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Lyco tops Alvernia in 1st shutout since 2014

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Lycoming's Brock Zollicoffer fights his way past Alvernia’s Jordan Bowie during Saturday’s game at Lycoming.

Joe Pinzka was bored at his safety position for much of Saturday afternoon. Every time the Lycoming senior came toward the line of scrimmage to make a play in the run game, a linebacker or defensive lineman got their first.

Alvernia’s offense struggled to throw the ball down field, so there weren’t many opportunities for Pinzka in the pass game either. So he made his own opportunity.

With the Golden Wolves nestled in the shadow of its own end zone, Pinzka stalked the line of scrimmage, playing closer to the line than normal. It allowed him to beat Alvernia tight end Russell Hoes to the football on a pass to the flat. He sashayed into, and through, the end zone, pointing to a handful of Lycoming alumni standing along the fence on homecoming day at David Person Field.

It was an emphatic exclamation point on the most dominant Lycoming defensive performance in years as the Warriors pitched their first shutout since 2014 in a 52-0 win over Alvernia.

It may have taken seven games, but Lycoming put together its most complete effort of the season to dismantle the first-year program of Alvernia. The Warriors totaled 517 yards of offense, including career highs of 288 yards passing and four touchdowns for quarterback Elijah Shemory. The defense allowed its fewest number of yards since 2014. And the margin of victory was the largest of the Mike Clark era (since 2008).

“It clicked. (Saturday) was the day we’ve been waiting for since Week 1,” Pinzka said. “We’ve had moments of awesome defense and awesome offense (Saturday) we just put it together from start to finish. It was awesome to see it happen.”

It was the first shutout for Steve Wiser’s defense since blanking Albright, 26-0, on Sept. 13, 2014. It was the first 50-point game for the Warriors since beating FDU-Florham, 55-12, on Nov. 9, 2013.

The 517 yards of offense were the most since posting 552 yard against Misericordia on Nov. 14, 2015. And Nick Costello became just the sixth receiver in school history to reach 2,000 career yards with his 113 yards.

The offense scored on its first possession of a game for the first time since Week 5 of last year against Wilkes, but it never took its foot off the gas from there. In fact Lycoming scored on its first four possessions and led 24-0 just 15 minutes, 52 seconds into the game.

“I don’t think we’ve had a game where we played a complete game on offense,” Shemory said. “Being able to go out there and show we can do that is nice.”

The Warriors didn’t need 52 points to win yesterday, but it scored them anyway. One touchdown would have been more than enough to support a Lycoming defense which played like it knew Alvernia’s offense just as well as the Golden Wolves.

But Shemory found success getting the ball deep to both Costello and Brock Zollicoffer (101 yards, 2 touchdowns). Their four combined touchdown catches averaged better than 40 yards. That number was brought down by a 24-yard touchdown catch-and-run by Zollicoffer when Clark decided to go for it on fourth down while in field goal range in the first quarter.

“From an offensive standpoint, I wanted to be as aggressive as I could be,” Clark said. “We’ve kicked enough field goals. I felt good about our defense. So on that throw to Brock, I was in four-down mode. It was a good way to start the game.”

Clark’s aggressiveness stems from a late-game call in last week’s loss to nationally-ranked Delaware Valley where he chose to punt with under two minutes to go and trailing by seven points. He was hoping to get a defensive stop to set up one final scoring chance after that punt. Instead, Delaware Valley picked up a first down and ran out the clock on the win.

So an opening touchdown drive which saw Shemory sneak in from 1-yard out wasn’t good enough. Neither was the 24-yard scoring pass to Zollicoffer, nor the deep ball down the sideline to Costello for a 39-yard score.

Even leading 24-0, Clark dug into his bag of trick plays for a second consecutive week and dialed up a flea flicker which left Zollicoffer wide open down the middle of the field for a 44-yard touchdown pass. And just for good measure, Shemory threw his fourth touchdown, a 54-yard post to Costello, to put the Warriors up 38-0 early in the third quarter.

“It’s fun because the defense isn’t ready for it,” Shemory said. “You can get mismatches or you can get Brock down the field open. We’re going to take advantage of that stuff.”

“That’s probably part of wanting to be more aggressive,” Clark said. “We’re going to do our best to be a bigger play offense. We’ve always run just a limited number of trick plays, but I think it is fun for the kids, especially when they’re effective. The last two weeks we’ve called two trick plays and it leaves people to say we have to deal with these things. So we’re going to continue to be creative.”

There was very little creativity necessary for Lycoming’s defense. The Golden Wolves’ run-based offense played right into the strength of the Warriors’ defense. Even without starting defensive lineman Willie Garner or safety Jeff Coplin, who were both sidelined with injuries, Lycoming helped produce a mass of human beings at the line of scrimmage as Alvernia tried to run the ball.

The Golden Wolves were held to 89 rushing yards on 46 carries, which was nearly 40 yards fewer than their per-game average this season. Lycoming linebacker Dom Loffredo posted a team-high nine tackles. It was his most since recording 15 in a four-overtime loss to Widener on Oct. 1, 2016.

Loffredo took off the 2017 season to deal with injuries which had previously hampered him. This season he’s been dealing with the adjustment to playing strong-side linebacker instead of in the middle. But his nine tackles yesterday were a season high and was a big part of the Warriors controlling the running game.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to be in there and having a more physical aspect to the game and go flying around,” Loffredo said. “We prepared for it all week knowing where they were going to be on the inside runs and trying to contain them. It was great to be part of that and help the defense execute.”

“I’m coming down to make a tackle and all of a sudden Dom was coming in out of nowhere to make a play,” Pinzka said. “It’s awesome to see a kid who has battled injuries his whole career and he still comes in and gives it his all. He had, in my opinion, the best week of practice on the defensive side of the ball, and it showed directly on the field.”

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