MONTOURSVILLE- Coming off back-to-back one-point victories, it was logical to wonder how Mount Carmel would respond against a dangerous Montoursville team. As it turned out, the Red Tornadoes had plenty left in the tank from both a physical and emotional standpoint. The big-play combination of Gavin Marshalek and Jaylen Delaney struck numerous times, which was complemented by Mount Carmel playing shutdown defense in the second half. In the end, Mount Carmel was able to pull away, and walk out of Memorial Stadium with a satisfying 41-17 win.
“I thought we played well,” Mount Carmel coach John Darrah said. “I really think the difference in tonight’s game – it felt a little bit closer than the score was, but we created a lot of turnovers. That’s something we kind of been lacking. We’re usually pretty good with that. We’ve been lacking a little bit this year, so it was great to see. Hopefully that becomes contagious, but I think that was the difference in the game.”
Indeed, the Red Tornadoes created four turnovers which led to 10 points, but Delaney had a fantastic night. The sophomore receiver continues to impress, as he keeps gaining chemistry with Marshalek. Delaney caught eight passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns. He also chipped in with two carries, one of which went for an 11-yard touchdown late in the first quarter to give Mount Carmel a 7-3 lead.
“I mean, he’s a great player,” Darrah said of Delaney. “If we give Gavin time, Gavin can deliver the ball on those strikes, so hats off to them. I think we did a nice job, and I still think we can get better.”
Mount Carmel (4-1) hit the daily double on the last possession of the first half and the opening possession of the second half. A perfectly-executed tunnel screen to Delaney on 4th-and-4 went for a 23-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left before halftime. On the first play of the third quarter, Delaney took a quick hitch from Marshalek, gained a head of steam, and outran the defense down the right sideline for an 81-yard touchdown that temporarily gave Mount Carmel a two-touchdown lead. Marshalek completed 13-of-18 passes for 216 yards and three scores, with all of them going to Delaney.
“It’s just carrying out assignments, doing little things, and I told the team that’s where little things catch up to you against a good team,” Montoursville coach Joe Hanna said. “They make you pay when you’re not aligned right or doing things the right way.”
Montoursville (3-2) used a big play on special teams to immediately slice the lead in half. Michael Reeder returned a kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown to match Delaney’s big play. It was the only hiccup on special teams for Mount Carmel on an otherwise excellent night. The kick coverage units were solid, and Jon Morgante recovered a fumbled punt which was cashed in after Marshalek delivered an absolute perfect throw to Delaney for a 49-yard touchdown pass. Robert Schoppy continued to be an important weapon in the the kicking game, as he connected on both of his field goal attempts from 20 and 30 yards respectively.
“Bobby did a great job,” Darrah said. “That was a long field (from 30 yards). He made all of his extra points. It was a tight game, I thought he did a great job. We can’t give up that kick return. We gave them some life with that kick return, but we always try to talk about point differential on special teams. We’ve got to win the point differential, and we did that in a couple places.”
The Red Tornadoes did a lot of good things defensively against Southern Columbia last week, and their play on that side of the ball picked up as the game went on. Montoursville was limited to just four first downs and 53 yards after halftime. Morgante and Chase Balichik came away with second-half interceptions, and the Warriors’ run game was held in check.
“We were very concerned about their heavy pro-I sets, and I think we did a really, really good job on them,” Darrah said. “We struggled a little bit in some of their spread sets. So, at halftime we cleaned that stuff up. We were having a little bit of trouble getting to the quarterback on the sprint out, so we did a couple different things. I thought we cleaned that up in the second half, and then created some turnovers.”
Mount Carmel Area 41, Montoursville 17
Mount Carmel 7 10 17 7-41
Montoursville 3 7 7 0-17
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
M-Gavin Hawley 22 field goal 7:28
MC-Jaylen Delaney 12 run (Robert Schoppy kick) 3:19
Second Quarter
MC-Schoppy 20 field goal 11:14
M-Christian Banks 13 run (Hawley kick) 3:09
MC-Delaney 23 pass from Gavin Marshalek (Schoppy kick) :18
Third Quarter
MC-Delaney 81 pass from Marshalek (Schoppy kick) 11:40
M-Michael Reeder 89 kickoff return (Hawley kick) 11:29
MC-Delaney 49 pass from Marshalek (Schoppy kick) 5:48
MC-Schoppy 30 field goal :58
Fourth Quarter
MC-Al Bailey 50 run (Schoppy kick) 8:17
Team Statistics
…………………………….MC………………M
1st downs…………….17…………………..15
rush-yds…………..40-151………………29-140
comp-att-int…….13-18-0…………………7-17-2
pass yds……………..216……………………..65
total yds………………367………………….205
fumb-lost……………1-0…………………….2-2
pen-yds………………3-45……………………..4-20
Individual Statistics
Rushing-Mount Carmel: Cooper Karycki 21-59; Al Bailey 1-50, TD; Luke Blessing 2-30; Aiden Deitz 7-23; Jaylen Delaney 2-11, TD; Gavin Marshalek 3-(-3); Logan Shuder 2-(-3); Andrew Lukoskie 1-(-7); Team 1-(-9). Montoursville: Christian Banks 17-77, TD; Hayden Harvey 5-60; Kaden Kleinman 4-13; Alex Felver 1-(-1); Team 1-(-1); Jimmy Mussina 1-(-8).
Passing-Mount Carmel: Marshalek 13-18-0, 216 yds., 3 TDs. Montoursville: Mussina 7-16-1, 65 yds.; Elijah Eck 0-1-1.
Receiving-Mount Carmel: Delaney 8-183, 3 TDs; Tait Adams 2-20; Chase Balichik 2-13; Bailey 1-0. Montoursville: Todd Crawford 2-24; Owen Kleinman 2-14; Michael Reeder 1-15; Banks 1-7; Noah Kemmerer 1-5.
