BY MIKE MASTOVICH
JOHNSTOWN — At least one publication ranks Selinsgrove as the top Class AAA team in Pennsylvania.
No one on the Johnstown High sideline would argue that fact on Friday night.
The 13-0 Seals defeated the Trojans 35-3 at Richland’s Herlinger Field while displaying most of the tools that have enabled the District 4 champs to outscore opponents by a cumulative 611-79.
“They’re ranked No. 1 in the state for a reason. That’s a great football team,” said Johnstown coach Kevin Marabito, whose 6-AAA champions finished an 8-4 season. “Their quickness, their strength, they just overpowered us. There wasn’t a lot we could do. Our kids tried but they manhandled us up
front. With their quickness, we could get nothing going offensively. On their offensive side their power was too much for us. They ran the ball at us and that was our fear. They were too much for us.”
Defensively, Selingsgrove had size, strength and impressive lateral quickness that consistently strung out the athletic Trojans runners trying to find the corner.
The usually potent Johnstown rushing game was held to a net 79 yards after entering the game with 2,090 rushing yards, an average of 190.
“The game plan was for our defensive linemen to get the yard penetration and really keep that quarterback in front of us,” Seals coach Dave Hess said, referring to Johnstown quarterback John Siciliano, the team’s leading rusher. “The one thing we didn’t want was overpenetrate and let that kid step up inside and go. The kids did a pretty good job up front of making him run laterally.”
Siciliano was effective on Johnstown’s lone scoring drive, which extended from late in the first quarter to early in the second. He gained 32 rushing yards on five runs and passed 11 yards on another play. The march set up Oskar Almgren’s 30-yard field goal that closed the deficit to four points. Siciliano finished with 75 rushing yards.
“It was just great execution on the offense’s part,” Marabito said. “We kicked a field goal. They took that next drive and took it back down there. It was sort of null and void.”
Selinsgrove established the tone on the game’s first possession, as the Seals moved 65 yards in 11 plays and methodically chewed up 5:24 of clock, or nearly half of the opening quarter.
Bryant Trautman capped the march with a 1-yard touchdown, and Spencer Hotaling booted the extra point to give Selinsgrove a 7-0 advantage.
After a Johnstown punt, Selinsgrove moved to the Trojans 33-yard line, but Kashmir Pretlor sacked Seals quarterback Cory Briggs, and McKinley recovered the ensuing fumble.
Behind Siciliano, Johnstown moved to the Seals 6. The drive stalled but Stockholm, Sweden, exchange student Almgren kicked his first field goal of the season, to make it 7-3.
Selinsgrove answered with a four-play, 58-yard drive that ended on Kyle Reinard’s 10-yard run for a 14-3 advantage 8:50 before halftime.
“That was big,” Hess said. “We talk all the time about sudden change with our kids. Anytime there is sudden change – a turnover, an interception or they go down and score – we’ve got to get that momentum right back.”
Briggs found Seth Lauver on the right side of the end zone to make it 21-3.
Selinsgrove rushed for
169 yards on 23 first-half carries and added 88 through the air for 257 yards of offense in the opening half. The District 4 champs also had 14 first downs in the half.
The Seals defense stopped Johnstown deep in its own territory, and Reinard returned a punt that he had initially fumbled and ran for a 53-yard touchdown down the left side line with 1:49 left in the third.
Briggs found Ryan Keiser for a 17-yard touchdown pass
52 seconds into the third to set the final.
Reinard rushed for 142 yards on 18 carries, and fullback Matt Wenrich gained 86 on 10 attempts.
“The offensive line came through,” Hess said. “Kyle Reinard was awesome. He ran through some holes that weren’t even there. The idea was to run the ball, control the clock and try to score on them early.”
Briggs passed for 119 yards.
“We didn’t tackle well,” Marabito said. “A couple times we had them stopped and we didn’t wrap them up, and they drove us ahead. It wasn’t as bad as the score was. If we made a couple tackles, we’re definitely in the ball game.”
Despite the setback, Marabito said his Trojans had plenty of positives to take away from the 2009 season. Johnstown began the year with uncertainty on the offensive line and the team lost two of its four games to Forest Hills, the 6-AA champion, and Richland, the 6-AA runner-up.
Johnstown won its first
6-AAA title since 2004.
“We started out 2-2 and
finished up 8-4,” Marabito
said. “We won the district
title. That’s important. I told the kids, ‘If you’re successful in life that’s what it’s all about. It
doesn’t matter if you’re 10-0 or 0-10 if you’re successful in life.’ ”
