By Jack Burns, ESPN AM-1240 Play-by-Play Announcer
The calendar said September 17, 2010 was when state Class AAA powers Selinsgrove and Manheim Central would get back together on the football field in a two-year series after facing each other in 2000 and 2001 in the PIAA Class AAA quarterfinals. However, apparently nobody informed the 2009 teams that the two schools couldn’t begin playing each other this year. Both the Seals (15-0) and the Barons (15-0) ran the gauntlet in the regular season and in the playoffs and will meet Friday for the 2009 PIAA Class AAA Championship.
Selinsgrove’s road to Hershey was marked with easy victories against Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech, 54-0, and Shikellamy, 44-7, to capture a sixth consecutive District 4 Class AAA title. The triumphs advanced the Seals to the state quarterfinals for the eighth time in the past ten years, where Selinsgrove tallied 21 unanswered second half points to get past District 11 Class AAA champion Allentown Central Catholic, 31-10, and in the state semifinals last week, the Seals eliminated District 12 champion Archbishop Wood, the school that ended Selinsgrove’s season the previous year, by a 28-0 score. The run has put the Seals on the state’s biggest stage, the PIAA Class AAA Championship Game, for the first time in school history.
“It’s great. It’s great for the kids. It’s great for the community,” said Selinsgrove coach Dave Hess, the 2008 Associated Press Class AAA Coach-of-the-Year. “The kids certainly deserve it because they worked their tails off to get here.”
Hess’ counterpart, Manheim Central coach Mike Williams (29th.-year, 302-59-3), could see that the Selinsgrove program has been one on the rise since playing against the Seals eight years ago.
“They had a good program for the last several years,” said Williams, inducted into the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2000. “We played them a bunch of years ago in the playoffs, but I think their program has been peaking. I know they had a good team last year and the year before, and of course with a lot of kids returning this year make them a pretty dynamic team.”
Selinsgrove’s rise to state-wide prominence has been a little more recent however, when you compare their feats with that of the Barons. For Manheim Central, last week marked their twelfth appearance in the state semifinals and thanks to a 45-27 shootout win over District 7 champion West Allegheny, the Barons are in the state title contest for the third time in school history. Manheim Central won the 2003 state championship in an epic final, 39-38, in double overtime in the snow at Hersheypark Stadium in what many call, and deservedly so, the greatest championship game in PIAA history. The Barons then fell in the state championship game in 2004 to Thomas Jefferson, 56-20.
“I love the idea of a midstate state championship” commented Hess (2nd.-year as head coach, 28-2, after 25 years as a Seal assistant). “That’s great. District 3 versus District 4, and I just love the idea of being involved with Manheim Central because they are a very notable program. They have a state championship under their belt. They have a great coach in Coach Williams. They’re just a quality opponent across the board. Hopefully, we can just continue the growth of this program and have a good three-game series.”
Manheim Central captured their 16th. District 3 Class AAA Championship to reach the state semifinals with victories over Shippensburg (49-8), Daniel Boone (24-20), Conrad Weiser (42-7) and Susquehanna Township (35-29). The Barons felt this was a squad that could make a push for a trip to Chocolatetown.
“I don’t know if you ever figure that you’re going to go to the state final, but at the beginning of the season, I thought we were going to have a pretty good team,” explained Williams. “We had high expectations and I think we met those expectations.”
The two previous meetings between Selinsgrove and Manheim Central resulted in a pair of Baron victories. In 2000, Manheim Central produced 501 yards in a balanced offensive attack to more than offset the performances of Seals’ quarterback Jack Lydic (190 passing and a touchdown and another rushing touchdown) and running back Justin Lauver (160 total yards and 2 TD’s), in a 51-35 Manheim Central win at Hershey. In 2001, Selinsgrove, which lost Lauver due to an injury on the opening kickoff, were no match for the Barons in a 36-0 Manheim Central whitewashing at Shamokin with David Ochoa and Brad Barnett each rushing for over 100 yards for the Barons.
Selinsgrove Offense vs. Manheim Central Defense
For the second straight week, Selinsgrove’s dangerous passing combination of quarterback Cory Briggs to wide receiver Ryan Keiser got the better of the opposing secondary. The duo hooked up 6 times for 150 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Archbishop Wood. This was a Friday removed from connecting on 7 occasions for 153 yards and a score versus Allentown Central Catholic.
Briggs, who’s headed to the Ivy League next season to play football at Harvard University, has completed 143 of 258 passes for 2,081 yards and 30 touchdowns with 8 interceptions. The 30 scoring strikes ties the school single season record that Briggs set a year ago. For his career, the Seal senior has thrown 61 touchdown tosses which is a Selinsgrove record.
The primary target of those passes has been Keiser, who has preferred walk-on status at Penn State for next season. He leads the Seals with 57 catches for 1,092 yards and 16 touchdowns. With his outing last week, Keiser broke the school career record for receiving yards with 2,402 yards. The Selinsgrove wide receiver already owns the Seal record for career touchdown receptions with 35.
“Cory Briggs is a solid quarterback. Obviously, when your dad’s a college football coach, you probably learn about football since you were two years old, so he’s an outstanding quarterback,” praised Williams. “Of course, Ryan Keiser, I haven’t seen any receivers or safeties better than him. Their running back (Kyle Reinard), although maybe not highly-touted, he’s strong, breaks tackles and is a good, solid kid and they got a good offensive line. By their scores over the season, they’ve blown everybody away except maybe one team, so they’re explosive on offense and have a solid defense. There is obviously a reason why they’re in the state finals.”
Tight end Kyle Schuck is second among the Selinsgrove receivers with 30 receptions for 399 yards and 7 touchdowns and starting flanker Matt Ruby has added 21 catches for 266 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Reinard is the Seals top running back, picking up over 1,100 yards for a second straight season. In 2009, the Selinsgrove junior has carried the ball 148 times for 1,199 yards and 14 touchdowns. Fullback Matt Wenrich, who didn’t have a carry last week, has accumulated 427 yards and 7 touchdowns on 48 rushes.
The last two weeks, Reinard has been held in check, rushing for only 38 yards against Allentown Central Catholic, and 41 yards versus Archbishop Wood. The lack of yardage production doesn’t concern Hess.
“I like where we are. Obviously, the big players are making the big plays in the big games. You go to expect that,” explained the Seal coach. “The other parts of the game, again that’s got to reflect on what (offensive coordinator) Mike Bowman’s philosophy is. (His) philosophy is you look at what they give you. Don’t bang your head on the wall if they’re going to load up on one thing, you got to go to another thing and that’s what we’re doing and that’s why things are working for us.”
The Selinsgrove offensive line of Spencer Myers, Logan Hetherington, Jon Trego, Anthony Hauck, and Matt Rouse have helped the Seals amass 373.1 yards (215.1 rushing yards and 158.0 passing yards) a game in total offense and a school record 670 points on the season.
Manheim Central is led in their 3-4 defense by outside linebacker Dakota Royer. The 6-3, 220-pound senior was a 2008 A.P. Class AAA 1st.-Team All-State selection on the defensive line when he had 11 sacks. Royer, who has committed to attend Penn State next year over other choices such as Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, leads the Barons again this year with 8 sacks. He also has 66 tackles, which is eighth on the squad, but Royer led Manheim Central with 8 tackles last week against West Allegheny. He also had a critical 36-yard interception return for a touchdown two weeks ago against Susquehanna Township in the Barons 6-point victory.
“Dakota’s one of those edge players,” said Williams. “He’s the guy that we count on, not only to put pressure on the quarterback, but also make a play off the edge.”
Fellow outside linebacker Lowen Johnson tops Manheim Central with 124 tackles, trailed by inside linebacker Brett Barber with 115 tackles and defensive tackle John Fair with 98 tackles. However, Fair, who suffered an injury against West Allegheny, is doubtful for the state championship game and is expected to be replaced by Shaun Buller. Cornerback Casey Ebersole has a team-high 6 interceptions.
The Barons, which start 11 seniors on defense, have yielded 212.7 yards a game and have held enemy offenses to 11.1 points a contest.
“Their defense is not a whole lot different from ours in the fact that they’re not overwhelmingly big on defense, but they are very, very athletic and they have some pretty amazing athletes there, including the linebacker that’s going to Penn State. They have other kids who are pretty amazing athletes, too,” analyzed Hess. “They’re a very fast athletic defense and that’s tough. Speed kills and that’s the way it is and when you get against speed people it’s tough to win, but we’ll give it what we have.”
Manheim Central Offense vs. Selinsgrove Defense
A common theme of Selinsgrove opponents through the state playoffs have been very talented quarterbacks that run the spread offense and you guessed it, Manheim Central is of the same concept, but most likely the best the Seals have faced.
The Barons come into the title game averaging 379.7 yards (236.2 rushing yards and 143.5 passing yards) and 40.6 points a game and their spread attack centers around senior quarterback Justin Gorman.
“Justin has done well, especially down the playoff stretch,” commented Williams. “He’s got good quickness and good decision-making skills and a strong arm. He’s got the full package. That’s why we’re in the spread offense. We have good receivers, but we have a quarterback who can be the trigger man. He’s the reason that we’re where we are right now.”
Gorman has put up some mind-boggling numbers this season. He has rushed for 1,113 yards and 20 touchdowns on 165 attempts, including a 147-yard outing against West Allegheny last Friday. If that’s not enough, Gorman has completed 143 of 246 passes (58.1%) for 2,025 yards and another 19 touchdowns with 10 picks.
“Their quarterback is exceptional at riding the tailback. He either gives or fakes to the tailback,” said an impressed Hess. “He rides him and he’s reading the front and, boy, the kid makes some great decisions. He’s very, very explosive. Obviously, their running backs are explosive and they have some incredible skilled kids on the outside. When they do break that spread, they can option the outside and they can throw and they have athletes all over the place. They’re so diverse in what they do and they’re so good at what they do that it makes them dangerous offensively.”
When Gorman does give the ball to the running back, senior Joe Gruber has made the most of it. Gruber is coming off a career-high 194 yards rushing two weeks ago against Susquehanna Township and last week, he carried the ball 31 times for 168 yards and 3 touchdowns to help Manheim Central claim the Class AAA Western Championship. On the year, Gruber has 232 attempts for 1,520 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns.
When Gorman decides to go airborne, he has plenty of weapons in his arsenal. Senior wide receiver Daniel Trafford leads the Barons in receiving with 33 catches for 557 yards and 4 touchdowns. Next in line is Ebersole (30 receptions for 369 yards and a TD), followed by Royer (29 receptions for 608 yards and 6 touchdowns) and Derek Hart (24 receptions for 330 yards and 5 touchdowns).
Helping the Manheim Central signal-caller stay on his feet is an offensive line that averages 270 pounds/player, anchored by 310-pounders Rob LaPore and Joe Weaver.
The Selinsgrove 3-5 defense has been up to the challenge and then some in the postseason, allowing just two touchdowns in the five games with one of those coming on a trick play. The Seals have held opponents to just 128.3 yards (70.1 rushing yards and 58.2 passing yards) a contest and have given up but 5.9 points a game with 6 shutouts.
The top tackler for Selinsgrove has been Wenrich, at outside linebacker, with 70 stops. Right behind him is 6-2, 245-pound junior middle linebacker Seth Lauver with 69 tackles and outside linebacker Dylan Elliot and Myers with 62 tackles apiece. Myers, who’s headed to the University of Maryland next year on a wrestling scholarship (Myers was a Class AAA state runnerup at 215 pounds last year), was a 2008 A.P. All-State 2nd.-Team choice at defensive line. He has recorded 7 of the Seals 30 sacks to lead the squad in that category. Defensive tackle K.C. Kantz has chipped in with 5 sacks and Lauver and Elliot each have 3 sacks.
In the secondary, senior cornerback Cameron Benner has picked off passes in the last two playoff games to take the team lead with 3 interceptions. Selinsgrove’s other cornerback, Dan Bausinger, along with Lauver and Wenrich have two interceptions apiece. Keiser, an A.P. Class AAA 1st.-Team All-State performer last year when he had 9 interceptions, has seen opposing offenses defer to passing deep this season and has one interception in 2009.
“Selinsgrove’s defense is a little scary,” admitted Williams. “They put a lot of pressure, a lot of blitzing, and a lot of teams couldn’t handle it. The defense to me, from what I’ve seen and again I’ve only seen the latter part of the season, is that the defense made a lot of turnovers and given Selinsgrove a lot of field position. That’s the key thing for us, we can’t panic when they start bringing 6 or 7 guys from all different areas. We’ve got to stay with our game plan and win the battle of turnovers.”
Kickers
A couple of fall two-sport fall athletes head up the Seals kicking game. Spencer Hotaling and Kyle Bennar, both members of Selinsgrove’s successful soccer team this past year, have been excellent. Hotaling, who has made 42 straight extra point kicks, broke the school single season record with 78 PAT’s in 82 attempts. Hotaling is 2 of 3 on field goal tries, with both converted field goals being of 29 yards. Bennar has averaged 50.6 yards a kickoff with 10 touchbacks. Reinard handles the Seal punting at a 36.7-yard clip on only 18 punts this season.
The Barons kicking game is as good as it gets. Senior Taylor Groff has made 11 field goals this year, including a career-long 45-yard boot against Susquehanna Township, which broke the District 3 Class AAA Championship Game record. Groff has made 55 PAT’s and averages 54.9 yards a kickoff that includes 33 touchbacks. Trafford is the Manheim Central punter and has a 37.2-yard average with a long punt of 62 yards.
Starters
Selinsgrove Offense
TE-18 Kyle Schuck (6-1, 220, Sr.)
LT-77 Spencer Myers (6-4, 230, Sr.)
LG-73 Logan Hetherington (6-0, 240, Jr.)
C-55 Jon Trego (6-1, 240, Sr.)
RG-59 Anthony Hauck (5-11, 200, Sr.)
RT-51 Matt Rouse (6-1, 225, Jr.)
SE-5 Ryan Keiser (6-2, 195, Sr.)
FL-10 Matt Ruby (5-10, 180, Sr.)
QB-8 Cory Briggs (6-2, 210, Sr.)
FB-33 Matt Wenrich (6-0, 225, Sr.)
TB-28 Kyle Reinard (5-9, 177, Jr.)
Manheim Central Defense
DT-72 Shaun Buller (5-10, 260, Sr.)
NG-59 Eric Drake (5-11, 200, Sr.)
DT-56 Dan Hanselman (5-11, 178, Sr.)
OLB-40 Dakota Royer (6-3, 220, Sr.)
ILB-35 Joe Gruber (6-0, 210, Sr.)
ILB-88 Brett Barber (6-1, 195, Sr.)
OLB-4 Lowen Johnson (5-11, 200, Sr.)
CB-21 Jarryd Heisey (5-10, 175, Sr.)
S-46 Daniel Trafford (5-11, 175, Sr.)
S-8 Joe Brubaker (5-4, 160, Sr.)
CB-19 Casey Ebersole (6-0, 165, Sr.)
Manheim Central Offense
OT-72 Shaun Buller (5-10, 260, Sr.)
OG-77 Rob LaPore (6-4, 310, Jr.)
C-52 Blake Kreider (5-11, 211, Jr.)
OG-75 Joe Weaver (6-3, 310, Sr.)
OT-64 Peter Ireland (6-3, 260, Jr.)
WR-18 Derek Hart (6-5, 195, Jr.)
WR-19 Casey Ebersole (6-0, 165, Sr.)
WR-40 Dakota Royer (6-3, 220, Sr.)
WR-46 Daniel Trafford (5-11, 175, Sr.)
QB-11 Justin Gorman (6-1, 183, Sr.)
RB-35 Joe Gruber (6-0, 210, Sr.)
Selinsgrove Defense
DT-54 K.C. Kantz (6-0, 190, Sr.)
NG-55 Jon Trego (6-1, 240, Sr.)
DT-77 Spencer Myers (6-4, 230, Sr.)
OLB-33 Matt Wenrich (6-0, 225, Sr.)
ILB-27 Dakota Wolf (5-10, 210, Jr.)
MLB-45 Seth Lauver (6-2, 245, Jr.)
ILB-9 Bryant Trautman (6-0, 214, Sr.)
OLB-23 Dylan Elliot (6-0, 170, Sr.)
CB-22 Cameron Benner (5-10, 180, Sr.)
S-5 Ryan Keiser (6-2, 195, Sr.)
CB-81 Dan Bausinger (5-9, 155, Jr.)
Kickers
Selinsgrove
PAT/FG’s-6 Spencer Hotaling (6-2, 150, Jr.)
Kickoffs-60 Kyle Bennar (6-0, 180, Sr.)
P-28 Kyle Reinard (5-9, 177, Jr.)
Manheim Central
PAT/FG’s and Kickoffs-15 Taylor Groff (6-1, 172, Sr.)
P-46 Daniel Trafford (5-11, 175, Sr.)
