LEHMAN — Marc Persing and the Shamokin football program has a tremendous relationship with its track team. It’s not as if Persing isn’t a baseball fan, it’s just that he sees the value on Friday nights from springs spent running.
In the first two weeks of the season, the second-year coach is seeing the benefits of that relationship. Friday night the Indians outran a Lake-Lehman team which was coming off a monumental win over Berwick a week ago. The Knights had no answer for a Shamokin offense which looked like a four-by-one relay team in pads.
Shamokin rolled up 426 yards of offense, including more than 300 on the ground, and the defense pitched its first shutout in two years in a 40-0 win over Lake-Lehman. All-stater Chase Pensyl scored on a 73-yard touchdown pass. Jayce Ginck had a 76-yard run which led to a mercy rule-invoking touchdown, and Shamokin is 2-0 for the first time since 2014.
“We’re fast, and we’re going to use our speed,” Persing said. “Our job is to get the ball to the right guys in the right situations. We’re lucky to have six or seven guys who can take it, and they’re track fast. They’re not just football fast, they’re track fast.”
From the moment Shamokin caught a break when an opening-drive fourth-down pass to a wide open receiver in the end zone fell incomplete, the Indians took control of Friday night’s game. And they did it in every facet of the game. Just five plays after dodging that fourth-down bullet, Shamokin took advantage of a blown coverage on Pensyl’s 73-yard touchdown reception from Logan Steele.
Of the 85 offensive yards the Indians’ defense allowed in the first half, 44 of them came on just two plays from the Lehman offense on that opening drive. Take away those two carries and Lehman’s offense average just 2.5 yards per carry last night. Shamokin also scored on defense, created two turnovers on special teams, and averaged more than 8 yards per carry offensively.
The 49 points were the most a Shamokin team has scored since dropping 57 on Shikellamy in 2022.
“We’re a system and the kids have bought into it,” Persing said. “Our two running backs are feature backs on any other team, and we’re just fortunate enough to have two of them. Unfortunately our system requires only one to be in the game at a time, but they complement each other so well.”
It would be cliché to call Ginck and ZaKem Clinton ‘Thunder’ and ‘Lightning,’ but it would also be true. Ginck is a 160-pound Ferrari in football pads who needs just a crease to turn 3 yards into 30. Clinton is a 225-pound Earth mover who is harder to bring down than a Redwood tree.
Ginck averaged more than 18 yards a carry last night. Clinton scored on three of his six carries. They made the Shamokin offense go behind a patient offensive line which punished Lehman’s defense and stayed on its blocks to spring 11 carries for 8 yards or more.
“They run that flanker offense very well,” Lake-Lehman coach Jerry Gilsky said. “They get their guys to the perimeter and they’re big up front. They’re very methodical in what they do. And they’re very patient. Their linemen stay on their blocks and they work you and they’re physical.”
Lehman was riding the high of beating Berwick a week ago when it worked its way into the red zone on the game’s opening possession. But when the fourth-down pass fell incomplete, the Knights seemed to fall flat. After recording five first-quarter first downs, the Knights didn’t pick up another one until the fourth quarter when a running clock was in play and backups for both teams had entered the game.
Shamokin used its speed defensively just as effectively as it did offensively. After picking up runs of 32 and 12 yards on the first drive, the Knights had just four more runs gain more than 5 yards over the final 46 minutes of the game.
“We’re switched our defense up this year and we got one more athlete on the field,” Persing said. “It’s paying dividends already.”
“The way we started out, we had a ton of energy,” Gilsky said. “But then we dug ourselves a hole with turnovers. We had two end zone plays and we couldn’t get it in and our kids got flat after that.”
In the second quarter, Lake-Lehman ran just six offensive plays. One ended in an interception returned for a touchdown by Steele. The Knights also muffed a punt which Shamokin recovered and cashed in with a Clinton touchdown run. They also turned the ball over on the ensuing kickoff when the ball hit an upback and the Indians recovered, eventually scoring on Clinton’s second touchdown run.
It was the Murphy’s Law of quarters, and when Ginck setup up Clinton’s third touchdown run less than a minute into the third quarter, the mercy rule was invoked.
“This was a big piece of humble pie,” Gilsky said.
“These guys have bought into everything we’ve asked of them in the last nine month,” Persing said. “This is them benefitting from all the hard work.”
Shamokin 49, Lake-Lehman 0
Shamokin 6 22 14 7 – 49
Lake-Lehman 0 0 0 0 – 0
First quarter
S—Chase Pensyl 73 pass from Logan Steele (kick failed), 6:22
Second quarter
S—ZaKem Clinton 8 run (Pensyl kick), 6:05
S—Steele 46 INT return (Pensyl kick), 5:06
S—Clinton 1 run (Pensyl kick), :21
Third quarter
S—Clinton 12 run (Pensyl kick), 11:23
S—Jayce Ginck 38 run (Colin Steinhart kick), 5:30
Fourth quarter
S—Steinhart 3 run (Steinhart kick), 6:22
Sha LL
First downs 16 9
Rushes-yds 36-304 29-104
Com-att-int 6-11-0 6-11-1
Pass yards 122 34
Total yards 426 138
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Penalties-yards 6-54 4-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing—Shamokin, Jayce Ginck, 8-149, TD; ZaKem Clinton, 6-40, 3 TDs; Chase Pensyl, 2-35; Trey Taylor, 4-20; Logan Steele, 5-19; Colin Steinhart, 2-16, TD; Ryan Bickert, 3-15; Rylan Price, 3-13; Andrew Leffler, 1-2; Barrett Walsh, 1-2; Team, 1-(-7). Lake-Lehman, Jayden Skipalis, 9-56; Anthony Magnotta, 4-27; Jim Mitkowski, 5-20; Lukas Conte, 3-9; Alex Smith, 1-2; Benjamin Brelsford, 1-0; Damon Bond, 1-(-2); Hayden Evans, 5-(-8).
Passing—Shamokin, Logan Steele, 6-10-0, 122 yds., TD; Barrett Walsh, 0-1-0. Lake-Lehman, Hayden Evans, 6-11-1, 34 yds.
Receiving—Shamokin, Chase Pensyl, 2-81, TD; Ben Delbaugh, 2-19; Jenssyn Shuey, 1-19; Rylan Price, 1-3. Lake-Lehman, Jayden Skipalis, 2-16; Chris Sholtis, 1-11; Jim Mitkowski, 1-9; Ben Dowling, 1-0; Alex Smith, 1-(-2).
INTERCEPTIONS—Shamokin, Logan Steele.
RECORDS: Lake-Lehman (1-1); Shamokin (2-0).
