Mikes hammer out second straight win
ELLSWORTH – Carmichaels played a football game that went down to the wire for the second week in a row. And, for the second week in a row, the Mikes came out on top.
P.J. Martin made a pair of key plays in a 70-yard drive that led to the winning score, and Logan Phillips rushed for 87 yards and a touchdown as Carmichaels improved to 2-0 with a 20-14 non-conference victory at Bentworth on Friday night.
The game wasn’t decided until the Mikes brought down the Bearcats’ Joe Mucho on the Carmichaels 30 yard line at the end of a hook-and-lateral pass on the final play.
The Mikes were coming off a 9-6 overtime victory over Burgettstown, but Carmichaels coach Mike Bosnic was much more pleased with his team’s effort against Bentworth.
“The first game, I thought we were feeling our way around a lot and I was sort of disappointed in how we played,” Bosnic said. “I felt like we took a step forward tonight.”
The situation looked bleak for the Mikes as they trailed 14-12 late in the third quarter, however. Facing third and 19 at their own 21, quarterback Bobby Virgili avoided a sack and dumped the ball to Martin, who broke two tackles and rumbled 21 yards to a first down at the 42.
“Virgili held on to the ball under pressure and turned that into a great play,” Bosnic said. “It was a nice run by P.J. You’d have to look hard to find a tougher player than him.
“That play gave us life.”
Virgili hit William Hyatt on a slant for 18 yards to the Bentworth 40 on the next play, then moved the sticks with a 4-yard sneak on a fourth-and-1 play a short while later to keep the drive alive. Two plays later, Martin broke free for a 20-yard touchdown run with 9:22 remaining. Cody Andrews ran in the two-point conversion to set the final score.
Bentworth moved down to the Carmichaels 27 on its next possession before being stopped on downs with 4:31 left.
The Mikes picked up one key first down, again on a Virgili fourth-and-1 sneak, and didn’t turn the ball over until there were five seconds left. That forced the Bearcats into their bag of tricks for the final play from their own 46, but Carmichaels wouldn’t be fooled.
Carmichaels put up the game’s first two scores with the first one set up by an old-fashioned single wing formation on its opening drive.
The Mikes used three different runners out of that formation on their first five plays, none of which was Phillips. As the Bearcats’ defense seemed to adjust, Carmichaels switched to a more normal set on the next play, and Phillips broke free for a 54-yard touchdown run, taking a pitch to the short side, turning the corner and then cutting across the field to his left for the score.
Phillips’ extra-point kick was blocked, however, leaving the Mikes up 6-0.
“It’s something we work on and it’s a lot of fun,” Bosnic said of the single wing, admitting he got some advice on the formation from his father, assistant coach Mike Bosnic. “You get a lot of different guys involved and we get a lot of positives from it.”
The Mikes’ most impressive drive of the night began late in the first quarter and covered 66 yards in 13 plays with Matt Barnhart’s 4-yard touchdown run capping the march at the 6:45 mark of the second quarter.
Barnhart was stopped short on the two-point conversion run and Carmichaels led 12-0.
Bentworth got a spark on the ensuing kickoff from Dock Harris, who returned it 52 yards to the Carmichaels 40. Charles Wonsettler, who led the Bearcats with 56 yards on 12 carries, moved the sticks on consecutive runs of 10 and 11 yards, but the Mikes stiffened and forced a fourth-and-4 play from the 13. Bentworth quarterback Travis Harff was up to the challenged, though, and connected with Mucho for a touchdown pass with 3:28 left in the first half. Nick Workmaster’s extra-point kick made it 12-7.
The Bearcats threatened twice in the third quarter. They got to the Mikes 15 before Barnhart intercepted a pass in the end zone, but on their next possession Harff completed a fourth-and-11 pass to Lincoln Gibson for a 26-yard touchdown. Workmaster’s kick put Bentworth up 14-12 with 2:45 left in the third quarter, but that only set the stage for the Mikes’ winning drive.
Third-year Bearcat coach Ron Skiles was pleased with his team’s progress.
“We won a close game against Mapletown last week,” Skiles said. “That shows we’re being competitive. I think Mapletown and Carmichaels are two good teams. I have to give Carmichaels credit. They played a whale of a game. They’re well coached, they have good discipline and they’ve got tough kids.”
Harff completed 7 of 21 passes for 90 yards and Bentworth rushed for 91 yards in a well- balanced attack.
“I was impressed with Bentworth,” Bosnic said. “They showed a lot of character. When you see a team that can run and pass like that, it’s scary.”
While the Mikes only attempted four passes – all completions by Virgili for 31 yards – they did show balance on the ground with four different players rushing for 30 or more yards. Martin and Andrews had 35 and Barnhart had 30.