Revival continues
Diamond, Secrest, Fulmer lead Frazier to 27-12 playoff win at California
COAL CENTER — The revival of the Frazier football program continued Friday night.
Derek Diamond was a battering ram on the ground, Brady Secrest and Chase Fulmer were lethal through the air and the Commodores’ offensive trio was too much for California to handle as the Commodores earned a 27-12 victory in their WPIAL Class A first-round playoff game at Trojan Stadium.
Secrest threw three touchdown passes to Fulmer while Diamond powered his way to 118 rushing yards and a TD as 11th-seeded Frazier, under first-year coach Tony Battaglini, advanced to next Friday’s quarterfinals against third-seeded Bishop Canevin (7-3).
“We have a number of good athletes on our team and to be able to spread the ball around like that with our quarterback, our receivers and me, it’s really hard for a team to defend,” Diamond said.
The game against the Crusaders will be played at Canon-McMillan High School with a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Frazier, which had a combined four wins in the last four years before Battaglini stepped in, earned its first playoff victory since coach Mike Steeber led the Commodores to an undefeated regular season and the WPIAL semifinals in 2015.
The sixth-seeded Trojans (9-2), the Tri-County South Conference champions, had won eight in a row.
The Commodores (7-4), the fourth-place team out of the rugged Eastern Conference, have won four in a row and five of their last six.
“All week long we pretty much preached that we are battle tested,” said Battaglini, who is a Frazier graduate. “We played in probably the hardest conference in single-A. Although California is a really good football team at 9-1, I was confident and so were our players.”
Diamond agreed.
“I knew that we were a good team and people weren’t giving us the credit we deserved,” Diamond said. “I think we came out here and showed everyone who we are.”
The Trojans’ fortunes took a huge hit early on when star running back/defensive end Malachi Peak injured his ankle on his second carry and missed the rest of the game.
Peak entered the night as the WPIAL’s eighth-leading rusher with 1,490 yards and 20 touchdowns, while Diamond was third with 1,657 yards and 16 TDs. Peak had just two carries for three yards Friday night.
“Obviously that didn’t help us,” California coach Ed Woods said. “But you have to be able to adjust when those kinds of situations happen and I’ll take the blame for that. I didn’t do a good enough job adjusting once we realized Malachi wasn’t coming back in.
“But let’s not take anything away from Frazier. Hat’s off to them. They played well and they did what they needed to do to win. They played a good game on both sides of the ball and even on special teams they did a nice job. They played all three phases of the game well, and we did not.”
California picked up a first down on its first possession with a 6-yard run by Landon Abercrombie and a 5-yard run by Peak but two plays later Peak’s ankle injury occurred on a 2-yard loss and he was done for the night.
Frazier forced a punt and then went on a 12-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that took 7:03 off the clock and ended with Secrest’s 6-yard pass to Fulmer. Battaglini decided to go for two after an offsides call against the Trojans moved the ball closer and Diamond ran it in from there for an 8-0 lead with 1:37 left in the first quarter.
“We really came out and executed,” Fulmer said. “I couldn’t be prouder of my guys. We were very confident. We were well prepared.”
“Frazier came in here and they wanted this win bad,” Woods said. “You could see it in pregame. I thought we were a little flat and we started out slow and they were ready to play football.”
Frazier then surprised California with an onside kick after the score and kicker Owen Searcy recovered it to give the Commodores the ball right back at the California 48.
The Trojans defense allowed a first down on a penalty but then a sack by Elijah Carpenter set up fourth and 20 from the California 37 and Secrest’s long pass was intercepted by Carpenter and brought back to the 36.
Frazier returned the favor five plays later when Logan Hartley’s third-and-20 pass was picked off by Fulmer and returned to the California 47.
Three plays after that Secrest lofted a perfect pass to Fulmer down the left sideline for a 33-yard touchdown and Searcy’s extra point made it 15-0 with 4:54 left in the second quarter.
Frazier’s Noah Varga’s sacked Hartley for an 11-yard loss to help force a three-and-out and two plays later Secrest and Fulmer struck again, this time with another beautiful throw on a 64-yard bomb down the left sideline and the Commodores suddenly had a 21-0 lead with 2:01 left in the half.
Secrest wound up completing 7 of 11 passes for 136 yards with the three TDs to Fulmer who finished with five receptions for 124 yards.
“We have seen defensive fronts like theirs before and I knew we’d be able to move the ball on the ground some and I liked our matchups in the pass game,” Battaglini said. “We like to be balanced. If we see a mismatch with Chase we’re going to take that fairly often.
“I wouldn’t say we’re a passing team but Brady is an accurate kid. He’s got all the physical tools to make plays and he did just that. He put the ball on the money when he had to.”
With time running down in the second quarter California was seeking some sort of spark and got it from Alan Dennis who turned in the play of the game. Dennis ran a jet sweep around right end and down the sideline, then cut left, all the way across the field into the end zone for a 67-yard touchdown to pull the hosts within 21-6 after a failed two-point conversion with 19 seconds left in the half.
“It was a great run,” Woods said. “I was hoping we were going to get a little momentum off of that play going into the second half.”
Instead, the Commodores took the second half kickoff and marched 66 yards in 12 plays, eating up 7:06 off the clock, with Diamond sealing the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run for a 27-6 lead.
“That was huge to be able to answer,” Battaglini said. “You’re up 21-0 with about 30 seconds on the clock and they rattle off a long touchdown run. That can be really deflating. With a team who’s never been here before to the playoffs like us, they could’ve lost all the momentum. But they came back out for the second half still locked in and did what we do, run the ball.”
All but 13 of the yards in the crucial drive came on the ground.
“When you have a guy like Derek who can run into an eight-man, sometimes nine-man box and still get three or four yards and continuously move the chains, that gives you a big advantage,” Battaglini said. “I don’t know what the time of possession was but it had to be fairly large in our favor.”
The Commodores held the ball for 30:59 to just 17:01 for California. Frazier churned out 19 first downs to eight for California.
“Frazier did a great job possessing the football on offense and it was kind of like keep away,” Woods said. “They just slowly moved the ball down the field when they needed to.”
The Trojans kept fighting and went on a 55-yard touchdown drive midway through the fourth quarter sparked by Hartley who connected on passes of 18 and 36 yards to Adin Keyes and 4 yards to Abercrombie to cap it with 6:11 left.
Hartley completed 8 of 13 passes for 109 yards and Keyes had three receptions for 66 yards.
With now just a two-score lead, Frazier again went on a time-consuming drive to milk all but 33 seconds off the clock before turning the ball over on downs, sealing the victory.
“It feels great,” Fulmer said. “It’s a dream come true in front of a crowd like this, the hype and the energy.”
“It feels amazing,” said the tireless Diamond who carried the ball 35 times. “After the last three years, this is a great season, the best possible thing that could happen for us, get in the playoffs and then win a game here.”
Six different players ran the ball for California after Peak went down and the leader was Dennis with five carries for 67 yards. The other five combined for three yards on 13 carries.
Both teams were hurt by penalties with California drawing 13 for 123 yards and Frazier being flagged nine times for 80 yards.
Battaglini was thrilled for his players.
“It’s been a lot of fun just to see the enjoyment of the kids,” Battaglini said. “I tell them all the time, they deserve this. That’s one of the big reasons why I took the job in the first place because I saw where it was and I knew the type of kids that were there. I knew Derek Diamond was here, I knew Chase was here, I knew Brady was here. I knew you could do things with those kids.
“It’s so rewarding to see them not only make the playoffs but get a playoff win and now have seven wins this season. That’s awesome for these kids.”