For a team that's
sick and tired of hearing how lousy its
schedule was this year, Mechanicsburg looked
neither sick nor tired Friday night in the
District 3-AAA quarterfinals against Daniel
Boone.
Dominant from
beginning to end against an opponent
supposedly composed of jet fuel,
Mechanicsburg simply bombed Boone 31-7,
running its record to 12-0 and diving
straight into next Friday's semifinal
matchup against 15-time 3-AAA champion
Manheim Central (10-2), a 26-7 winner over
Cocalico.
The Manheim
Central-Mechanicsburg game will be played at
the Wildcats' John H. Frederick Field at 7
p.m. The winner will meet the winner of the
Garden Spot at West York game (at the same
time) in the 3-AAA title game on Nov. 29 at
Hersheypark Stadium.
"We kept
hearing that we didn't play a very good
schedule, so we expected a big challenge
[Friday night]," do-everything
Mechanicsburg senior Ben Anderson said.
"We feel we stepped up to that
challenge."
Stepped up, stepped
on, stepped over. Simply put, Mechanicsburg
turned in a mercy-rule effort without the
mercy-rule score, limiting District 3's most
prolific passer, junior Jon Monteiro, to 146
yards and one score on a 14-of-37 effort.
More to the point,
Mechanicsburg picked off three passes --
Jake Zeigler snared two, Russ Allen grabbed
the other -- with a defensive effort that,
if not suffocating, was polished and
complete.
The 'Cats did it
with brawn and speed, often pressuring
Monteiro, who had passed for 2,823 and 33
TDs entering the game, into early and
erratic throws made worse by Mechanicsburg's
zone coverage. Consider that only once
during this season was Boone held to a
single score, and that was in a 19-7 loss to
3-AAAA semifinalist Governor Mifflin.
At the same time,
Mechanicsburg maintained a reasonable level
of control on offense, rushing for 176 yards
-- 117 from junior tailback Tarik Leftenant
-- and never allowed the Blazers (8-4) to
establish their favored up-tempo pace.
"I told the
kids that every one of them gets the game
ball tonight," Mechanicsburg coach
Chris Hakel said. "I can't say enough
about them."
"It wasn't our
night, not at all," Daniel Boone coach
Dave Bodolus said. "We had four
turnovers, and they had how many [zero]?
There's your ballgame."
The Blazers'
giveaways played a role, but it should be
noted that Mechanicsburg scored on its first
three possessions, only one of which was set
up by a turnover.
That came quickly
when Allen plucked a Monteiro pass at his
own 38 and returned it 8 yards. A pass
interference penalty on third-and-13 ignited
the Mechanicsburg offense, which quickly
raced downfield behind Leftenant and scored
when quarterback Zeigler stepped through
traffic for a 16-yard touchdown at the 4:47
mark.
Boone sputtered in
Mechanicsburg territory on its next drive,
but a low snap forced punter Kelly Saylor to
roll out and kick on the run, netting just 8
yards to the Mechanicsburg 38. Two big runs
by Leftenant set up Anderson's 37-yard field
goal on the third play of the second
quarter.
Then Anderson was
at it again, returning a punt 18 yards to
the Daniel Boone 36, setting up Zeigler's
24-yard scoring scamper with 8:37 left in
the half for a 17-0 lead.
Boone regained life
on the next possession when Monteiro hit
Zach Keeley, Berks County's career receiving
leader, with a low 12-yard scoring pass 4:01
later, cutting it to 17-7.
But Mechanicsburg
officially snuffed the life out of the
Blazers just two plays into the second half
when Zeigler fired a dart that Anderson
snagged before shaking off a tackle and
avoiding another on a 54-yard score.
"That play
wasn't really designed to go to me. I was
supposed to clear out the defensive back on
that side," Anderson said. "But
Zig saw me and made a good throw."
Leftenant, who
injured an ankle against East Pennsboro last
week, finished the scoring with a 1-yard run.
Mechanicsburg
blows past Daniel Boone for spot in D3-AAA
semi
By
Tom Ash, Sentinel Reporter, November 15 2008
Last
updated: Saturday,
November 15, 2008 9:15 PM EST
The Mechanicsburg
Wildcats carried little doubt with them off
John H. Frederick Field on Friday evening.
Questions about whether the District 3 Class
AAA top seed could defend against a
quarterback like Daniel Boone junior
Jonathan Monteiro, hesitations on how well
the Wildcats, a team in the district
playoffs for the first time since 2004,
would stack up with a Blazers team that won
three playoff games in the last two years.
All the indecision, the wonder surrounding
Mechanicsburg’s legitimacy, was laid to
rest in a 31-7 rout of Daniel Boone in which
the highly-touted Blazers offense committed
four turnovers and scored just once in a
3-AAA quarterfinal.
Everyone was
talking up Daniel Boone’s offense,”
Wildcats linebacker, split end and
placekicker Ben Anderson said. “We just
knew how efficient their offense was and we
wanted to shut it down. We wanted to make a
statement, to rise to the challenge.”
A statement made, loud and clear, to
Monteiro. Some early Mechanicsburg defensive
pressure on the quarterback caused Monteiro
to release his passes prematurely throughout
the game. Of his 23 incompletions, four were
dropped by receivers. Most were over-thrown
and three were intercepted. In the
second and third quarters alone, Monteiro
was 7-of-24 — due in large part to the
Wildcats’ decision to run zone-based pass
coverage.
“I told the
coaches this week, in most of (Daniel
Boone’s) games we’ve seen, teams have
played man coverage against them,”
Mechanicsburg head coach Chris Hakel said.
“In the man coverage, the defensive backs
aren’t reacting to the ball, they’re
reacting to the man. (Monteiro) does a great
job throwing the ball to the receiver before
he breaks ... playing zone, you can play the
ball and not the man.”
Wildcats defensive back Jake Zeigler
provided a perfect example late in the third
quarter. Facing first-and-10 from the
Blazers 28-yard line, Monteiro tossed a pass
deep-right. Zeigler, meanwhile, was waiting
on the 49-yard line the whole time — he
simply watched the ball arc through the air,
leaped up and hauled in his second
interception of the evening.
“We noticed they didn’t work too much
against the zone,” Zeigler said. “We
figured we’d throw some zone at them and
see what happens.
“All the credit in the world to that
quarterback, he’s phenomenal. Everybody
did their responsibilities tonight
(defensively) — defensive ends,
linebackers. Everybody did their drops and
made plays for everybody else.”
In fact, Daniel Boone’s struggles began
immediately when Mechanicsburg defensive
back Russ Allen picked off a Monteiro pass
on the seventh play of the game, 3:28 into
the contest.
“They brought (Allen) in to give that
nickel package and ran two high safeties,
which we’ve seen,” Blazers head coach
Dave Bodolus said. “I just don’t think
we went with the ball to where we needed to
with that coverage. We have things we can do
to beat that coverage, we just didn’t do
it, didn’t execute it like we would have
liked to.
“I thought we ran the ball well at times,
which we haven’t always done this year. We
got hurt by their run game at times,
especially in the first half. Across the
board, we turned it over four times tonight.
How many times did (the Wildcats) turn it
over?”
Zero.
The Mechanicsburg offense didn’t commit a
turnover, and the one-two punch of tailback
Tarik Leftenant (16-123) and quarterback
Zeigler (5-28) flustered a sub-par Daniel
Boone run defense. In building a 17-7 lead
by halftime, Leftenant did the mid-field
work — gaining four first downs on eight
first-half carries — Zeigler played the
role of closer. The mobile quarterback
scored his first touchdown when he rolled
right, tucked the ball under his arm, turned
the corner around the right tackle and
sliced through a gaping hole for a 16-yard
score with 4:47 left in the first quarter.
His second touchdown rush came 3:23 into the
second, when he shot through a gap inside
the left tackle — on a designed QB run
play from a four-wide spread — made a few
cuts in the defensive secondary and sprinted
24 yards to the end zone.
By game’s end, Zeigler had only attempted
six passes but accounted for three of his
team’s four touchdowns, throwing a 54-yard
pass to Anderson on the second play of the
second half. The receiver beat a Daniel
Boone defensive back down the right hashmark,
shook the defender off inside the 20-yard
line and walked in for the touchdown.
“That play’s not really designed to go
to me, I’m just clearing the zone out,”
Anderson said with a laugh. “Zeigler saw I
had him deep, I just tried to catch the
ball.”
The Blazers showed some offensive rhythm on
a 9-play, 3:52 drive in the second quarter
that culminated in Zachery Keeley’s
sliding grab of a Monteiro 12-yard strike
over the middle for Boone’s only score of
the game.
The visitors never regained that rhythm. In
their seven offensive series following the
touchdown, the Blazers punted twice, failed
to convert on fourth down twice and turned
the ball over three times.
NOTES: In addition to his
touchdown catch, Anderson knocked in a
37-yard field goal and four PATs, and
deflected a Monteiro pass at the line in the
third quarter ... Mechanicsburg defensive
back Kennedy Nye also deflected a pass on
the line, in the fourth quarter ...
Leftenant ran 60 yards to open his team’s
fourth offensive drive of the evening, but
the rush was called back on a holding
penalty. He would have finished with 183
yards had the play counted ... Daniel Boone
was 4-for-12 on third down. Mechanicsburg
was 1-for-7.
MECHANICSBURG 35,
EAST PENNSBORO 7
Wildcats
roar past East Penn
Saturday, November 08,
2008
Mechanicsburg (11-0)
played a tight, conservative game and took its
time easing to an eventual 35-7 triumph over
the Panthers (5-6) in a District 3-AAA
first-round match.
DAN
GLEITER/The Patriot-News
Mechanicsburg's
Jake Zeigler intercepts the ball in the third
quarter in a pass intended for East
Pennsboro's Blake Wheeler.
After a bumpy scare
against Red Land in the final game of the
regular season, Mechanicsburg eased back on
the offensive throttle, rushing the ball 41
times for 230 yards against a scrappy team
that was doomed by power failures.
"After last week
[a 14-7 triumph over Red Land], I challenged
our guys up front," Mechanicsburg head
coach Chris Hakel said. "I told them
we're going to line up and run the ball
because that's what we do."
That's what
Mechanicsburg senior Devon Hensel did. His
final numbers -- 17 carries for 81 yards and
three touchdowns -- aren't the kind that
inspire song, but it was just what the
Wildcats needed to advance to next week's
quarterfinals against No. 9 seed Daniel Boone
(8-3), a 42-24 winner over Northern.
Hensel, one of
Mechanicsburg's most valuable players, opened
the game's scoring with a 31-yard touchdown
run, then added a pair of 1-yard scores in the
second and third periods to allow
Mechanicsburg to win its first 3-AAA playoff
game since 2004.
Hensel got his
carries in large part because the Wildcats'
starting tailback, junior Tarik Leftenant,
suffered what appeared to be a minor ankle
injury with 53 seconds left in the first
period.
Leftenant,
Mechanicsburg's leading rusher with 1,100
yards, had 4 carries for 44 yards when he left
the game; he was walking an jogging on the
ankle during the second half.
Hensel, who took an
option 31 yards on his initial touch for the
Wildcats' first touchdown at the 3:21 mark of
the opening quarter, immediately took over
after Leftenant's injury, reeling off the last
34 yards of a 62-yard drive to score from the
1 just 56 seconds into the second quarter.
That gave
Mechanicsburg a 13-0 lead after East
Pennsboro's Philip Orris blocked the extra
point.
Hensel and Erik Lewis
were at it again on the next possession,
eating up 44 yards of a short 47-yard drive,
but ceding to junior Nik Cremo for the 3-yard
score (his first TD of the season) at the 4:56
mark after Hensel banged up his foot. Matt
Koveleski pulled in an easy two-point pass to
push the score to 21-0.
East Pennsboro, which
is packed with underclassmen, including a
high-quality sophomore quarterback in Kelvin
White, provided some drama late in the half,
marching from its own 34 to the Mechanicsburg
2.
But a pass from Wes
Strayer to Blake Wheeler was ruled out of
bounds in the end zone -- East Pennsboro head
coach Todd Stuter didn't buy the explanation
that Wheeler's momentum carried him OB --
forcing Studer to call a timeout.
With his smaller line
unable to move Mechanicsburg's bulk, he went
with a quick sweep left to Wheeler, who
appeared to find a seam before Mechanicsburg's
Aaron Jones knocked him to the track. It was a
hit his classmates will be recalling at
reunions.
"I didn't want
to give the 'weight room' speech," said
Stuter, his team making its first postseason
appearance since 2002. "But we have to
get bigger and stronger to win these kinds of
games next year."
Mechanicsburg
triggered the mercy rule after Hensel's second
1-yard score and a great 12-yard TD catch by
Mike Poplaski, who literally stole Zeigler's
pass from Strayer. Then East Penn scored with
48 seconds left on Wheeler's 60-yard
catch-and-run from White.
Run-heavy
Mechanicsburg too much for East Pennsboro
Devon Hensel fills
in for injured Leftenant at running back and
scores three touchdowns
By
Tom Ash, Sentinel Reporter, November 8, 2008
Perhaps Chris Hakel can
see into the future.
Just last week, the Mechanicsburg football
head coach made a point to mention his
team’s depth at running back, even following
a game where starting running back Tarik
Leftenant had rushed 21 times for 147 yards.
Hakel stressed the importance of what he
called his “four-headed” offensive
backfield — rushers Leftenant, Erik Lewis
and Devon Hensel, as well as mobile
quarterback Jake Zeigler.
Curt
Werner/Special to The Sentinel
Mechanicsburg’s Aaron Jones (55) stops
East Pennsboro’s Tank Miller (33) in
the Wildcats’ 11th win of the season.
Sure, Lewis made his
case in the regular season-ending victory with
95 yards. But Hensel, a senior, was still
recovering from an injury he suffered earlier
in the season and rushed once for 17 yards.
On
Friday night, however, Hensel backed up
Hakel’s claim of a four-tiered rushing
attack. When Leftenant hobbled off John H.
Frederick Field with what looked like a minor
ankle injury after just his fourth carry
against East Pennsboro in the District 3 Class
AAA first round, it was the veteran Hensel
that stepped up to fill the void.
Hensel rushed 17 times for 103, three
touchdowns and fueling the Wildcats’ 35-7,
ground-heavy rout of the Panthers.
The victory carries Mechanicsburg into the
district quarterfinals, where it will host
Daniel Boone — a 42-24 winner over Northern
— next Friday.
“(Hensel) is an unsung hero for us, he does
a lot of things,” Hakel said. “He’s very
versatile, not to mention on the defensive
side. He’s probably one of the smartest kids
on our football team as far as savvy and
knowing everybody’s position and where they
are. He’s an incredible person to have out
there.”
Hensel was the star of a Wildcats offense that
decidedly controlled the game with 42 carries
for 245 of Mechanicsburg’s 305 yards of
total offense.
“I told the kids going into this week, I
challenged the guys up front (on the offensive
line),” Hakel said. “We met before the
game, we had our pregame meal and then we
watched film.
“And I said, we’re just going to run the
ball.”
Sounds simple enough. However, the East
Pennsboro offense had to be a little more
creative to gain ground on the No. 1-seeded
Wildcats.
Panthers head coach Todd Stuter employed a
quarterback-by-committee approach, using
senior Wes Strayer in some sets and the mobile
sophomore Kevin White in others. When one was
under center, the other was split wide.
“We started working into (a two-quarterback
system) toward the end of the year,” Stuter
said. “(White) is a sophomore ... he’s a
better scrambler, we tried to do some
different packages with him (tonight).”
Things went well for East Pennsboro early on
offensively. On the first drive of the game,
the Panthers recorded gains of 16 and 12
yards, pushing from their own 19 to the
Mechanicsburg 48-yard line.
But the East Penn offense continually shot
itself in the metaphorical foot. That first
drive ended quickly when the Panthers
committed back-to-back false start penalties,
moving from a second-and-6 on the Wildcats 48
to a second-and-16 on their own 42. Later in
the first quarter, East Penn reached the
Mechanicsburg 48 again, thanks in large part
to a 26-yard run from junior Blake Wheeler,
only to turn the ball over on an interception.
White’s pass over the middle was tipped by a
receiver and Wildcats defensive back Russ
Allen made a sliding catch of the errant ball
at his team’s 38-yard line.
“We had two or three offside penalties there
... it drove us back,” Stuter said. “(The
Wildcats are) big, physical kids. We tried to
do some different things to them, their kids
broke on the ball well. They’re good
athletes, that’s why they’re the No. 1
seed and we’re the No. 16 seed.”
The Mechanicsburg offense, meanwhile, left
little room for error. The Hensel closed out
his team’s opening series with a 31-yard
touchdown run to the right side, on an option
toss from Zeigler.
On their next series, following Allen’s
interception, the Wildcats needed only seven
rushes to move 62 yards, ending with
Hensel’s one-yard touchdown plunge through
the right side of the line.
With 9:14 remaining in the first half,
Mechanicsburg drove 47 yards on eight rushes.
On third-and-goal from the 3-yard line, junior
Nik Cremo took a pitch from Zeigler and swept
around the line for another score.
Three drives, three touchdowns, and the
Panthers found themselves in a 21-0 hole with
4:47 left before halftime.
But neither of Hensel’s first-half
touchdowns, nor Cremo’s sweep, was the play
that broke the Panthers’ collective back
heading into the locker room. That play came
on the other side of the ball, seconds before
the end of the second quarter.
Facing fourth-and-goal on the Mechanicsburg 2,
Wheeler took a handoff from Strayer and raced
left to turn the corner around the Wildcats
defensive line. Instead, he came face-to-face
with linebacker Aaron Jones, who summoned all
of his 5-foot-9, 205-pound frame to lay a
tremendous hit on the streaking rusher,
stopping him at the line of scrimmage and
driving him into the sideline.
“That’s the sign of a good team,” Hakel
said. “Our backs got put to the wall, it’s
good for them to experience that now.
“The one before halftime would have been
nice,” Stuter said. “That was kind of an
exclamation point for them to stop us right
before halftime.”
Despite the early exit, the No. 16 seed
Panthers held their heads up leaving Soldiers
and Sailors Memorial Park.
“The most important thing, you have to get
into the playoffs,” Stuter said. “For our
program to make the next step, we have to make
the playoffs.”
And while East Pennsboro filed out the gate,
and his Wildcats celebrated in front of their
fans, parents and marching band, Hakel
couldn’t ignore a familiar voice in the back
of his mind, reminding him to stay focus on
what lies ahead.
“I’m never going to be happy. There’s
always a reason to get better,” Hakel said.
“I’m a firm believer that complacency
breeds mediocrity — there’s a Rich saying
for you.
“East Pennsboro played tough. ... that’s
what it’s about. You get one shot to come
out here and dance. You just look at it one
week at a time.”
NOTES: East Pennsboro
finished its season 5-6. ... Mechanicsburg is
one win away from tying its school record of
12 wins in a single season, set in 1983 ...
what would have been an easy interception
slipped through Zeigler’s hands on a pass
attempt from White in the third quarter, but
the senior made up for it a few plays later
with a leaping interception at his own 24. ...
tight end Mike Poplaski powered the
Wildcats’ final touchdown drive of the
evening, catching a 15-yard pass two plays
before beating an East Penn defensive back on
a jump-ball pass in the end zone for a 12-yard
score. ... the Panthers scored their only
touchdown of the evening late in the fourth
quarter when Wheeler hauled in a deep pass
from Strayer and raced 60 yards. ...
Mechanicsburg was 3-for-7 on third downs, but
converted two of three fourth-down attempts.
MECHANICSBURG 14, RED
LAND 7
Wildcats
score season a perfect 10
Saturday, November 01,
2008
BY GEOFF MORROW
Of The Patriot-News
Red Land didn't care
about Mechanicsburg's perfect season. Nor did the
Patriots care that the Wildcats, with a win, could
potentially land the No. 1 seed into the District
3-AAA postseason tournament.
And that's exactly what
Mechanicsburg needed.
In a scrap-iron Mid-Penn
Colonial affair at Memorial Park Stadium, the
Wildcats survived a final preplayoff test, holding
off Red Land 14-7 to cap its first unscathed
regular season in 25 years.
The Patriots forced
Mechanicsburg's offense into three turnovers, then
drove deep into Wildcat territory late in the
fourth quarter. But coach Chris Hakel's
senior-laden bunch hung on and, with that top
district seed secure, feels ready for the second
season.
"Red Land is a great
challenge, a physical challenge," Hakel said
after his team moved to 10-0 overall, 5-0 in the
Colonial. "It was great the way the schedule
worked out, and it was good for our team to rise
to this challenge."
All the scoring was done
in the first half, with shifty running back Tarik
Leftenant totaling 100 of his 149 yards in the
first two quarters. His 3-yard TD capped the
opening drive to give the Wildcats a 7-0 lead.
Max Liddell's 39-yard
interception return later in the quarter set up
Dan Yenger's 1-yard plunge as the Patriots (6-4,
3-2) tied the score.
Mechanicsburg QB Jake
Zeigler then scored from the 1 midway through the
second quarter to account for the final points.
From there, it was up to
the Wildcats defense to keep Red Land off the
board.
"We wanted a piece
of them every single play of the game," said
senior two-way tackle Tyler Bullock, a 6-4,
265-pound behemoth who banged heads with Yenger
(25 carries, 93 yards) all night and helped limit
the Patriots to just 145 yards of offense.
"When I tackle him,
I talk a bit. And he talks a bit. It's all part of
the game."
While there's no
love-lost between the players, Red Land coach
Frank Gay dipped his head into Mechanicsburg's
postgame huddle and offered this: "Go get 'em.
You're in the same boat we were in two years ago
[when the Patriots won districts and reached the
state semifinals]. Now go get 'em."
Bullock appeared to be
almost pained by the gesture.
"[Gay] is a nice guy
and all," he said. "I'm not going to say
we hate Red Land..."
He paused. "But it
was good to hear him say good luck."
Red Land provided
Mechanicsburg its third truly tough test this
season. Of the Wildcats' 10 wins, only Red Land,
Susquehanna Twp. and Northern finished above .500.
The first two were more than a month ago.
"For the first time
in a long time, we played four quarters of
football," Gay said. "Even though we
came out on the losing end, we stood tough and
never gave up. We expected to be on the same field
with these guys."
Both teams had long
second-half drives stall.
An 11-play drive by the
Wildcats found the red zone in the third quarter,
but a sack of Zeigler crushed it. Zeigler finished
just 3-of-10 for 40 yards and a pair of
interceptions.
Red Land answered with a
17-play drive that reached as far as
Mechanicsburg's 8-yard line. From there, though,
big-loss sacks by Erik Potter (game-high 10
tackles) and Ben Anderson helped keep the Patriots
off the scoreboard.
"After everything
these guys have gone through," Hakel said,
"from getting mercy-ruled on this field in
recent years, to losing Coach [Rich] Lichtel last
year, I'm just so proud of them."
GEOFF
MORROW: 255-8250 or gmorrow@patriot-news.com
Mechanicsburg
finishes regular season 10-0 with 14-7 win over
Red Land
By
Tom Ash, Sentinel Reporter, November 1, 2008
The Mechanicsburg football
team had proven quite a bit about what it’s
capable of before Friday night.
The Wildcats had already won more games in their
2008 season than they had the previous three
seasons combined. They survived a tough road test
at Susquehanna Twp. in Week 3. They held off a
late rally at Northern in Week 4.
Scott
McAllister/Special to The Sentinel
Mechanicsburg’s Tarik Leftenant (40)
finds a hole Friday night against Red
Land. The Wildcats went on to win 14-7 and
finish the regular season unbeaten.
Yet, there was one last
challenge standing between them and perfection.
Entering the fourth quarter of its game against
Red Land at John H. Frederick Field on Friday,
Mechanicsburg held a tenuous 14-7 lead. However,
the Patriots opened the final quarter by driving
67 yards in work-horse fashion, eating up over six
minutes on 12 plays including a fourth-and-2
conversion at the Mechanicsburg 37-yard line,
advancing from their own 19 to the opposing 8.
The Wildcats players and coaching staff insist
they weren’t worried about an unblemished.regular-season
record during the ensuing red-zone stand.
“I was just worried
about winning the game first,” senior linebacker
Aaron Jones said. “I was just thinking,
hopefully we’ll get a stop here.”
Then, with 3:36 remaining, Red Land, facing a
fourth-and-goal on the 14-yard line, the final
play of the last-ditch drive simultaneously
defined the seasons of both teams.
The snap from center was low. Patriots quarterback
Brad Medellin fumbled the ball, picked it up and
rolled to his right. The Wildcats defense swarmed
in on him, and his desperation pass arced into an
empty end zone.
Mechanicsburg had just capped four plays in which
its defense poured relentlessly through the
Patriots offensive line after Medellin, sacking
him twice and showing just how determined this
team is to put the recent past behind it.
“There’s no doubt there’s an intensity, a
belief among these kids,” Mechanicsburg head
coach Chris Hakel said. “I talk a lot about
learning how to win. These kids now believe they
can win. They expect to win, they expect good
things to happen to them. Last year, we were sort
of looking around and wondering if we were going
to win. This year, we’re expecting it.”
At the same time, a mistake-riddled regular season
came to a close for Red Land in symbolic fashion
— a fumbled snap and a broken play.
“We’ve got to relax in that situation and not
panic,” Red Land head coach Frank Gay said.
“That’s what happened, we panicked.”
One
last Mechanicsburg drive and a few
insurance first-downs later, the Wildcats
secured their first undefeated regular
season since 1983 and ensured their first
10-win season since 1986.
“I remember playing on this field where
we were getting mercy-ruled, to last year
losing our coach,” Hakel said. “I’m
just glad, I really am.”
On
Mechanicsburg’s first offensive series
of the game, it seemed as though the
Wildcats could run the score up on the
visiting Patriots. The home team drove 80
yards on nine plays in 3:42,
culminating
in running back Tarik Leftenant’s 3-yard plunge
through the left guard for an early 7-0 lead.
However, that drive, which included runs of 21 and
17 yards, a 21-yard pass and three first downs,
proved to be Mechanicsburg’s longest drive of
the evening. In nine drives following the
touchdown, the Wildcats were forced to punt three
times, turned the ball over three times and
stalled once on fourth down at the Red Land 19 at
the end of the third quarter.
“We had to make some adjustments defensively
(after that first drive),” Gay said. “You
start out the game and see what they give you. We
adjusted well and played a great defensive game
the rest of the way out.
“Defensively, we played great. We just have to
score some points. Defensively, we played well
enough to win the game, no doubt about that.”
As it turns out, the Mechanicsburg offense gave
Red Land the same thing the Patriots offense
showed the Wildcats — a run-heavy attack relying
heavily on the team’s featured back, especially
in the first half.
Leftenant (21-147) finished the first two quarters
with 13 carries for 99 yards before turning the
bulk of the second-half work over to teammate Erik
Lewis, who finished with 95 yards on 10 carries.
“When you have someone like Tarik in the
backfield, you have to give him his carries,”
Hakel said. “On top of that, for him to get his
yards, that means everyone else has to do their
part ... Lewis did a great job blocking and a
great job running the football.”
Meanwhile, Red Land rusher Dan Yenger earned 105
of his team’s 150 total yards of offense on 23
carries. Yenger broke off runs of 31 and 12 yards
in the first half but, aside from a 14-yarder on
the fourth play after halftime, was relatively
boxed in by the Mechanicsburg defense in the
second half.
“They came out in the same basic formations they
had (been running),” Jones said of Red Land’s
second-half offense. “We knew it would be a
counter or a toss (to Yenger) so we just had to
communicate around the defense and know what was
going on at all times.”
What Mechanicsburg showed on its last Friday
before the District 3 Class AAA playoffs was a
penetrating defense and a deep offensive backfield
capable of controlling an entire game.
Hakel can’t help but be impressed by his
players. His players can’t help but be impressed
by their play thus far.
Even opposing coaches can’t help but be
impressed.
After the game, the Wildcats formed their
post-game huddle. Hakel addressed the team,
congratulating them and telling them there’s
still work to be done, but before the huddle was
broken, Gay slipped in a few words to the hopeful
Mechanicsburg squad.
“We were in your position last year,” Gay said
of the Wildcats’ impending run at a district
title. “You want it? Go out and get it.”
NOTES: Patriots senior defensive
end Lee Hoover was the visiting team’s most
dominant presence on defense Friday, rushing the
quarterback three times with two sacks ... Red
Land kicker Chad Christen’s 36-yard field goal
attempt with 2:50 left in the first quarter was
wide left ... Quarterback Jake Zeigler scored the
Wildcats’ second touchdown, bouncing off a solid
line of scrimmage and cutting right for the 1-yard
score ... Of Mechanicsburg’s three turnovers,
two were interceptions and one was a lost fumble
by Zeigler in the first quarter that immediately
followed a 70-yard kickoff return by Wildcats’
Adam Tuttle ... The last time Mechanicsburg
finished with a perfect record, postseason
included, was 1941, when the team went 8-0 ... The
Wildcats’ last unbeaten season, postseason
included, came in 1954 when they were 10-0-1.
MECHANICSBURG
48, JAMES BUCHANAN 14
Mechanicsburg
reaches 9-0
Saturday,
October 25, 2008
From
staff reports
The
winless travels to play the
undefeated always with the hopes
of an upset.
This is
where the James Buchanan Rockets
found themselves Friday night,
taking their 0-8 record to
Mechanicsburg to face the 8-0
Wildcats in a Mid-Penn
Conference interdivisional high
school football game.
The
skids and streaks stayed intact
as Mechanicsburg bolted to a
41-0 lead before easing to a
48-14 victory over the Rockets.
The
Wildcats' offense ran only 19
plays in the first half, but
scored on five of them,
including a pair of touchdown
runs by Tarik Leftenant from 12
and 2 yards.
Leftenant
finished with 90 yards on only
11 carries while Wildcats
quarterback Jake Zeigler
completed all four passes he
threw, including a 66-yarder to
Adam Tuttle for a second-quarter
touchdown before Mechanicsburg
began to sit its starters.
Buchanan's
lone points came in the third
quarter on Tyson Keith's 82-yard
pass from Jesse Smartt, Keith's
82-yard kickoff return and
Smartt's two-point conversion
run.
Keith
had six receptions for 107
yards.
MECHANICSBURG
35, GETTYSBURG 14
Big
plays burn Warriors
By
Ryan Raffensperger
Times Sports Writer
No
matter how much of a fight
Gettysburg put up against
undefeated Mechanicsburg, the
Warriors had no answer for the
big-play offense of the
Wildcats.
The undefeated Wildcats racked
up three touchdowns of 50-plus
yards, accounting for 221 of
their 400 total yards on those
plays to spoil the Warrior
homecoming with a 35-14 win
Friday night at Warrior Stadium.
More
MECHANICSBURG
49, BIG SPRING 10
Wildcats
put Big Spring away quickly
Saturday, October 11, 2008
BY MICHAEL BULLOCK
For The Patriot-News
Although Matt Koveleski did
not say much about the two big plays he made early,
Mechanicsburg's senior receiver/cornerback could
have uttered plenty ... and then plenty more.
Especially since his
efforts sparked the Wildcats to a sizable lead --
and yet another win.
Koveleski booked two scores
in the first quarter, one on a touchdown reception
and another on an interception return, as
Mechanicsburg wheeled past visiting Big Spring 49-10
in a Cumberland County football scrap Friday night
at homecoming-happy Memorial Park.
Tarik Leftenant, Jake
Zeigler, Erik Lewis and Devon Hensel also scored
rushing touchdowns for the ninth-ranked Wildcats
(Class AAA), who lacked some crispness on both sides
of the ball yet still managed to claim their seventh
straight win and third in a row by the mercy rule.
As if that wasn't enough to
thrill those perched along the rail or sitting in
the stands, Trevor Barr capped the rout by picking
off Luke Etter with just over 4 minutes to go and
scooting 90 yards for yet another score. The 'Cats
finished with four thefts.
Etter's 47-yard scoring
pitch to Tyler Baum in the third quarter and Josh
Durham's curling 38-yard field goal accounted for
Big Spring's 10 points. Baum was a bright spot for
Brent Stroh's Bulldogs (1-6), as he caught six
passes for 102 yards.
All in the second half.
By then, Mechanicsburg was
up 42-3 and the clock was scurrying to run out.
"We just wanted to
make a statement," Koveleski said.
While the diminutive
Leftenant capped the Wildcats' opening drive with a
9-yard scoring run -- and lit the fuse on the
scoreboard -- Koveleski soon moved into the
spotlight.
For the rest of the first
quarter.
Koveleski's initial score
came with 6:34 left in the first. He curled
underneath, caressed Zeigler's toss and found an
escort once he turned back to the outside. In an
instant, it was 14-0.
"It was a hitch,"
Koveleski said. "I just caught it, turned
around and ran. Adam Tuttle gave me a great block. I
don't know [really what happened]. I just found the
end zone."
Koveleski found the end
zone again late in the first quarter, returning an
Etter heave 42 yards for Mechanicsburg's third
score. Tuttle also was in the mix initially, as he
tipped the ball.
"It just came to me, I
started running and no one tackled me,"
Koveleski said simply.
And, while Koveleski's
return expanded the Wildcats' cushion and put them
in command, skipper Chris Hakel wasn't totally
pleased.
"There's no ifs, ands
or buts, you try to do that every game," Hakel
said. "It definitely sets the tone and helps
you out. The thing you've got to be careful of is
that you don't let it lull you to sleep.
"There, at the
beginning of the second quarter, we don't touch the
ball," Hakel added, referring to a Big Spring
possession that lasted 11 plays. "They start
the second quarter with the ball and we see it with
maybe six minutes left, and I'm like, 'What
happened?'
"We've got to get
better at that."
Although Durham's boot put
the Bulldogs on the board, the improvisational
Zeigler provided one response by zigzagging 34 yards
for a score after getting flushed from the pocket.
Then, with seconds to go, Lewis plowed over from 9
yards out to run the lead to 30-plus.
Still...
"It's a win,"
Hakel said. "There's a lot of things we need to
get better at. I was disappointed in the penalties,
a lot of what I call being undisciplined, unfocused,
and we need to get better at practice. There's a lot
of work to be done, but it's definitely nice to be
7-0."
MICHAEL BULLOCK: 255-8124
or mbullock@patriot-news.com
October
4, 2008
Mechanicsburg
finds end zone often vs. Ship
Wildcats
have outscored opponents 194-60 in first six weeks.
By
Andy Sandrik, Sentinel Reporter
SHIPPENSBURG — Coming into
the season, Mechanicsburg football coach Chris
Hakel’s biggest concern was his offensive line.
If Friday night’s 56-6 victory over the
Shippensburg Greyhounds served as any kind of a
measuring stick, it seems the big guys up front are
doing just fine.
“The offensive line did a great job,” Hakel
said. “The play of the offensive line is something
we’ve been focusing on all year.”
The Wildcats are now 6-0 and have outscored their
opponents 194-60.
“We’ve had a lot of adversity with the passing
of (former coach) Rich Lichtel,” Hakel said.
“There were lots of question marks coming into the
season. I’m thankful the kids have had this
opportunity, they’ve been busting their butts all
summer and fall.”
Curt
Werner/Special to The Sentinel
Mechanicsburg's Mike Poplaski
(5) pulls in a touchdown pass
against Shippensburg on Friday
night.
Friday night’s 50-point victory represented
Mechanicsburg’s biggest win of the season and also
Shippensburg’s most lopsided loss of the year.
“Our kids played the whole game and worked
hard,” Ship coach Eric Foust said. “We had a
couple of early turnovers that hurt us, but I’m
not sure if that was a large part of the story
tonight.”
The story of the game was the rushing attack of the
Wildcats. Mechanicsburg rushed for 356 yards on 32
carries for about 11 yards a pop. Running behind the
aforementioned offensive line, Devon Hensel (3
carries, 114 yards, 2 TDs), Tarik Leftenant (12
carries, 88 yards, 3 TDs) and Jake Ziegler (3
carries, 53 yards), among others, had strong nights
carrying the football.
Following a three-and-out on Ship’s first
possession of the game, Hensel got the Wildcats’
first carry of the game and slipped past a couple of
defenders before rumbling 68 yards down the field to
put Mechanicsburg ahead 7-0.
Ship (2-4) fumbled on the first play of its ensuing
possession — the Wildcats countered with a
six-play, 34-yard drive capped with a 4-yard scoring
run from Leftenant.
The Greyhound offense took the field again and this
time put together a time-consuming drive. Ship
marched all the way from its own 23 to the
Mechanicsburg 26 before fumbling the ball. The
Wildcats cashed in again, getting another 4-yard
scoring burst from Leftenant.
With 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter,
Mechanicsburg led 21-0.
“Our defense was physical,” Hakel said.
“We’ve had kids in this same system for three
years now and they’re going 100 percent. They
don’t think out there, they just go on
instincts.”
The teams exchanged touchdowns in the second
quarter; Mechanicsburg’s Mike Poplaski scored on a
14-yard touchdown reception from Zeigler and
Ship’s Ethan Naylor, coming back from an injury,
rushed for a 10-yard touchdown.
“Naylor got to play for about 25 snaps tonight,”
Foust said. “That was our goal for him.”
The second half didn’t go any better for the
Greyhounds — they were outscored 28-0 and held
without a first down.
To make matters worse, quarterback Greg Boldosser
(3-of-6, 90 yards) sustained what appeared to be a
neck injury and was carried off the field in a
stretcher. His status was unknown at press time.
Mechanicsburg will try to keep its unbeaten season
alive on Friday, when they host the Big Spring
Bulldogs for a 7 p.m. game.
Shippensburg will try to get back to winning ways
when it travels to Waynesboro for a 7:30 p.m. game.
“We’re going to get ready for Waynesboro,”
Foust said. “They lost to Mechanicsburg almost as
bad as us.”
NOTES: Zeigler was dinged up in the
first half and did not play in the second half.
Hakel expects Zeigler to play next week, saying
“(Zeigler) is fine, he just got his bell rung
tonight. He’ll be alright for next week.”
Mechanicsburg
5-0 for first time in quarter-century
Saturday, September 27, 2008
BY MICHAEL BULLOCK
For The Patriot-News
Still perfect.
While those words caused
Tarik Leftenant and Jake Zeigler to flash plenty of
enamel Friday night at misty Memorial Park, toothy
grins that bright and that pronounced haven't been
spotted in and around Mechanicsburg this deep into
football season for quite some time.
Try 25 years.
"Long time,"
Zeigler said. "Long time."
Improving to 5-0 for the
first time since the 1983 season -- that particular
fact certainly lit up Mechanicsburg's postgame huddle
-- the Wildcats rolled over Mid-Penn Colonial Division
playmate Waynesboro 45-6.
The diminutive Leftenant
certainly did his part, wheeling for 143 yards (on 22
carries) and touchdown runs of 2, 2 and 11 yards. So
did QB Zeigler, who ran for 94 yards and threw for 116
for Chris Hakel's ridiculously efficient Wildcats
(5-0, 3-0).
Ridiculously efficient?
Opportunistic Devon Hensel
numbered just four offensive touches, but he scored on
runs of 11 and 10 yards. The 5-11, 175-pounder also
hooked up with Zeigler on a 40-yard screen pass for
another score early in the third quarter that
quickened the pace by kicking in the mercy rule.
Greg Wade's 3-yard run midway
through the fourth quarter, a score that came against
the Mechanicsburg reserves, accounted for the lone TD
for Waynesboro (3-2, 2-1).
"We ran plays to
perfection," Zeigler said. "Our line did an
outstanding job tonight. On pass protection, they were
great. They gave me on one play -- that long pass [a
50-yarder to Ben] Anderson -- I mean, I had at least
five seconds to throw the ball and that's an excellent
job
"Blocking-wise up front,
they were just physical and they're pounding other
teams. Right now, it's keeping us in games and it's
keeping us winning," Zeigler added, giving Tyler
Bullock, Travis Polillo and the other big eaters
plenty of props.
"We're climbing on their
backs and they're taking us for a ride, that's for
sure."
A perfect ride ... thus far.
Once the energetic Zeigler
broke loose late in the opening quarter for a 64-yard
gainer after hightailing it out of the pocket, the
Wildcats were rolling. On the very next play, Hensel
bowled over from the 11 to start a string of seven
straight possessions Mechanicsburg cashed in.
"Jake's the Hype
Man," Leftenant said. "He gets us hyped
before the games. He makes big plays constantly game
after game, and that helps out a lot, just to boost
our confidence."
Mechanicsburg's confidence
certainly was boosted, as Leftenant scored twice and
Hensel bounced into the end zone a second time before
the break. The Wildcats also picked up a 38-yard field
goal from the multi-talented Anderson, who was 6-for-6
kicking extra points.
Anderson's pick also set up
... Anderson's 3-pointer.
"That was a
manhandling," said Waynesboro head coach Darwin
Seiler, whose club surrendered 380 offensive yards by
the end of the third quarter while managing just 102.
"That's as good a
football team as I've seen in a while."
One that remains unbeaten.
"Still perfect,"
Leftenant beamed. "That's the first time since
'83 we've been 5-0."
Before each snap Friday night,
Mechanicsburg running back Tarik Leftenant had to have
had trouble seeing downfield. The 5-foot-7 junior was
facing down a Waynesboro defensive line sporting a
listed weight of 1,234 combined pounds.
After quarterback Jake Zeigler handed the ball off to
him, however, Leftenant rarely saw anything but the
open field ahead of him.
The Wildcats dominated the line of scrimmage —
offensively and defensively — rushing for 267 yards
on 33 carries, five touchdowns and a 45-6 Mid-Penn
Colonial Division victory at home.
“The line surprised me, they did excellent again,”
Leftenant said.
It wasn’t an immediate influence. On
Mechanicsburg’s opening drive, the Wildcats (5-0,
3-0 Colonial) were pushed into a third-and-15 hole at
their own 36-yard line and were forced to punt the
ball.
But it was on the team’s very next offensive series
that the offensive line found its rhythm. Facing
third-and-8 on his team’s 25-yard line, Zeigler
dashed through the wide-open right guard for 64 yards,
down to the Indians’ 11-yard line.
On the next play, Wildcats running back Devon Hensel
slipped through a gaping hole on the right side for
the first score of the game.
“(The Wildcats) just decided they were going to run
the ball at us, and we didn’t have many answers,”
Waynesboro head coach Darwin Seiler said.
The drive was the first of seven consecutive offensive
scoring series for Mechanicsburg. The Wildcats faced
fourth down just twice, punting on their first and
final drives of the evening.
Leftenant powered Mechanicsburg’s run game through
the first half, picking up 95 of his game-total 146
yards on 16 carries through the first 24 minutes of
play.
“It took a little longer to figure out what we were
doing, but once we picked up on (Waynesboro’s
defense), it was one big play after another,”
Leftenant said.
“Tarik, he’s not very tall but he’s spent a lot
of time in the weight room this offseason,” Hakel
said. “I’m glad to see it because when someone’s
going into the weight room and lifting in the
offseason, you tell them why they’re going and doing
it. And this is the payoff, now he’s getting to see
it.”
While Leftenant kept the Indians (3-2, 2-1) busy at
the line, Zeigler kept them honest in the backfield.
The senior quarterback completed 6-of-9 passes for 117
yards, including a 50-yard toss to Ben Anderson on the
first play of the second quarter — the receiver
out-sprinted a pair of Waynesboro defensive backs to
make the catch at the 2-yard line — and a 40-yard
touchdown pass to Hensel in the fourth quarter.
Hensel caught the short throw on the left side of the
field and took the ball the rest of the way himself.
It was the last of three touchdowns for the senior —
two rushing, one receiving.
“We left them behind us on the throw and that’s
inexcusable,” Seiler said. “We didn’t get any
pass rush on them, either. That kind of put us in a
bind.
“They blitzed a little bit and moved people around,
but they don’t do anything fancy. They just come at
you ... that was a manhandling.”
Waynesboro’s offense wasn’t very productive until
the fourth quarter. Trailing 45-0, the Indians strung
together a 13-play, 65-yard drive that included a
fourth-down conversion pass by punter Jonathan
Blubaugh and culminating in a 3-yard touchdown run by
reserve running back Greg Wade.
But it was too little, too late. Until that point,
Waynesboro hadn’t crossed the 50-yard line. The
Indians were inside their own 40 when all three of
their first-quarter drives stalled, and actually took
a step backward in the second, when the team’s
drives ended at their own 15, 20, 1 and 30,
respectively.
Through the first three quarters, Waynesboro was
0-for-6 on third downs and had accrued just five first
downs to its opponent’s 14.
“The thing with our defense is, these kids now have
had the opportunity to play in the same system for
three years,” Mechanicsburg head coach Chris Hakel
said. “If you’re constantly changing things, kids
have to think and run. And if they have to think and
run, they slow down. So, by allowing them to now know
their responsibilities ... we’ve allowed them to cut
loose, and now they’re going full-speed.”
However, even Hakel was impressed with the ease by
which his team dominated the line of scrimmage Friday,
admitting he didn’t expect his run game to power
through the Indians the way it did.
“To be honest with you, no,” Hakel said. “But
our goal this week was to take that next step ... I
told the kids, you go through that whole process to
learn how to win. And that final step is to ... not
let a team back in the game.”
MECHANICSBURG 23, NORTHERN 21
Wildcats stave off
Northern
Saturday, September 20, 2008
BY ROD FRISCO
Of The Patriot-News
DILLSBURG - So, you like your
plot twists?
You should have been at
Mechanicsburg's 23-21 Mid-Penn Conference non-divisional
victory over Northern Friday night.
Then again, maybe you were: A
packed house of at least 4,000, maybe more, saw a game
most have come to expect in this flourishing rivalry.
That is, enthralling.
Not that it looked like it was
going to end up that way. Mechanicsburg, 4-0 and already
one win better than last year's difficult 3-7 season,
overcame a slow start with two key defensive turns, then
pulled out to a 23-8 lead after three quarters.
But Northern (3-1) hasn't
gained its reputation as one of the toughest outs in the
midstate by idly accepting defeat. The Polar Bears
recovered a fumbled to score twice within two minutes
and 24 seconds midway through the final period to turn
what should have been a comfortable Mechanicsburg into a
knuckle-grinder at Bob Bostic Field.
Pictures
from Pennlive.com
Only when Mechanicsburg
recovered a fumbled punt with 48 seconds left were the
Wildcats able to claim their first win over Northern in
four years and snap the Bears' impressive 31-game
regular-season winning streak, a streak that ironically
started in 2005 with Northern's 22-0 triumph over the
Wildcats.
Quarterback/defensive back Jake
Zeigler was phenomenal in the game, passing for two
touchdowns, making an extraordinary one-handed pick in
front of the Northern bench, and executing a 45-yard
first-quarter run that was part pinball, part arcade
crane game. That set up Tarik Leftenant's 10-yard run,
the Wildcats' first score
"This game just goes back
to the same thing we talk about all the time in
practice," Mechanicsburg head coach Chris Hakel
said. "Each game is made of 50, 60 different
battles, and after each battle is fought, you have to
forget it and go right into the next battle."
What Hakel was implying was
that after his team got up by 15 points, it took just
enough of a mental vacation to give the Bears, who had
been generally ineffective offensively, a bit of hope.
They nearly turned it into a
win. After Patrick Plassio recovered a muffed punt at
the Mechanicsburg 18 with 8:50 to play, the Bears scored
their first touchdown of the night on Joe Tuschak's
fourth-and-goal strike to Robbie Bleiler from the 6 at
the 7:34 mark.
That made the score 23-14 and
gave the Bears a chance to close within eight. But the
PAT kick by Jacob Warner, who booted two first-quarter
field goals of 30 and 37 yards, hit the right upright,
then the crossbar, then the Mechanicsburg end zone.
It was still a two-possession
game, but the Bears got a little help on the next
possession when Mechanicsburg was twice spied holding --
in fact, Mechanicsburg lost back-to-back second-quarter
touchdown plays on penalties and settled for a field
goal -- and eventually had to punt from its own end
zone.
Northern set up at the
Mechanicsburg 22 and cashed in quickly on runs of 7 and
15 yards by fullback Jacob Boone, making it 23-21 with
5:10 to play.
The Bears had burned all of
their timeouts earlier in the half, and Mechanicsburg
punched out its lone first down of the quarter to kill
off four minutes. But it still had to punt from its own
47, saved when the Bears fumbled the ball at the 23 and
the 'Cats recovered.
"I'm thrilled with our
kids' effort," Northern head coach Rick Mauck said.
"We gave up a lot of size, but I didn't think we
were pushed around."
ROD FRISCO: 255-8122 or rfrisco@patriot-news.com
Northern's
streak ends
Battle of
unbeatens goes to Mechanicsburg; Wildcats end Polar
Bears' 31-game regular-season win streak.
By
Sam Butler, Sentinel Reporter, September 20, 2008
Saturday,
September 20, 2008 5:59 PM EDT
DILLSBURG — Poised, motivated,
and with momentum firmly on its side, Northern looked to
do the unthinkable Friday night at Robert F. Bostic
Field. The Polar Bears needed to drive down the field
one last time to secure its 32nd consecutive regular
season win on homecoming. As the punt from
Mechanicsburg’s Ben Anderson descended the Polar Bear
faithful sensed something memorable was about to unfold.
Reflective, contemplative, and knowing it needed just
one more defensive stop, Mechanicsburg looked to improve
to 4-0 on the season and win in honor of former head
coach Rich Lichtel, who passed away one year ago almost
to the day.
So as that punt descended, the special teams waited with
baited anticipation.
Northern’s returner couldn’t hold on to the slick
ball. Neither could the first wave of Wildcat defenders
trying to cover up the lose ball. As the ball bounced
and skidded on the slick field, a Mechanicsburg player
managed to collect the ball at the bottom of a dog pile,
securing a 23-21 win for the Wildcats.
“Did we get out of here with a win, yes we did,”
said Wildcats head coach Chris Hakel. “Starting out
the season with three of your first four games away,
against what I look at as four pretty decent opponents.
We weren’t starting out with slouches. We’re coming
after some big league players. And we lined up each
week.”
Matthew
O'Haren/Special to The Sentinel
Mechanicsburg’s Tarik
Leftenant (right) turns the
corner for a touchdown Friday
night against Northern. With the
23-21 victory, the Wildcats
improve to 4-0 on the season.
In retrospect, you could say the game was decided back
in the first quarter, but as Northern head coach Rick
Mauck pointed out, “Back then there was a whole
football game to be played. You just never would think
that those two field goals would be the difference.”
The field goals Mauck referred to came on the first to
Polar Bear possessions when Jake Warner booted one from
30 yards and another from 37 giving Northern a 6-0
advantage with 6:20 left in the first.
“You want to convert every opportunity you have
(offensively),” said Mauck. “You want to score
points every time you touch the ball. We didn’t get
seven on those first two drives but we did get three
both times.”
Conversely the Mechanicsburg defense did exactly what it
needed to in only surrendering six points to open the
game — give its offense a chance.
“It goes back to the same thing we talk about each day
in practice,” said Hakel. “That each game is made up
of 50 or 60 different battles. Each and every battle
you’ve got to win. You can’t worry about the last
battle and you can’t look to the next battle. You’ve
got to take each one and we kept fighting. You didn’t
know when it first started, but that was big.”
Tarik Leftenant (22 carries for 83 yards) put the
Wildcats on the board thanks to a 10-yard run. A missed
extra point knotted the score at six. A Ben Anderson
24-yard field goal at 8:38 in the second quarter put the
Wildcats ahead 9-6. About three minutes later, Adam
Tuttle (3 catched for 24 yards) caught a 12-yard pass
from Jake Zeigler (9 of 17 for 107 yards and 34 yards on
eight carries) for a 15-6 advantage.
“They kind of exploded,” said Mauck. “We come out
with six points and they responded. That safety really
changed the game. It put us within a touchdown and gave
us some confidence that our defense could stop them when
we needed it.”
The Polar Bears benefited from a bad snap on a punt that
Anderson smartly flipped out of the back of the end
zone.
“We work on our special teams,” said Hakel with a
pause. “I pause because we need to do a much better
job. We had (the fumble recovery) but we had way, way,
way, way too many mistakes on our special teams. And
that’s something we’ve got to get better at. The
punt snap, the fumbled punt. There’s a lot of things
we’ve got to work on.”
The Wildcats scored in the third when Zeigler tossed a
53-yard pass to Anderson (4 catches for 65 yards)that
was good for six, Anderson then booted the extra point
for a 23-8 lead that looked almost insurmountable.
“(Anderson) deserves a lot of credit for our
success,” said Hackle. “There’s a lot of guys that
stepped up (Friday). Ben Anderson, great job. (He went)
both ways, fighting through cramps. He has an engine
that doesn’t stop.”
Maybe it was the homecoming atmosphere, maybe it was the
never say die attitude Northern has, maybe it was the
maturation of the Polar Bears sophomore quarterback.
Maybe it was a combination of all three but Joe Tuschak
turned a questionable performance into a gutsy
confidence building performance. Tuschak took a big hit
on a pass play and looked ready to leave the game. But
he stayed on the field and ended up throwing a six yard
pass to Robbie Bleiler (8 carries for 28 yards and 3
catches for 20 yards) with 7:34 left in the fourth
quarter.
“He probable became a junior (Friday),” said Mauck
of Tushcak’s performance. “This is the biggest
atmosphere he’s been in. He was playing junior high
football last year. He improvised, made plays. This
environment and his experience (Friday) are only going
to make him better.”
Tuschak (11-of-28 for 131 yards) then turned around and
lead a two play drive ending with Jake Boone (5 carries
for 51 yards) scored from 15 yard out with 5:10 left
setting the stage for the last minute excitement.
“I’m thrilled with the no quit and the turn
around,” said Mauck. “We seized the momentum in the
fourth quarter and we just ran out of time. Our kids
just have no quit, they believe in their program and
their school. They’ll just keep on keeping on.”
If football is about trends, the
Mechanicsburg Wildcats are loving theirs.
And the Susquehanna Twp. Indians
are cursing theirs.
Maybe not every little thing is
going right for Mechanicsburg, but enough, including a
blocked extra-point attempt with just 11.7 seconds left in
the game, fell into the Wildcats' category Friday night
for Mechanicsburg to grab a 14-13 triumph and a 3-0 start
to the season.
By the same token, Susquehanna
Twp. watched another game fall away in the final seconds
on an unsuccessful kick after a valiant rally.
A failed last-second field-goal
attempt against Steel-High in the opener sent Susquehanna
Twp. to a 16-14 loss.
"It's so hard," Indians
coach Joe Headen said. "I just feel so bad for our
kids. They fought so hard to win that game, and we just
... didn't."
The game, played under a
waterfall for the most part, was dead even.
Mechanicsburg did a spectacular
job of limiting the usual damage that Susquehanna Twp.
quarterback Ben Dupree wreaks on a weekly basis.
At that, with the game on the
line and his team trailing by seven, Dupree ignited a
heart-pounding 68-yard drive and tossed a 12-yard scoring
pass to Josh Grafton in the back of the end zone with just
under 12 seconds to play.
Headen and his staff considered a
2-point play ("We always think about 2 in that kind
of situation," Headen said), but without a timeout to
set it up, the Indians went for one and overtime.
But a slightly low snap slowed
the kick attempt just enough and the boot flew into the
charging mass of Mechanicsburg rushers.
"Things are going our
way," Mechanicsburg coach Chris Hakel acknowledged.
"With all these kids have gone through the last two
years, getting beat up as sophomores and going through
[former head coach Rich Lichtel's] passing last year, I
couldn't be happier for our kids."
There wasn't much happiness for
Mechanicsburg at the outset. The Wildcats went
three-and-out on their first series and punted to the
Susquehanna Twp. 33, whereupon Gerald Young made a slick
38-yard return to the Wildcats 29.
A 25-yard run by Dre Purdy set up
the opening score, a 5-yard run by Jordan Reid just 2:26
into the game for a 7-0 lead.
But Mechanicsburg knotted up
Susquehanna's offense like a Boy Scout on a field trip
after that.
The Indians (1-2) managed just 77
net yards on their next 35 plays until the final drive.
In the meantime, Mechanicsburg
surged to a 14-7 lead.
It used senior Matt Koveleski's
interception at his own 28 to set up a rapid 72-yard
drive. Quarterback Jake Zeigler rushed for 31, hit Ben
Anderson for 20 more, then came back a play later to find
Anderson for an 8-yard score. That tied the game at 7 with
3:50 left in the opening period.
The key sequence came moments
later. With the Tribe sitting on its own 41 with a
fourth-and-2, Headen gambled and tossed left to Purdy, who
was quickly hawked by Zeigler for a 2-yard loss.
That gave Mechanicsburg a short
field that the 'Cats made longer by committing a pair of
penalties. But big plays by Zeigler -- a 10-yard run on
third-and-7 from the 36 and an 18-yard scoring run -- gave
the Wildcats a 14-7 lead.
"Sure, we got the short
field, but you have to do something with it," Hakel
said. "I wasn't real happy about those
penalties."
"Being 3-0 feels pretty
good," said Anderson, whose two extra-point kicks
provided the winning margin.
"This is the first time our
seniors have been able to beat Susquehanna Twp."
ROD FRISCO: 255-8122 or rfrisco@patriot-news.com
MECHANICSBURG
28, HERSHEY 14
'Cats
set tone early, hammer Hershey
Saturday, September 06, 2008
BY ERIC F. EPLER
For The Patriot-News
Although shifty tailback Tarik
Leftenant would weigh in, Mechanicsburg's latest gridiron
scalp was anything but a one-man show.
In fact, countless times Friday
night at cozy John Frederick Field, it appeared visiting
Hershey and its struggling offense were facing an entire
battalion. A fair fight it was not.
That swarming defense, coupled
with Leftenant's 139 rushing yards and two scores, helped
Mechanicsburg christen its new artificial surface with a
convincing 28-14 Mid-Penn Colonial win.
Quarterback Jake Zeigler's slick
25-yard hookup with favorite target Ben Anderson helped
seal the Trojans' fate in a lopsided opening half.
So did defensive tackles Tyler
Bullock and Cameron Bretz, two key reasons Hershey managed
just 27 total yards of offense -- Mechanicsburg had 194 in
the same stretch -- and fell behind 21-0 at the break.
"They are pretty good. We
had to execute well and step up but that's a good football
team," said Hershey coach Bob "Gump" May.
"They stopped a lot of stuff
early on and controlled the line of scrimmage. They ate us
up."
Free safety Devon Hensel's
interception of Jake Campbell's overthrown pass set the
tone just one minute after kickoff. On the ensuing
possession, Leftenant broke through from 11 yards on
Mechanicsburg's first snap for a 7-0 lead.
The margin swelled to 14-0 early
in the second when Leftenant raced 8 yards on a simple
dive.
The Trojans, who suffered three
turnovers and punted twice on their first five
possessions, never recovered.
"In the first week, we
stepped up pretty good and this week we came out
ready," said Bullock. The 6-4, 265-pound menace
unofficially racked up nine stops, one sack and two
tackles for loss.
"Our linemen are quick.
We're big and strong. I think people underestimate us a
lot of times. But when we're expected to lose a game, that
just gets us fired up even more."
Campbell, under constant
pressure, would manage a single completion in 11
first-half attempts.
"We just played pretty
physical and read what their receivers ran," Hensel
said. "We're just being physical and flying to the
football. It's team tackling."
Even after a bank of lights on
the visitors' side went dark, Mechanicsburg's offense
flourished.
This time, the 'Cats (2-0, 1-0)
embarked on a clock-churning, 14-play drive to start the
second half.
It ended with Zeigler finding
Matt Koveleski from the Hershey 4.
With a four-TD cushion, all that
remained was Mechanicsburg's second shutout bid in as many
weeks.
It ended when Hershey snagged a
safety after linebacker Mike Timmons blocked a
fourth-quarter punt that caromed through the end zone.
Campbell would later find Austin
Warfel on a 22-yard TD completion, on fourth-and-9, before
backup quarterback Dominic Ceminara led Hershey (1-1, 0-1)
on a 10-play scoring drive in the waning minutes.
After rolling up 176 yards in
last week's 28-0 win at Carlisle, Leftenant collected 110
first-half yards on 15 carries. Zeigler completed 10 of 13
passes for 101 yards.
"We didn't surrender. We
kept fighting but they controlled the line of
scrimmage," added May, who lost senior center Bobby
Jeffries to injury midway through the opening half.
"You've got to block to run
an offense. I don't care what you're doing or who you are
doing it with. We've got to be ready for that."
ERIC F. EPLER: 255-8187 or eepler@patriot-news.com
MECHANICSBURG 28, CARLISLE 0
Leftenant takes over
game with 176-yard effort
Saturday, August 30, 2008
BY ERIC F. EPLER
For The Patriot-News
CARLISLE - Quiet and unassuming
off the field, Tarik Leftenant was anything but that
Friday night at Ken Millen Stadium.
Leftenant and his once
"nervous" Mechanicsburg teammates swallowed the
butterflies soon enough as the junior tailback rushed for
176 yards and three touchdowns, hand-delivering the
Wildcats' 28-0 season-opening win.
The mood, owned by the Thundering
Herd early, changed sharply in the second quarter as 'Cats
quarterback Jake Ziegler rambled 61 yards on a keeper with
6:08 left in the half.
Ziegler's blitz down the home
sideline ended a five-play, 97-yard drive, a journey
initiated after Carlisle lost the first of two fumbles at
Mechanicsburg's 3.
"It was one of those deals
where we've got a great drive going and unfortunately we
turn the ball over and they go the distance on us,"
said Carlisle coach Brett Ickes, whose club surrendered
307 rushing yards. Leftenant bounced for 112 ground yards
and two TDs in the second half.
"That was the tale of the
tape right there. After that we just never rebounded. We
got nothing back. No momentum, no enthusiasm, nothing. We
went flat."
Leftenant and his workhorse
offensive line did not.
Mechanicsburg tackles Travis
Polillo and Tyler Bullock, guards Will Taylor and Dan
Farinelli, center Ryan Mentzer and tight end Mike Poplaski
all earned a plug from their top runner.
"The line did great today.
They made the blocks and I just followed them into the
hole," said Leftenant, who pushed Mechanicsburg ahead
13-0 with a 2-yard dive just 25 seconds before
intermission.
"In the first half we were a
little nervous, then we just figured out that we could
take advantage of their line. We kind of knew what we were
able to do. It makes me want to go out and do
better."
"That fumble was the big
turning point in that game," Mechanicsburg coach
Chris Hakel said.
"Coach [Jeff] Costello does
a great job with the defense. He preaches that when a team
gets into the red zone you need to get a different
mentality. You never give up. We got the turnover and
learned a lot about our team right there."
Despite a hard 87 rushing yards
by Travis Mease, Carlisle managed just seven first downs.
The Herd completed a single pass and fired a pair of
interceptions.
Ziegler lassoed one at
Mechanicsburg's 14, ruining Carlisle's nine-play drive to
start the second half.
And, after Leftenant rambled 48
yards to extend Mechanicsburg's advantage to 20-0, Russ
Allen returned Rob Davis' errant pass to Carlisle's 25.
Four plays later, Leftenant broke through from the 9.
Ziegler, who added eight stops,
finished with 123 yards.
"I'm extremely pleased but
I'm one of those people that I'm always going to find
something that we can get better at," Hakel said.
"We missed on a fourth-and-short early and the kids
responded. They didn't hang their heads."
ERIC F. EPLER: 255-8187 or eepler@patriot-news.com
Mechanicsburg
Wildcats
Sunday, August 24, 2008
PowerRating: 39
LAST YEAR: 3-7 overall, 1-6 in
the Keystone Division.
RETURNING STARTERS: 8 on offense,
8 on defense.
NOTEWORTHY: In seven of its 10
games last season, Mechanicsburg scored 14 or fewer
points. It lost four games by a touchdown or less.
ANDREW P. SHAY SAYS: There are
some skill players with the tools required for success.
What this team went through losing its coach last season
was a life lesson. Now it has to realize its talent and
learn to win games. There are certainly enough tools in
place.
QUARTERBACKS: Good thing
Jake Zeigler (5-10, 165 sr) is mobile, because time to
throw was limited last season. He passed for 1,030 yards
last season with eight TDs and seven picks. One more step
forward is needed, though.
Rating:5
RUNNING BACKS: Two main
engine drivers are back with RB Tarik Leftenant (5-6, 175
jr) and FB Erik Lewis (6-0, 210 sr) on solid ground.
Leftenant came on strong a year ago, but could use some
more room to roam. Experience will help.
Rating:5
RECEIVERS: Never short on
pass catchers, the 'Cats have three WRs and their TE still
in the fold. Ben Anderson (5-9, 165 sr) led this group
with 26 grabs. Matt Koveleski (6-0, 170 sr) and Adam
Tuttle (5-9, 180 sr) know the drill. Mike Poplaski (6-4,
240 sr) is the TE.
