Minersville Ruins An Undefeated Season For Marian Catholic

There was a big difference in the Minersville defense in the second half of this game compared to the first half. Even though Dante Carr of the Battlin’ Miners threw two early interceptions, that didn’t seem to bother them as they defeated Marian Catholic on their homecoming and alumni night 38-7 on Saturday night at Men of Marian Stadium.

On the opening drive for Minersville, UCF commit Dante Carr threw an interception to Rory Dixon less than three minutes into the game. However, the Colts do not score on that possession. With the clock showing 58.4 seconds left in the first quarter, the Miners’ defense made a fourth and inches stop as Marian was driving down the field. On the drive after that stop, Carr threw his second interception of the night to Dixon again. Ten seconds later, Tyler Price ran 35 yards for a Marian Catholic touchdown to make the score 7-0. The Battlin’ Miners took an 8-7 lead when Carr found Matthew Dube for a 36-yard passing touchdown. Jordan Bowers passed the ball to Derek Derenzo for a two-point conversion with 7:27 left in the first half. Dixon threw an interception to Gavin Allan with around five minutes left in the second quarter. Carr ran 55 yards for a Minersville touchdown to make the score 15-7 with less than ten seconds remaining before halftime.

In the second half, the Miners’ defense really took over the game. Carr got another 55-yard touchdown, this time in the air as he found Paiten LaPoint to make the score 22-7 less than three minutes into the third quarter. With 8:24 on the clock, a failed backwards pass by the Colts rolled out of bounds in the end zone to increase the Miners lead to 24-7. On that drive, Carr found Derenzo for a five-yard touchdown to increase Minersville’s lead 31-7. To close the game out with 2:14 left in the fourth quarter, Allan ran three  yards into the end zone for a Battlin’ Miner touchdown to make the final score 38-7.

There were two Minersville records broken tonight. LaPoint now has the career receiving touchdown record with 21. That record was held by Logan Hutsko (2021-2024). Bowers clinched the career kick points record with 74 points. He broke the record previously held by Mike Willinsky (1996-1998).

Overall, Minersville improved to 4-2 after tonight’s victory. They host Pine Grove Area (1-5) on homecoming night on Friday. Marian Catholic falls to 5-1 and will travel to Schuylkill Haven (6-0) Friday night.