HS Football: Minersville rolls past Shenandoah Valley
A host of Miners, including Dominico Yourey (50) and Jude Plesnarski (55), sack Shenandoah Valley quarterback Ethan Bench on Friday night. (Photo by Kelly Wiley)
MINERSVILLE — Paiten LaPoint scored four touchdowns three different ways and Minersville’s defense registered six sacks as the Battlin’ Miners cruised to a 49-6 victory over Shenandoah Valley on Friday night in a Schuylkill-Colonial Blue Division game at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
On Military Appreciation Night, Minersville donned camouflage jerseys with black numbers, and several fans in the stands wore special shirts honoring the men and who serve their country.
The home opener also marked the 90th season for Minersville at its current stadium nestled between the elementary center (former high school) and Del Hauck Field (the baseball diamond). Minersville’s first game at Veterans Memorial Stadium was played Sept. 20, 1935, in a 21-6 victory over Saint Clair. Minersville also played its first night football game at home that night, becoming the third stadium in the county to have lights. Tamaqua and Shenandoah were the others. Pottsville played its first game under the lights that night against Pine Grove.
The game itself was all Minersville (2-0, 1-0 Blue).
It took all of 52 seconds for the Miners to march 51 yards for the first touchdown of the game. Quarterback Dante Carr completed three straight passes to go the distance — a 24-yard hitch pass to LaPoint, a 19-yarder to Justin Cutler and an 8-yard TD toss to LaPoint. Carr added the conversion run for an 8-0 lead at the 11:08 mark of the first quarter.
Minersville poured it on from there.
Later in the first quarter, Carr found Ty Atkinson in the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown pass and a 15-0 lead after the first quarter.
The Miners added four more TDs in the second quarter to build a 43-0 halftime lead.
LaPoint snagged a 23-yard touchdown pass from Carr, then weaved and raced 35 yards to return a punt for a score. Gavin Allan blasted into the end zone on a 5-yard run, and Ethan Borrell plowed for a 2-yard TD run.
Carr finished 7-of-9 passing for 113 yards and three scores. Shenandoah Valley’s Gene Sinkus intercepted Carr for the Blue Devils’ only defensive stop of the first half.
The other story was Minersville’s defense, which held the Blue Devils (0-2, 0-1) to minus-13 yards of total offense in the first half. Minersville’s defensive line won the battle up front to constantly pressure Shenandoah Valley quarterback Ethan Bench. Shenandoah Valley finished the game with 65 total yards.
Most of them came on the first play of the third quarter when the Devils’ Mike Elchisak swept left, found a crease and raced 80 yards for a touchdown.
Minersville answered immediately when LaPoint returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown. For the game, LaPoint finished with 227 all-purpose yards (55 on three receptions, 94 on three punt returns and the kickoff return).
“Very happy. We challenged these guys this week,” Minersville coach Justin Frantz said. “We weren’t real happy with how we played last week (against Halifax). We thought we were sluggish and did a lot of things we had to clean up. So we did a lot of really good things tonight and some things to clean up. I thought to start the second half we came out a little flat, kind of took it for granted, and they broke off that really nice run. But then we got our heads back into it.
“Much better effort. The energy was there,” Frantz added. “We had some big-time plays tonight by our playmakers. So that’s what we wanted. The biggest thing was we wanted to be physical tonight, and I thought we were physical, a lot more than last week.”
