BY STEVE BENNETT, Times-Shamrock Writer
Montrose's Dale Harder (24) breaks up a pass intended for Nanticoke's Zak Matulewski. TIMES-SHAMROCK PHOTO/FRANK C. LAURI
The running game is always going to be the staple of the Nanticoke Area offense. But for the Trojans to make that even more effective they are going to have to throw the ball, just to keep defenses honest.
The Trojans only put the ball in the air seven times Friday night in a season- opening 48-14 victory over Montrose, but it was just enough to allow the rushing attack to do what head coach Ron Bruza wanted it to do.
“We wanted to show we can throw the ball and spread the wealth with all the athletes we have on this team,” Bruza said. “The strength of the offense will always be the running game. We have to be able to throw the ball and have the threat of throwing the ball to open up the running game.”
Quarterback Josh Decker completed 4 of 7 passes for 89 yards and one touchdown. By the time Decker completed that TD pass, a 10-yarder to Zak Matulewski, the Trojans had the game in hand. The pass to Matulewski made it 35-0 and allowed the mercy rule to kick in when the second half began.
“When ever you can get up on somebody it is a great feeling,” Bruza said. “The kids kept plugging away. Just because they were up they didn’t stop playing. We didn’t get complacent.”
A pair of Montrose turnovers in the first quarter led to quick Nanticoke Area scores. Matulewski recovered a fumble at the Montrose 49 and six plays later, Brian Maslowski scored the first of his four rushing touchdowns. A Matulewski interception led to another Maslowski score two minutes later.
Maslowski finished the night with 159 yards rushing while backfield mate Tom Vitale added 91 more to a ground game that finished with 280 total yards rushing. More importantly for the Trojans, they only but the ball on the ground one time and were able to recover it.
Montrose stuggled to put any sort of consistency together. The Trojans held the Meteors to 105 yards rushing with the majority of them coming in the second half.
The Meteors did get two late scores, a Jeremy Dibble 1-yard run and a Zack Loomis 13-yard TD reception from backup quarterback Dylan Heeman.
Montrose 0 0 6 8 – 14
Nanticoke 14 21 7 6 – 48
Team Statistics
MON NAN
First Downs 12 23
Rushing-Yards 36-105 46-280
Comp-Att-Int 4-7-1 4-7-0
Passing Yards 65 89
Total Yards 170 369
Fumbles-Lost 6-1 1-0
Penalties-Yards 9-75 8-61
Individual Statistics
Rushing: MON – Ely 5-0; Dibble 7-(-19), TD; Clark 3-13; Lawson 7-39; Tompkins 6-31; Castrogiovanni 7-29; Nickerson 1-12.
Passing: MON – Dibble 3-6-1, 52; Heeman 1-1-0, 13, TD.
Receiving: MON – Lawson 2-21, Ortiz 1-31; Loomis 1-13, TD.
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