MOUNT CARMEL-It was an outcome that was foreshadowed throughout much of the second half. Mount Carmel, despite playing well and holding a two-score lead against a very good opponent, started losing players to cramping on what seemed like every play. That opened the door for North Schuylkill to take advantage of an exhausted and depleted defense. The Spartans roared back from a 14-point deficit and took the lead for good on Ricky Halford’s 30-yard run with 47 seconds remaining that gave North Schuylkill a hard-fought 34-27 win.
“We went through this last year with them,” Mount Carmel coach John Darrah said. “It was very similar. I think this year was a little bit worse. We knew it was going to be like this. It’s a hot, humid day. We got a lot of guys involved. We told all our guys to be ready to play. Honestly, I’m proud of our guys. We gave it everything we had. I don’t think there’s anything else anyone could have done. They just had a couple more guys not cramp up, and not go out in the second half.”
North Schuylkill (1-0) made big plays on both sides of the ball to spark the comeback. Quarterback Trevor Minalda was at the center of overcoming some challenging situations. On a 3rd and 20 play, Minalda found Collin McGee down the left sideline for a 45-yard touchdown pass that pulled the Spartans to within 27-20 late in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Minalda once again came through, as he connected with Joey Flail for a 10-yard scoring strike that tied the game with 8:09 left. The senior signal caller completed 18-of-32 passes for 202 yards to go with three touchdowns and one interception.
“It’s tough, and he’s in a tremendous pressure position,” North Schuylkill coach Wally Hall said of Minalda. “We put a lot of pressure on him because that’s the expectation we have for him. Through the pressure, and the good and the bad, you could see he’s obviously made plays.”
Mount Carmel (0-1) saw its defense be on the field for 83 snaps against a talented offense. Whereas North Schuylkill came through on a couple of big fourth downs, the Red Tornadoes failed to convert fourth downs with the game hanging in the balance. Early in the 4th quarter, a 4th-and-1 play in the red zone was stuffed for a one-yard loss, and after Ryan Weidner recovered a fumble that gave some much-needed momentum to Mount Carmel with the score tied, a screen pass on fourth down from the Spartans’ 34 was blown up for a 5-yard loss.
“I thought we were close there on that screen, we had it set up,” Darrah said. “The timing was just a little bit off. Obviously, that short run, those are two plays that if we would have converted, the game might have been totally different.”
Following the second fourth-down stop, the Spartans put together an eight-play, 61-yard drive that resulted in the winning points. Jaxson Chowansky had a big part in it, as he rushed four times for 26 yards. Halford broke multiple tackles on his way to pay dirt against a defense that fought valiantly all night. North Schuylkill got a measure of revenge for a 25-17 loss last year on opening night that ended its recent dominance in the series.
“It shows, you go Week 1, you play with tremendous emotion,” Hall said. “It’s a physical game. You’re making mistakes, and stuff like that, but it just shows how resilient our kids are. The halftime was really easy. We went through everything, went inside, and told them, You’ve got two quarters, do what you want with it. That was it, they made that choice.”
Despite the defeat, there were plenty of bright spots for Mount Carmel. A fully healthy Cole Spears looked good. Spears was 13-for-22 through the air for 233 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Xavier Diaz opened the scoring by going the distance on an 87-yard pass. Early in the second half, Spears hit Chase Balichik on a 33-yard touchdown pass that gave the Red Tornadoes a 27-13 lead.
“I think we were just trying to take advantage of what they gave us,” Darrah said. “When we see man coverage, we feel real confident with our receivers being able to beat man coverage, and we were able to do that.”
North Schuylkill 6 7 7 14-34
Mount Carmel 6 14 7 0- 27
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
MC-Xavier Diaz 87 pass from Cole Spears (kick failed) 7:01
NS-Joey Flail 4 run (kick failed) 3:16
Second Quarter
MC-Diaz 5 run (Robert Schoppy kick) 3:35
NS-Flail 22 pass from Trevor Minalda (Gavin Mentzer kick) 1:05
MC-Luke Blessing 1 run (Schoppy kick) :17
Third Quarter
MC-Chase Balichik 33 pass from Spears (Schoppy kick) 11:13
NS-Collin McGee 45 pass from Minalda (Mentzer kick) 3:07
Fourth Quarter
NS-Flail 7 pass from Minalda (Mentzer kick) 8:09
NS-Ricky Halford 30 run (Mentzer kick) :47
Team Statistics
…………………..NS……………….MC
1st downs………25…………………12
rush-yds……51-230……………..36-181
comp-att-int…18-32-1……..13-25-1
pass yds……..202……………..233
total yds…..432……………..414
fumb-lost…..5-1………….1-0
pen-yds…..4-25……………….5-34
Individual Statistics
Rushing-North Schuylkill: Jaxson Chowansky 12-98; Ricky Halford 6-55, TD; Trevor Minalda 20-50; Joey Flail 7-27, TD; Collin McGee 1-18; Luke Miller 1-6; Ben Carr 1-(-4); Team 3-(-20). Mount Carmel: Luke Blessing 15-119, TD; Cole Spears 12-44; Xavier Diaz 4-18, TD; Andrew Lukoskie 2-8; Cooper Karycki 1-0; Gavin Marshalek 2-(-8).
Passing-North Schuylkill: Minalda 18-32-1, 202 yds., 3 TDs. Mount Carmel: Spears 13-22-1, 233 yds., 2 TDs; Marshalek 0-2-0; Blessing 0-1-0.
Receiving-North Schuylkill: Flail 6-62, 2 TDs; McGee 4-68, TD; Collin Stanakis 3-21; Kevin Jones 2-28; Chowansky 2-21; Halford 1-2. Mount Carmel: Diaz 4-111, TD; Balichik 2-42, TD; Jaylen Delaney 2-9; Blessing 2-(-4); Al Bailey 1-39; Jacob Schultz 1-31; Michael Kimsal 1-5.
