Spartans put it all together against South Side
Laurel (36) vs. South Side Beaver (0)
Written: Sep 01, 2012
 By Steve Treu
News correspondent
HOOKSTOWN — Given the choice between a high-flying offense and a stifling defense, Laurel coach Jerry Holzhauser didn’t hesitate.
Give him the D.
The Spartans gave him both last night in the season opener, rolling over host South Side Beaver 36-0 behind 123 rushing yards and two touchdowns from Matt Conway. His coach appreciated all those points, but it was the action on the other side of the ball that he savored the most.
“I like that zero on the scoreboard,” Holzhauser said. “We have a lot of young kids playing and for them to prevent a score in the opener, that’s pretty big.”
The Spartans played pretty big throughout the evening, overcoming a slow start to throttle the Rams with five touchdowns in the middle two quarters. The “mercy rule,” where the clock runs continuously for most of the rest of the game after a team goes ahead by 35 points or more, took effect late in the third quarter.
Conway did his damage on just 10 carries, including the game’s first score on a 1-yard plunge and the sophomore later raced one outside into the end zone on a 16-yarder. Fellow 10th-grader Noah Wertz only handled the ball twice, causing just as much havoc as Conway.
Early in the second quarter of a scoreless game, Wertz ran a slant on the left over the middle and made a nice grab of a dart from Josh Dando, taking it 45 yards all the way to the 1 to set up Conway’s first touchdown. One minute before halftime, Wertz ran a slant on the right over the middle and hauled in another Dando dandy, this time taking it all the way to the house for a 35-yard score.
Two touches for 80 yards leading to two touchdowns and complete control of the game by the Spartans.
“Those were timing routes,” Dando said. “I didn’t really see Noah and he went out and caught them.”
“Our receivers are not real big, but they execute,” Holzhauser said. “They run routes well and catch the ball in traffic. Noah was big out there, he was excited. All of our young kids were ready to play.”
Wertz touched the ball several other times with his feet and made a big impact there as well. Included among his kicks were four PATs, several booming touchbacks on kickoffs and a 52-yard punt.
Laurel’s other touchdowns came on runs by James Steele, an 8-yard jaunt up the gut, and a 5-yarder by Ryan Arblaster over the left side of the line to close the scoring. Raymond Scala ran in a two-point conversion.
Dando was a two-way standout, throwing for 109 yards and a touchdown on 4-of-6 attempts while also grabbing two interceptions. He agreed with his coach, the zero was better than the 36.
“I enjoyed the defense more,” Dando said. “I like hitting people.”
“Josh did a good job running the offense,” Holzhauser said. “When you have a quarterback who can read defenses as well as he can, he makes the coaches look good.
“We hope we can keep putting points on the board and it is good to see that our defense is capable of slowing an offense down. We still have some things to work on, but the kids adjusted well. We’Spartans ll take it.”
Laurel finished with a 368-155 advantage in total offense, limiting South Side to just 29 yards through the air on 15 attempts.
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
LAUREL SOUTH SIDE
14 First downs 8
263 Yards Rushing 141
4 Yards Lost 15
259 Net Rushing 126
6 Passes Attempted 15
4 Passes Completed 4
1 Passes Intercepted 2
109 Yards Passing 29
368 Total Yards 155
3-0 Fumbles-Lost 0-0
3-41 Punts-Average 6-39
4-30 Penalties-Yards 3-40
LAUREL 0 22 14 0— 36
SOUTH SIDE 0 0 0 0 — 0
Scoring plays
LAUREL — Matt Conway, 1-yard run (Noah Wertz kick).
LAUREL — James Steele, 8-yard run (Raymond Scala run).
LAUREL — Wertz, 35-yard pass from Josh Dando (Wertz kick).
LAUREL — Conway, 16-yard run (Wertz kick).
LAUREL — Ryan Arblaster, 5-yard run (Wertz kick).
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