MOUNT CARMEL-It was evident early on that any offensive struggles Mount Carmel encountered at Milton were clearly in the rear-view mirror. An angry group of Red Tornadoes came out firing on all cylinders, and put together a first-half performance that was pretty close to perfect. Mount Carmel (3-2) rolled up 526 yards of total offense, while scoring on its first seven possessions, as the Red Tornadoes bounced back from the upset loss last week with a convincing 69-20 win over Bloomsburg.
“We knew we were a good team, it was very uncharacteristic,” Mount Carmel coach John Darrah said. “It’s still hard to say how that happened last week, but we did what we needed to do this week. I’m proud of these guys the way they handled it. We just want to keep getting better.”
The Red Tornadoes raced to a 55-6 lead at halftime, and it was every bit as easy as the score would indicate. Short, productive drives resulting in touchdowns were a recurring theme early and often. Of the 34 plays Mount Carmel ran in the first half, 18 of them went for 10 yards or more. Luke Blessing got homecoming underway in style with a pair of touchdown runs from 13 and 47 yards, as he finished with 119 yards on just five carries. Xavier Diaz then followed with two more touchdown runs and added a 74-yard punt return for good measure. Cole Spears completed 8-of-9 passes for 175 yards and a couple of touchdowns. Both scoring strikes went to Chase Balichik.
“We wanted to have a good week offensively,” Darrah said. “We felt we were having a really strong offensive season, and then last week we had the hiccup. We came out tonight and wanted to prove it was just that. We’ll see on film how we did, but we were making a lot of plays. I thought Cole looked really sharp. We were pleased with our offensive performance early in the game.”
Early in the second quarter, the Spears-to-Balichik connection did most of its damage. Balichik beat man coverage and took a pass to the end zone for a 73-yard touchdown, then made another house call when he scored on a slant from 10 yards out. Balichik caught four passes for 102 yards. Milton held Mount Carmel to just 79 yards passing last week, but the aerial attack regained its form from the first three games of the season Friday night.
“Tough loss last week, but coach challenged us,” Spears said. “He said we have to finish our blocks, carry out our fakes full-speed, run full speed every single play, and I think we did it. We executed great tonight. The coach was calling the right plays. They were giving us the right looks.”
Bloomsburg (1-4) came out throwing on almost every down. Wyatt Brosious attempted 16 passes in the first quarter and finished with 162 yards to go with one touchdown and one interception. The Panthers got on the board when Cole Davis perfectly executed a halfback option pass and found Jack Katulis for a 13-yard touchdown with 6:09 left before halftime. Brady Horan also made a couple of long receptions that totaled 96 yards.
“I knew Mount Carmel was a good football team, not to take anything away from them,” Bloomsburg coach Mike Kogut said. “I thought we would execute better. We didn’t. We certainly got out-physical. In the line of scrimmage, they absolutely dominated on both sides. Did we have some opportunities? Yeah, we did some good things at times, very inconsistent. We need to get better.”
The schedule is very favorable for Mount Carmel over the next couple of weeks. Very winnable games against Midd-West and Hughesville are on the horizon. That will give the Red Tornadoes two more opportunities to continue finding improvement before a Week 8 test against Southern Columbia arrives.
“Every game, we’re just striving to get better,” Darrah said. “With our new offense, and I know I keep saying this, but there’s a learning curve. What we were doing before, we were doing for eight years. We just have to get better every week. It’s good to be challenged and see some different things that maybe we weren’t expecting. Our coaches learn how to adjust, and our players learn how to adjust, so we’re just looking to get better every week.”
Bloomsburg 0 6 7 7-20
Mount Carmel 28 27 14 0-69
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
MC-Luke Blessing 13 run (kick failed) 9:18
MC-Blessing 47 run (run failed) 5:01
MC-Xavier Diaz 36 run (Blessing run) 3:47
MC-Diaz 1 run (Jacob Schultz pass from Cole Spears) 1:39
Second Quarter
MC-Chase Balichik 73 pass from Spears (Robert Schoppy kick) 11:29
MC-Balichik 10 pass from Spears (Schoppy kick) 8:51
MC-Diaz 74 punt return (kick failed) 6:54
B-Jack Katulis 13 pass from Cole Davis (run failed) 6:09
MC-Cooper Karycki 26 run (Schoppy kick) 2:58
Third Quarter
B-Katulis 11 pass from Wyatt Brosious (Justin Pegg kick) 10:45
MC-Jon Morgante 85 kickoff return (Schoppy kick) 10:31
MC-Karycki 78 run (Schoppy kick) 3:31
Fourth Quarter
B-Shane Frey 4 run (Pegg kick) 4:48
Team Statistics
…………………..B………………..MC
1st downs……9…………………..22
rush-yds…..16-(-20)………36-416
comp-att-int…15-35-1…..14-18-1
pass yds….270………234
total yds….250………..650
fumb-lost….4-1…..2-1
pen-yds…2-10……..9-85
Individual Statistics
Rushing-Bloomsburg: Shane Frey 4-5, TD; Cole Davis 2-1; Jack Katulis 1-1; Cristian Cruz 3-(-4); Team 1-(-8); Wyatt Brosious 5-(-15). Mount Carmel: Cooper Karycki 10-142, 2 TDs; Luke Blessing 5-119, 2 TDs; Xavier Diaz 5-57, 2 TDs; Andrew Lukoskie 3-40; Cole Spears 2-38; Gavin Marshalek 2-16; Thomas Berezovski 9-4.
Passing-Bloomsburg: Brosious 11-25-1, 162 yds., TD; Frey 3-9-0, 95 yds.; Davis 1-1-0, 13 yds., TD. Mount Carmel: Spears 8-9-0, 175 yds., 2 TDs; Marshalek 6-9-1, 59 yds.
Receiving-Bloomsburg: Katulis 5-33, 2 TDs; Ryan Scherer 4-48; Brady Horan 2-96; Krue Wheadon 1-53; Davis 1-20; Gabe Dube 1-15; Jackson Lunger 1-5. Mount Carmel: Chase Balichik 4-102, 2 TDs; Diaz 2-60; Jacob Schultz 2-23; Jon Morgante 2-18; Karycki 1-14; Daniel Velazquez 1-13; Al Bailey 1-2; Ezekiel Noel 1-2.
