltzed away with a 47-0 victory.
The Quips, which are 2-0 in the Class AA Midwestern Athletic Conference and have a date with rival Beaver Falls on Thursday night at Aliquippa, had a 35-0 lead at the half and that put the mercy rule into effect the final two quarters.
The game clock ran almost continually and only 26 plays were run by the two teams the second half. And of those, Aliquippa took a knee on four of them with the ball on the Ellwood 20 and 47 points on the scoreboard.
The Wolverines came close to breaking up the shutout in the final seconds.
Dalton Loccisano broke a couple tackles and burst through the Aliquippa defense for 47 yards and looked like he might make the end zone, but he was caught from behind by Haetaun Mathis at the Quips’ 12 as the game ended.
Aliquippa scored on five of its first six possessions and starting quarterback Rasheem Jones was replaced when the Quips got the ball with 5:38 left in the first half and on top, 29-0.
Jones, who completed 4 of 6 passes for 67 yards and a score, put Aliquippa on the board at 10:08 of the first quarter when he darted around right end and scored from 16 yards out. Terry Patrick ran in the two-point conversion and the Quips never looked back.
The Quips got the ball back on their own 45 following an Ellwood City punt and on the first play, Jones and Rashad Kenney hooked up on a pass-and-catch for 45 yards. Patrick scored two plays later on a 5-yard run.
“We’ve had problems tackling,” Phillips said. “And when you have problems tackling and play a team like Aliquippa, it just becomes more glaring.”
Perhaps the play that best summed up Ellwood’s night came toward the end of the second quarter. Aliquippa reserve running back Tyriq Dorsett tried to run around the right side but bumped into one of his own lineman.
Instead of being tackled for a loss, he reversed his field, got to the outside around the left end and gained 34 yards.
Aliquippa rushed for 234 yards, but did not have a 100-yard runner. Patrick, who has 92 yards on four carries, was the closest. Loccisano had 58 yards on three carries for Ellwood and quarterback Joe Galmarini, who played a gutsy game, rushed for 31 yards on 10 attempts.
Aliquippa coach Mike Zmijanac knew the Quips had a superior team, but he didn’t figure they would win without a fight.
“My attitude is every game counts as one. You want to respect the game and that means you play hard all the time,” he said when asked if Aliquippa might have been looking ahead to Beaver Falls. “Hey, I know what it’s like for Donnie. When I started at Aliquippa with Don (Yannessa), we’d won 12 games in nine years.
“I told Don before we played that it (Ellwood’s program) didn’t break in a year and that it will take more than a year to fix it. He’ll make them better.”
ALIQUIPPA ELLWOOD CITY
15 First downs 5
234 Yards Rushing 111
0 Yards Lost 28
234 Net Rushing 83
6 Passes Attempted 8
4 Passes Completed 1
0 Passes Intercepted 1
67 Yards Passing 8
301 Total Yards 91
2-0 Fumbles-Lost 4-1
1-30 Punts-Average 5-20.8
3-35 Penalties-Yards 3-28
ALIQUIPPA 15 20 6 6 — 47
ELLWOOD CITY 0 0 0 0 — 0
Scoring plays
ALIQUIPPA — Rasheem Jones, 16-yard run (Terry Patrick run)
ALIQUIPPA — Patrick, 5-yard run (Rashad Kenney kick)
ALIQUIPPA — Donte Williams, 6-yard run (Kenney kick)
ALIQUIPPA — Devin Polzot, 7-yard pass from Jones (Kenney kick)
ALIQUIPPA — Maurice Carter, 20-yard run (kick failed)
ALIQUIPPA — Darious Walker, 7-yard run (kick failed)
ALIQUIPPA — Tyriq Dorsett, 6-yard run (kick failed)
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