Lancaster Catholic shuts out Mount Carmel

Written by: EasternPAFootball.com Staff on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011. Follow EasternPAFootball.com Staff on Twitter.

BY JEFF REINHART
LLLeagueSports.com
SHAMOKIN – It took Lancaster Catholic’s football team 14 games to post a shutout this season.

And the Crusaders picked a perfect time to do it.

Charles Sweigert had a 78-yard touchdown catch to break the ice, Brandon Hollister had a 39-yard touchdown run, and linebacker Charles Bell picked off a pass and returned it 35 yards for a back-breaking touchdown in Lancaster Catholic’s 21-0 win over District 4 champ Mount Carmel on Saturday afternoon in a PIAA “AA” state quarterfinal game before an overflow crowd in Kemp Memorial Stadium.

Lancaster Catholic, the District 3 champ, improved to 14-0 and advanced to the “AA” state semifinals next weekend opposite familiar face Philadelphia West Catholic, which topped Pen-Argyl 32-7 in another quarterfinal game on Saturday.

West Catholic knocked out Lancaster Catholic in the 2008 state semifinals.

Lancaster Catholic returned the favor in the 2009 state semifinals.

The rubber match will send the winner back to the state championship game; West Catholic was the runner-up in 2008 and Lancaster Catholic won it all in 2009.

Lancaster Catholic bumps up to “AAA” starting in 2012.

Saturday, Lancaster Catholic’s defense came up big against Mount Carmel, which featured a pair of 1,000-yard backs in Meyrick Lamb and Cody Shustack.

The Crusaders’ D held that pair in check, as the Red Tornadoes were held to just 56 rushing yards and 187 total yards.

“They played great defense,” Mount Carmel coach Carmen DeFrancesco said. “And they also executed better on offense than we did. And that was the game. We had some opportunities and didn’t execute. They had some opportunities and executed.”

Locked in a scoreless slugfest, Lancaster Catholic finally struck first with 2:51 to go in the first half when senior QB Andrew Dzurik hit Sweigert for a 78-yard TD pass. Sweigert made a leaping catch near midfield, got his balance and zoomed the rest of the way to the end zone untouched.

It was 7-0 at the half, and Mount Carmel punted the ball away six times in the first two quarters.
The Red Tornadoes also played nearly two quarters without Eric Joraskie, Mount Carmel’s menacing 6-4, 265-pound junior defensive tackle, who was a handful in the first half before he limped off with an injury.

He returned for a few plays in the fourth quarter, but clearly wasn’t 100 percent.

Lancaster Catholic put the game away with a quick burst late in the third quarter.

After forcing Mount Carmel to turn the ball over on downs on fourth and four, Dzurik (7-of-14 for 180 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) hit Sweigert (4 catches for 157 yards) for 35 yards to get the Crusaders out of jail.
On the next play, Hollister darted left, found a hole and jetted 39 yards for a touchdown and it was 14-0 with 2:04 left in the third quarter.

Up to that point, Mount Carmel (12-2) had held Lancaster Catholic’s vaunted rushing attack relatively in check. Hollister was held to 53 yards and leading rusher Roman Clay had just 20 yards.

Hollister and Clay both had 1,300-plus yards coming into the game.

“Offensively we didn’t really didn’t play that well,” Lancaster Catholic coach Bruce Harbach said. “But we made enough big plays to win.”

Lancaster Catholic’s defense came up with another big play just seconds after Hollister’s touchdown jaunt.
On Mount Carmel’s first play of the ensuing drive, Zach Wasilewski was picked off by Bell, who was back-pedaling into coverage from his linebacker spot. Bell sprinted 35 yards to the house and the Crusaders had a pair of touchdowns in 10 seconds – and a commanding 21-0 lead.

“The interception turned the game around,” DeFrancesco acknowledged.

Lancaster Catholic would pick off Wasilewski two more times: Sean Titus intercepted a tipped ball with 5:05 to play and Sweigert went up in traffic to pluck a pick with 49 seconds to play to ice it.

“We knew we were going to be in for a battle,” Harbach said. “I thought the team that scored first would have the advantage, and we were able to get that advantage. This was a game of momentum changes and field position.”

And Lancaster Catholic won those battles.

“I’m proud of our kids,” DeFrancesco said. “We just ran into a great team.”

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2 Responses to “Lancaster Catholic shuts out Mount Carmel”

1. Jerry says:
   December 4th, 2011 at 1:53 pm

   Great season for of the boys! Very classy teams

2. Bobby d says:
   December 3rd, 2011 at 9:41 pm

   I find one fact odd, Lancaster scored all their points when Joraskie was off the field and didn’t score any points when he was on the field? Strange huh? Oh well, good luck next week.