Montrose succumbs to Old Forge offense

BY CONOR FOLEY, Times-Shamrock Writer

MONTROSE – Montrose Area succumbed to a tenacious Old Forge offense on Friday night as the Blue Devils came out to score 27 points in the first quarter in a 45-6 drubbing of the Meteors.

After the Blue Devils put up 38 points in the first half Montrose (0-6) settled down on both sides of the ball in the second half, holding Old Forge scoreless in the third quarter before putting together its lone scoring drive.

Sophomore running back Trevor Tompkins led the 10-play drive with 37 yards on the ground, and capped it off with a four-yard score.

“We believe we’re a better team than 0-6. We believe we should be more competitive,” Montrose head coach Russell Canevari said. “Our kids have to get some confidence in themselves. If that happens, I think we’ll start playing a lot better.”

After last week’s loss toRiverside, Old Forge running back Louis Febbo said his team wanted to get off to a quick start Friday against Montrose.

Four of Old Forge’s first five plays from scrimmage went for 10 yards or more, with Febbo leading the way. The senior running back broke off a 12-yard run on his team’s first possession of the game, which set up a 19-yard touchdown by Brian Tomasetti. On Old Forge’s second drive, Febbo outran the Montrose defense for a 21-yard score.

While its offense was putting up points, Old Forge’s defense was preventing Montrose from doing the same. After Montrose converted its first first down of the game, Old Forge’s Warren Welsh picked off a pass and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown and a 27-0 lead.

“It was good to get back on a field after last week, that’s all there is to it,” Old Forge head coach Mike Schuback said. “Our kids wanted to play (last) Saturday if they could have. The kids had a great week of practice. We knew we couldn’t let Montrose hang around and we wanted to come out and establish ourselves early.”

Old Forge   27  11   0    7 – 45

Montrose     0    0    0    6 –   6

Team Statistics

                             OF      MON

First Downs          14           4

Rushing-Yards  38-245    28-57

Comp-Att-Int      3-8-0     3-9-2

Passing Yards       35          27

Total Yards          280         84

Punts-Average    0-0.0    6-14.0

Fumbles-Lost       2-1         0-0

Penalties-Yards   5-48       2-10

Individual Statistics

Rushing: MON – T. Tompkins 9-48, 1 TD; N. Clark 9-16; W. Ely 3-10; D. Zapolski 1-3; D. Harder 1-(-4); J. Dibble 5-(-16).

Passing: MON – J. Dibble 3-5-1, 27; D. Heeman 0-4-1, 0.

Receiving: MON – W. Ely 1-2.