Central Catholic dominates Falcons
TURTLE CREEK – First place Central Catholic dominated on both sides of the ball to hand Connellsville a season-ending 49-0 loss in a Quad South Conference game Friday night. “They are a dominating team,” Connellsville coach Tom Dolde Jr. said. “They have a lot of speed and talent and have a lineman that was probably the best one I’ve seen all year.”
It was a rainy and cold night at Turtle Creek Stadium, otherwise known as “The Wolvarena,” which is usually the home of Woodland Hills.
Coincidentally, Central Catholic’s lone loss this regular season was to Woodland Hills. The Vikings entered the game with a playoff spot in the bag.
The two teams are used to playing in inclement weather. Two years ago, they played in a hurricane; last year the game was shortened due to lightening.
“I couldn’t believe that weather, it never seems to fail that we have bad weather when we play Central Catholic,” Dolde said. “If we ever have a drought in Connellsville, schedule Central Catholic and it will bring rain.”
Both teams turned the ball over twice in the first half, due mainly to the slippery ball, but one of Central Catholic’s turnovers was from a good defensive play turned in by Connellsville (0-5, 1-8).
Three minutes into the game, Lee Newcomer intercepted a Tino Sunseri pass that was tipped by Dan Butler on the Vikings’ first possession. Butler also had two sacks in the first half.
“Butler played a heck of a game,” Dolde said. “I thought we had some good performances tonight.”
Falcon running back Scott Jones tore off a 26-yard run on the drive, which fueled their best possession of the game. Jones entered the game with 995 yards. He broke the 1000-yard barrier on his second carry of the game with a 6-yard run.
“Scottie is just a great kid to coach and to watch,” Dolde said. “He was one of 6 kids four years ago that grew into this year’s senior class of 19 and they really helped us with the program.”
Connellsville advanced to the Viking 9 yard line, but could not score. Terry Anderson sacked Trent Hurley on third down and 8 and it pushed the ball back to the 19 yard line. He was sacked six times. He attempted a pass into the end zone on fourth down but it was knocked down.
“I thought we moved the ball nice on that drive and had some spark in our run game,” Dolde said. “Some penalties hurt us early and we just weren’t able to punch it in when we had that chance.”
Jones ended the game with 63 yards on 20 carries. He was happy about running for over 1,000 yards this season (1058 yards) but credited his success to the entire team.
“This was a special season for me, but I couldn’t have had any success if it wasn’t for our entire team,” Jones said. “We didn’t win many games or make the playoffs this year, so I consider me gaining 1000 yards as a team success this year.”
Central Catholic ( 5-0,8-1) broke the scoreboard first with a Dan Vaughan 6-yard touchdown run with 1:35 left in the first quarter. Lamont Smith burst through a hole for a 44-yard run to fuel the drive.
The Vikings scored four touchdowns in the second quarter to put the game out of reach.
Smith ran untouched around the left side for a 10-yard touchdown run to push the Vikings’ lead to 14-0.
Alan Porter lost the handoff on the ensuing possession to give the Vikings the ball on the Falcon 23 yard line early second quarter. They capitalized three plays later after Smith ripped a 23-yard scoring run for Central Catholic’s second touchdown in 30 seconds.
After the teams exchanged fumble-recoveries, Vaughan pounded the ball in from four yards out for the Viking touchdown to extend Central’s lead to 28-0 with four minutes left in the half.
Sunseri hit Vaughan with a 24-yard touchdown pass with 30 seconds left in the half to blow the game open, 35-0, and send the second half into a running-clock status. It was Vaughan’s third touchdown of the game.
On the first play from scrimmage in the second half, freshman Dom Timbers ran off left tackle for a 32-yard touchdown to make Central Catholic’s lead 42-0.
The Falcons fumbled the handoff inside their own 10 yard line with less than five minutes left in the third quarter and the ball squirted into the end zone. It was their third fumble of the night. Zach Tremont fell on the ball for another Central Catholic touchdown to wrap up the scoring.