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Montoursville falls to Danville at home 42-0

By JIMMY DEROGATIS 6 min read

Danville kicked off Week 7 of the football season with a dominating 42-0 win over Montoursville. A packed house filled the stands for the homecoming game in Montoursville with high energy and celebrations happening on the field during the pre-game festivities.

As the game progressed however, the Warriors gave the homecoming crowd little to cheer about as the Ironmen dominated in all three phases of the game from the very beginning on the offense, defense, and special teams sides of the ball.

"The kids fought hard, that team has a lot of kids that are athletes, and we were a little short handed without Marco, so I really thought the kids did a pretty good job, we had a couple breakdowns defensively but when you're playing a team with that kind of speed and talent you’re definitely going to have that from time to time," said Montoursville coach Joe Hanna.

Danville, like Jersey Shore, has been a powerhouse as both teams have been highly ranked. To make matters even more daunting for the Warriors was their top receiver, defensive back and punter Marco Pulizzi is out with a lower body injury sustained on a botched extra point last week and will miss the remainder of the season healing a badly injured knee.

Pulizzi is Montoursville do-it-all man, who is the reliable source for starting quarterback Bryce Eberhart. Pulizzi, an exceptional athlete who is also on the baseball and track teams at Montoursville, will leave a void in all phases of the game for the Warriors. Not only is Pulizzi out but they are also down their number two slot-receiver and defensive prowess, starter Ben Conrad who will miss some time as well with an arm injury was seen in street clothes.

"Anytime you're going up against a team with that kind of speed they’re going to get their big plays and they’re only getting better,” Hanna said. “So we had some guys replaced in the secondary with some injuries so we're just looking forward to getting better there and getting back to work.”

The game kicked off with an impressive opening drive for Danville scoring an easy pitch and catch from quarterback Zach Gordan to receiver Mason Raup to go up by a touchdown early in the first quarter with 11 minutes to go. Montoursville would go three-and-out on their opening drive and then a low snap to Eberhart on the punt attempt gave the ball over to the Ironmen with fairly good field position. On Danville’s ensuing drive Gordon threw up a dime to Aaron Johnson for a 31-yard touchdown with six minutes to go in the first quarter to go up by two scores.

"We just have to clean up our mistakes this week in practice. It’s more about us at this point than anyone that we are facing, so there are some little things that we need to clean up with guys in new positions,” Hanna said. “So we’re just looking to have a good week of practice.”

In Montoursville’s next few possessions, Eberhart was a little erect to start the game but settled down nicely and was able to find some open receivers in the Danville defense.

At the five-minute mark of the first quarter Montoursville punt was blocked by Danville and was then touched by an Ironmen down field which was then stripped away and recovered on a great play by the Warriors’ Nicco Desanto.

This gave the Warriors some life on the sidelines as well as in the crowd. Raup of Danville who scored the first gets great pressure and does a very good job a containment coming from the outside linebacker position who blew up the fullback and kept the runner from busting it outside without defensive help as he made the runner cut inside and then dove for the back of his legs for the takedown for a loss.

The Danville defense then shut down the Warriors offense yet again as Montoursville was forced to punt it away to the Ironmen.

Christain Banks of Montoursville received a tipped-ball interception on the play that bounced very hard off the fingertips of Carson Persing on a blazing fastball thrown by Eberhart that was too hot to handle be Persing and landed right into the waiting hands of Banks to end the first quarter.

Gordon threw for over 100 yards, completing 7 of 11 passes and added an 80-yard touchdown run. Ty Brown-Stauffer had 14 carries for 75 yards while teammate Persing finished with three touchdowns for just under 200 yards including a 90-yard untouched kick-return for a score. Conklin would finish his impressive night for the Warriors with 21 carries for 112 total yards.

On the first drive of the second quarter Mathew Conklin of Montoursville moved the chain with a gutsy downhill run that trucked over the middle linebacker of Danville, while keeping his feet moving for another five or six yards gaining about 12 yards on the play. After the play Persing lined up for a punt return and took it all the way for a 90-yard return for a touchdown, juking out Warrior defenders on his way to the house for a 21-0 lead over Montoursville.

Once the Warriors got the ball back quarterback Eberhart was thrown down hard to the ground as he tried to throw the ball away and landed on his throwing shoulder with a defender coming down on top.

Lefty backup quarterback Jimmy Mussina would take over now for the offense and came in firing darts to each tight end to move the chains, and added a spark to the flat offense of the Warriors. Montoursville went for it on fourth down, but couldn’t pick up the first.

"We're working with a lot of younger guys, there’s a kind of trial by fire going on right now so that’s how that will work and we'll see who does a good job for us,” Hanna said. “Jimmy (Mussina) I think did a nice job when he gets in there. He's learning and did a nice job at the JV level so were going to try and get him some snaps and get his feet wet.”

That’s when Gordon then threw an 8-yard pass completed to Persing to go up 35-0 over the Warriors with under a minute left in the second. Early in the third quarter Eberhart would come back out to play quarterback for Montoursville but the relentless rushing attack of the Ironmen was too much for the Warrior defense this game.

On the ensuing defense, Evan Bloom made a great goalline stand to keep the Ironmen out of the endzone and forced a Danville field goal. Bloom showed great speed off the ball and flew into the backfield unblocked for an impressive stop to keep them out of the endzone. The Ironmen then kicked a field goal and added a five-yard rushing score soon after on their next possession early in the third quarter to go up 42-0.

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