Indians move to 5-0
By John Lipez
MILL HALL, Pa. – The Shamokin High School football team showed Friday night why it is among the elite teams in Pennsylvania. The Indians scored early and often, opening a 49-0 halftime team and coasting home with a 55-0 win over outmatched Central Mountain.
Shamokin was without its leading ground-gainer in Noah Rings, out with an injury, but Division I-bound quarterback Logan Steele more than filled the void. Steel, a Wake Forest recruit, has been more noted for his running, but he turned to passing Friday night, going a perfect 9-for-9 through the air, good for 183 yards and three touchdowns; he also added 48 yards rushing on just three carries, scoring one touchdown.
The issue, it turns out, was decided early, the visitors scoring two touchdowns in the first two minutes. After Central Mountain went three-and-out on its first possession, Shamokin took just one play to score, a 49-yard pass from Steele to Ryan Bickert; the Indians would score again on a 25-yard pick-six by Colin Steinhart and the route was on.
Shamokin scored on all six of its possessions in the first half, opening a 49-0 lead. Indian coach Marc Persing started substituting at the start of the second half, played in the mercy rule, and Steele was done for the night.
Both teams worked in reserves through the final two quarters and Central Mountain, shut down offensively in the first half, had its best drive in the third quarter. Starting from its 20-yard line, the team drove to the Shamokin 3 before turning over the ball on downs. The drive was engineered by speedy Gavin Heverly, utilized in a wildcat offense for the first time this season. He had success running the ball on the drive, but the biggest play came when Heverly pitched the ball to sophomore starting quarterback Alex Johnson who connected on a 35-yard pass to Mason Masorti. Johnson and Heverly are usually utilized as wideouts and kick returners, but Johnson got the call at quarterback as usual starter Kyle Everett was out with an ankle injury. Heverly had another outstanding night returning kicks.
The loss was the second straight game the Wildcats did not score, held under 100 yards of offense for a second game in a row as they dropped to 0-5 with a trip to Shikellamy scheduled for next Friday. Shik Friday night moved to 4-1 on the year when the Braves stunned Jersey Shore (3-2) by a 56-27 score.
Shamokin moved to 5-0 with the win and Central Mountain coach Travis Thompson said the Indians were impressive, “For sure great team, a great coach…disciplined football, they’re aggressive…they’re one of the best teams in the state. I believe they’re ranked number one in 4A for a reason. So we definitely got a taste of what we strive to be, hopefully sometime. You look at everything they were able to do on the field, they definitely lived up to it.”
Coach Thompson said Everett’s absence made it tough for rookie starter Johnson, “Kyle had some (injuries)…(for Johnson) it was a tough welcome to Friday night football as a quarterback. I’m happy with what he was able to do out there. I mean, it didn’t look picture-perfect all the time, but they kept grinding, they kept going at things. Throwing ‘hev’ back there in our wildcat set, you know, they kept working, they kept grinding. You know, the attitudes of these kids, I can’t say enough about where they’re at.”
