MILTON-Mount Carmel had a bit of an uneven performance in a 48-28 win over Milton on Friday. There was plenty of good that featured big production by Cooper Karycki and Chase Balichik. However, silly penalties, breakdowns on kickoff coverage and communication issues were mixed in, which took a little bit away from a victory that wasn’t quite as easy as the Red Tornadoes had hoped for.
“Well, kind of just like what I told them (in the postgame meeting), between the lines I thought we did well,” Mount Carmel coach John Darrah said. “I thought we ran the ball well, we tackled well, we did some good things, but the sloppiness – we’ve got to fix it. We’re a senior team that has to learn from our mistakes, and we can’t play sloppy football like that.”
Things started out well enough for Mount Carmel. The Red Tornadoes reached the end zone on their first two drives. Karycki scored the first of his three touchdowns, and Chase Balichik won a one-on-one battle in the end zone on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Gavin Marshalek to give Mount Carmel a quick 14-0 lead. That’s when things started to get a little dicey.
Milton (3-6) got some life when Monte Fisher broke the second of his two long kickoff returns. The first one resulted in a blocked field goal after a drive stalled, but the next one gave the Black Panthers another short field, and fittingly, Fisher caught a 38-yard touchdown pass from Izayah Minium to cut the lead in the half. The Black Panthers would tie the game following a 3-yard quarterback sneak by Minium. On the ensuing kickoff, a brief scuffle broke out, and Mount Carmel was whistled for two personal fouls, while luckily avoiding any ejections.
“We’ve just got to execute,” Darrah said of the kickoff coverage. “I mean, it’s something we go over all the time. We’re not executing what we’re supposed to, so we just have to execute better on that. It’s definitely a priority.”
Mount Carmel (7-2) quickly righted the ship with a couple of scores before halftime to once again seize control. Karycki hit pay dirt on a short touchdown run, and Jon Morgante provided the Red Tornadoes with a big special tams play of their own when he returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown with 1:29 left in the first half. It was the third punt taken to the house in the last two weeks, and the second by Morgante.
“I felt like besides those kick returns, the defense was playing pretty good,” Darrah said. “We gave up two big plays, kind of jump ball things. Otherwise, we weren’t giving up too much. I was confident we were going to get it rolling, but again, we’ve got to clean stuff up.”
In the third quarter, Mount Carmel put together a 12-play, 80-yard drive that was helped by an offsides penalty on fourth down. Marshalek threw a perfect pass to Balichik in the front-right corner of the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown pass which extended the lead to 34-14. Balichik finished with five catches for 89 yards and two touchdowns. He also had two interceptions on defense and a potential pick-six that was nullified by a roughing the passer penalty.
“I thought Chase probably had the game of his life up to that point,” Darrah said. “He had the one interception that unfortunately got called back too, but he just made tons of plays all night.”
In the fourth quarter, Fisher caught his second touchdown pass of the night from 14 yards out that temporarily made things interesting. Fisher had a game-high 143 yards receiving on eight catches. On the next two Mount Carmel series, Michael Kimsal scored on a 2-yard run, and Karycki capped off his 115-yard night by crossing the goal line with a 2-yard run of his own after he scampered 41 yards on the previous play to put things out of reach.
“Cooper did a really nice job running the ball,” Darrah said. “I thought he made a couple of really nice bounces where he got to the second level and was able to kind of get around the edge and get around everybody. I thought he had a really good game.
The win sets up one of the most-anticipated Coal Bucket games in decades for Week 10. Shamokin enters the game seeking its first victory over Mount Carmel since 1995, and its first undefeated regular season since 1991. Needless to say, it will be quite the atmosphere at The Silver Bowl for an intense rivalry game.
“Shamokin week starts now,” Darrah said. “Definitely something we’ve been looking forward to, and we’ll be ready to roll next Friday.”
Mount Carmel 14 14 6 14-48
Milton 7 7 0 14-28
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
MC-Cooper Karycki 8 run (Robert Schoppy kick) 8:55
MC-Chase Balichik 28 pass from Gavin Marshalek (Schoppy kick) 3:31
M-Monte Fisher 38 pass from Izayah Minium (Luke Osman kick)
Second Quarter
M-Minium 3 run (Osman kick) 6:45
MC-Karycki 37 run (Schoppy kick) 2:44
MC-Jon Morgante 68 punt return (Schoppy kick) 1:29
Third Quarter
MC-Balichik 33 pass from Marshalek (kick failed) 1:31
Fourth Quarter
M-Fisher 14 pass from Minium (Osman kick) 11:01
MC-Michael Kimsal 2 run (Schoppy kick) 8:10
MC-Karycki 2 run (Schoppy kick) 5:53
M-Jaeden Canelo 63 run (Osman kick) 1:06
Team Statistics
………………………MC…………………….M
1st downs………….20…………………..10
rush-yds…………38-183…………….27-120
comp-att-int….16-26-2…………..12-27-2
pass yds………….159…………….166
fumb-lost………1-0……………………1-0
pen-yds………….10-93……………….6-30
Individual Statistics
Rushing-Mount Carmel: Cooper Karycki 15-116, 3 TDs; Luke Blessing 6-29; Michael Kimsal 6-24, TD; Aiden Deitz 7-15; Jaylen Delaney 2-12; Al Bailey 1-8; Team 1-(-21). Milton: Jaeden Canelo 16-94, TD; Izayah Minium 8-19, TD; Monte Fisher 3-7.
Passing-Mount Carmel: Marshalek 16-26-2, 159 yds., 2 TDs. Milton: Minium 12-27-2, 166 yds., 2 TDs.
Receiving-Mount Carmel: Delaney 7-52; Chase Balichik 5-89, 2 TDs; Jon Morgante 3-15; Bailey 1-3. Milton: Fisher 8-143, 2 TDs; Chase Lytle 2-9; Brady Wolfe 1-11; Lucas Ditty 1-3.
