Miners shut out Shenandoah Valley
Minersville QB Dante Carr rolls out during Friday's win over Shenandoah Valley (Photo by Kelly Wiley)
SHENANDOAH — Minersville is not only unbeaten in its first two games of the season, it’s also unscored upon.
Head coach Justin Frantz would like to keep it that way going forward after his team’s 44-0 victory over Shenandoah Valley on Friday in a Schuylkill/Colonial Blue Division game.
“We challenged the defense this year, and they kind have taken over,” said Frantz, whose team has outscored its opponents 83-0 so far. “This is pretty neat, and I’m not sure of the last time we did this. They bought into what our defensive coaches are preaching. But we wanted to work on things on our offense today as well.”
Minersville’s passing attack, led by quarterback Dante Carr, was effective from the start. The team jumped out to a 15-0 lead on touchdown passes by Carr of 11 yards to Logan Hutsko and 56 yards to Paiten LaPoint in the first quarter. Carr completed 5-of-10 passes for 114 yards.
The Miners defense came up big later in the first quarter as Kaseem Lofton intercepted a pass and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown and a 22-0 lead.
Minersville’s running game was on display in the second quarter as the team closed out the first half with three more touchdowns to account for the final score.
Carr rushed for all three touchdowns on runs of 43, 13 and 26 yards as the Miners put the mercy rule into effect going into the second half. Easton Schultz also rushed for 111 yards on 14 carries.
“Passing is where we think we’re the strongest, but we want to have that running game,” Frantz said. “He (Carr) was all over the place today. I think he was calling some of the wrong plays just so he could keep the ball and run. I was really happy with our running backs and our offensive line making holes for them.”
Meanwhile, the Blue Devils were limited to just 50 yards of offense in their second straight loss to start the season. Head coach Dave Bench was not happy with his defense’s missed tackles.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,” Bench said. “We have to regroup. We had a lot of missed tackles like last week. People had their heads down and taking themselves out of the play. We just have to keep getting better each week.”
Game Summary
Minersville 44, Shenandoah Valley 0
Min (2-0, 1-0 Blue) — 22 22 0 0 — 44
SV (0-2, 0-1 Blue) — 0 0 0 0 — 0
Min — Hutsko 11 pass from Carr (Kavanaugh run)
Min — LaPoint 56 pass from Carr (Bowers kick)
Min — Lofton 60 interception return (Bowers kick)
Min — Carr 43 run (Bowers kick)
Min — Carr 13 run (Carr run)
Min — Carr 26 run (Bowers kick)
Team Statistics
Min SV
First downs —- 21…3
Rushes-Yards —- 36-310…. 18-21
Passing —– 5-10-0. .4-15-2
Passing Yards —-114…. 29
Total Yards —-424…. 50
Fumbles-Lost —- 0-0…. 0-0
Penalties —- 2-25…4-40
