FOUNTAIN SPRINGS-The hill was too steep to climb for Mount Carmel against a quality opponent. A forgettable first half that was filled with mistakes proved to be the Red Tornadoes undoing. North Schuylkill capitalized on its opportunities, jumped out to a big lead, and withstood a second-half comeback attempt, as the Spartans were able to hang on for a 37-30 victory.
“I’ve never really been in a game like that where we’ve come out that poorly,” Mount Carmel coach John Darrah said. “In a big game, it’s my fault. I take the blame for it. We’ve got to be ready to play. I don’t really know why we played so poorly, especially in the first quarter and the start of the second quarter. Obviously, I’m the head coach, so that’s on me.”
North Schuylkill (1-0) marched right down the field on its opening possession. Luke Miller, who had a a huge night, got things started with a 29-yard touchdown run off the left side. Mount Carmel (0-1) got a brief jolt of momentum when Jaylen Delaney intercepted a pass and returned it 49 yards for a touchdown. However, things would go south in a hurry. Errant shotgun snaps were a problem throughout the game, and the first of several that got away was recovered by Chase Slotcavage. That miscue led to a 49-yard field by Gavin Mentzer, with room to spare. Another fumbled snap, this one from under center, was quickly cashed in with Miller crossing the goal line from 21 yards out. The Red Tornadoes had three snaps go haywire, resulting in a loss of 40 yards. Ironically, shotgun snaps were not a major problem during preseason practices.
“Not that to that extent,” Darrah said. “We had one here or there, but that was just something that had an effect on us there in the first half, especially.”
Thanks to the lost yardage and good defense, North Schuylkill had plenty of short fields to navigate in the early part of the game. Miller completed the first-half hat trick with a 1-yard touchdown run, and added one more for good measure when he scored on a 5-yard scamper with 2:51 left before halftime, giving the Spartans a 30-7 lead. The junior finished with 29 carries for 193 yards and four touchdowns.
“Luke’s an athlete,” North Schuylkill coach Wally Hall said. “He’s definitely one of the guys that we’re going to get the football to. He was prepared for that. There’s definitely other guys that are capable. Going from the scrimmage (against Danville) to only running the ball twice, and passing the ball very effectively, a lot of people see that on film. The past couple years, we’ve been spreading the ball all over the football field. We can line up and run, and we’re going to obviously do that with our offensive line.”
Delaney finally brought some life to the Mount Carmel sideline after he hauled in a 66-yard touchdown pass from Gavin Marshalek with just over a minute left in the first half. The Red Tornadoes, who lost running back Luke Blessing to an injury, closed the gap to 30-22, thanks to a Michael Kimsal 4-yard run midway through the quarter. The big deficit made Mount Carmel throw the ball almost exclusively in the second half. Marshalek completed 19-of-32 passes for 261 yards and two touchdowns.
“I thought he had an alright game,” Darrah said of Marshalek. “He threw some good balls. Like I said, it’s not where we want to be right now. Got to get back to the drawing board, all our goals are still ahead of us. We’ve got to have a great week of practice, and get better.”
Leaning heavily on its offensive line, the Spartans put together an impressive 15-play, 75-yard drive that was capped off with a 1-yard quarterback sneak from Caden Mengel. Mount Carmel answered with a Tait Adams touchdown catch on a fade pattern with just under eight minutes left to play. The Red Tornadoes actually got a fourth down stop, and had a chance to provide some late-game dramatics. However, North Schuylkill came up with a prompt fourth down stop of its own, and picked up two first downs to deny Mount Carmel win No. 900, while giving Hall win No. 100 in his career.
“That’s the most important part, the first four minutes of the game and the last four minutes of the game are crucial,” Hall said. “A lot of games are won at that time. We’re definitely going to lean on our offensive line and our defensive line. Our defensive line has played great as well. Things are starting to fall together. We had some good months of preparation leading up to this. We lost a lot of skill guys from a year ago, but we certainly replaced them, and some of the things that we’re doing, we’ll just keep building from that.”
Mount Carmel 7 7 8 8-30
North Schuylkill 10 20 0 7-37
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
NS-Luke Miller 23 run (Gavin Mentzer kick) 7:59
MC-Jaylen Delaney 49 interception return (Bobby Schoppy kick) 6:18
NS- Mentzer 49 field goal
Second Quarter
NS-Miller 21 run (Mentzer kick) 11:52
NS-Miller 1 run (Mentzer kick) 7:08
NS-Miller 4 run (run failed) 2:51
MC-Delaney 66 pass from Gavin Marshalek (Schoppy kick) 1:34
Third Quarter
MC-Michael Kimsal 4 run (Kimsal pass from Marshalek) 6:33
Fourth Quarter
NS-Caden Mengel 1 run (Mentzer kick) 10:26
MC-Tait Adams 8 pass from Marshalek (Delaney pass from Marshalek) 7:59
Team Statistics
…………………………….MC………………NS
1st downs……………10……………………20
rush-yds………..19-(-8)………………..53-295
comp-att-int…..19-33-0…………….7-13-1
pass yds…………..261……………….63
total yds………..253…………………358
fumb-lost………..5-2………………..1-0
pen-yds…………3-20……………………..6-50
Individual Statistics
Rushing-Mount Carmel: Luke Blessing 5-19; Michael Kimsal 5-16, TD; Al Bailey 1-1; Gavin Marshalek 2-(-1); Cooper Karycki 3-(-3); Team 3-(-40). North Schuylkill: Luke Miller 29-193, 4 TDs; Caden Mengel 16-91, TD; Kolten Joyce 6-15; Michael Mogish 1-0; Team 1-(-4).
Passing-Mount Carmel: Marshalek 19-33-0, 261 yds., 2 TDs. North Schuylkill: Mengel 7-13-1, 63 yds.
Receiving-Mount Carmel: Jaylen Delaney 6-85, TD; Tait Adams 5-67, TD; Chase Balichick 4-27; Karycki 1-33; Bailey 1-23; Andrew Lukoskie 1-16; Blessing 1-10. North Schuylkill: Kevin Jones 3-31; Miller 3-26; Mogish 1-6.
