MIDDLEBURG – Beating a team like Mount Carmel is no easy task, even if a team plays a relatively mistake and turnover-free game.
Illustrating that point, only four teams – North Schuylkill, Southern Columbia, Bloomsburg and Milton – have done so on the field since the 2018 season.
But turning the ball over and making other mistakes will make that task nearly impossible.
That’s what Midd West did on Friday, as the Mustangs committed six turnovers. As a result, the Mustangs managed just a single yard of offense when all was said and done, to say nothing of finding the end zone or stopping Mount Carmel from scoring, as they fell to the Red Tornados 55-0.
“We can’t afford to turn the ball over and I couldn’t even count the number of negative plays – whether it was sacks, tackles for loss or bad snaps – we had so many negative plays on the night,” said Midd West coach Lance Adams. “Ultimately, it’s on me, and I’ll take the responsibility, and we need to learn how to get better.”
The final number was 17 – the number of plays that went for negative yardage for Midd West – out of 45 total. The Mustangs were limited to -22 yards on the ground thanks to 11 quarterback sacks, and were tackled an additional six times for a loss. They had just one yard of total offense for the game. Midd West had trouble on several snaps, which were high, disrupting their timing and allowing Mount Carmel’s defensive line, which already outmatched Midd West’s offensive line, into the backfield numerous times.
“We need to play in front of the sticks. When we start playing behind the sticks, we’re not good. We’re not designed to be that type of offense,” said Adams.
While the Mustangs were held in check by both Mount Carmel and their own mistakes and turnovers, the Red Tornados scored more often than not and largely took care of business early, taking a 41-0 lead at halftime.
Coming off a week what head coach John Darrah felt was one of its best weeks or practice this season, Mount Carmel continued its momentum after its blowout win over Bloomsburg last week with another lopsided win.
“I think we’re moving in the right direction. Our goal is to peak at the end of the year so that’s what we’re looking to do,” said Darrah. “We had a couple of penalties and a couple drops there in the first half, but we came out with the intent we wanted to work
on a couple of things, so we executed those, and I thought it was a good win, so we’re pleased.”
For the second straight week, Xaviar Diaz returned a punt for a touchdown. After last week’s 74-yard return against Bloomsburg, he recorded a 57-yard return on Friday that opened the scoring at the 9:06 mark of the first quarter, and came after Mount Carmel had been stopped on downs at the Midd West 35 on its first drive.
Mount Carmel’s second possession was all Luke Blessing, as he got the ball on all three plays, going 38 yards on the last one for the first of what would be three touchdowns on the night. Blessing finished with 157 yards on just seven carries.
“We were doing some different things and it seemed a little different than our usual flow of the offense, but they were giving us a really light box today so we had some great opportunities and made the most of them,” said Darrah.
Blessing also hauled in a five-yard touchdown pass from Cole Spears with 4:13 remaining in the first quarter to extend the Red Tornado lead to 20-0. That score also capped a short, three-play drive that followed a Midd West fumble and recovery by Mount Carmel.
That would be the first of the six takeaways by the Red Tornados, who recorded four fumble recoveries and two interceptions on the evening.
They recovered another fumble on the Mustangs’ next drive after Blessing’s touchdown catch to start at the Midd West 30. Four plays later, Spears tossed his second of three touchdowns on the night to Jacob Schultz, a short three-yard pass to make it 27-0.
Blessing ripped off a 57-yard touchdown run to cap a single-play drive for Mount Carmel near the midway point of the second quarter, and Spears later found Diaz for a 23-yard touchdown reception late in the second quarter, putting a cap on his night throwing as he finished 10-of-16 for 103 yards. Meanwhile, Diaz finished the evening with 176 all purpose yards.
The Red Tornados played their second and third string for most of the second half, and they produced another pair of touchdowns, with Gavin Marshalek tossing a 17-yard touchdown to Keegan Brown on Mount Carmel’s first drive of the second half, which came after Midd West fumbled away the second half kickoff. Cooper Karycki also had a one-yard touchdown run late in the fourth.
“Our young guys did pretty well there at the end. It’s great to get them work. We’re just trying to develop some depth and that experience helps them moving forward for the rest of this year and into next year,” said Darrah.
Mount Carmel 55, Midd West 0
Mount Carmel (4-2) 27 14 7 7 – 55
Midd West (0-6) 0 0 0 0 – 0
First quarter
9:06 – (MC) Xaviar Diaz 57-yard punt return (kick failed)
6:12 – (MC) Luke Blessing 38-yard run (Schoppy kick), 3-67, :48
4:13 – (MC) Luke Blessing 5-yard pass from Cole Spears (Schoppy kick), 3-14, :28
1:20 – (MC) Jacob Schultz 3-yard pass from Cole Spears (Schoppy kick), 4-39, 1:22
Second quarter
5:38 – (MC) Luke Blessing 57-yard run (Schoppy kick), 1-57, :11
2:23 – (MC) Xaviar Diaz 23-yard pass from Cole Spears (Schoppy kick), 3-50, :45
Third quarter
9:49 – (MC) Keegan Brown 17-yard pass from Gavin Marshalek (Schoppy kick), 5-24, 2:05
Fourth quarter
2:29 – (MC) Cooper Karycki 1-yard run (Schoppy kick), 9-61, 4:16
Statistics
MC MW
First downs 22 4
Rushes-net yards 26-263 34-(-22)
Passing yardage 178 23
Passing 17-24-4-0 4-11-0-2
Fumbles-lost 2-1 8-4
Penalties-yards 7-55 6-54
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Mount Carmel: Cooper Karycki (12-41-1), Luke Blessing (7-157-2), Gavin Marshalek (3-13), Cole Spears (2-22), Al Bailey (1-20), Xaviar Diaz (1-10); Midd West: Jasher Wolf (13-(-32)), Kyle Shupp (9-14), Bryce Hackenburg (8-37), TEAM (3-(-30)), Keaton Kreitzer (1-(-11))
PASSING: Mount Carmel: Cole Spears (10-16-103-3-0), Gavin Marshalek (7-8-75-1-0); Midd West: Jasher Wolf (4-9-23-0-1), Keaton Kreider (0-2-0-0-1)
RECEIVING: Mount Carmel: Xaviar Diaz (5-77-1), Jaylen Delaney (3-16), Jonathan Morgante (2-31), Jacob Schultz (2-8-1), Keegan Brown (1-17-1), Daniel Velazquez (1-11), Tait Adams (1-7), Orville Fesniak (1-6), Luke Blessing (1-5-1); Midd West: Kyle Shupp (2-12), Kaden Kullman (1-11), Cory Weiand (1-0)
