Blue Devils shower Meteors

It didn’t take long for the Old Forge football team to take control of Friday night’s matchup with Montrose.

One minute to be exact.

Shane Schuback recovered a fumble on the Meteors second play from scrimmage, and on the next play quarterback Brenden Wahl scampered 18 yards for a touchdown to ignite a 21-point outburst during the first 5:16 as the Blue Devils made easy work of Montrose in a 49-7 win at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Senior Parents Night.

After the first of Matt Mancuso’s seven extra-points put Old Forge ahead, 7-0, with 11 minutes left in the first quarter, the Big Blue Wrecking Crew continued its domination this season holding Montrose to four yards on its next possession.

Brian “Bubba” Tomasetti then went to work, rushing for 24 yards on his first three carries. But after a holding penalty and a loss on a completion from Wahl to Jake Manetti, Old Forge hit pay dirt again when Wahl hit Mike Vieira for a 42-yard touchdown strike with 7:24 in the first period showing on the Big Board.

Warren Welsh and Brandon Yescavage then caused a fumble on the ensuing kickoff which the Blue Devils recovered, and two plays and 40 seconds later Tomasetti went 10 yards into the end zone for a 21-0 lead.

Old Forge, winners of 11 straight regular-season games, again stopped the Meteors, this time after the visitors from the Northern Tier returned the ensuing kickoff 48 yards to the Montrose 46.

But again, Schuback and Jorden Sekol led the defense in holding Montrose to just four yards on four downs, and the undefeated Blue Devils went on the attack again.

Tomasetti carried four yards before an incompletion and a Wahl to Schuback connection for eight yards. Then on first-and-10 from the 38, Tomasetti continued his break-neck season with a 38-yard run to the end zone for a 28-0 lead with 3:28 left in the opening stanza.

On Old Forge’s next possession, Tomasetti carried three times for 33 yards and Wahl hit Schuback for a 22-yard strike to set up a 1-yard sneak by the Blue Devils senior signal-caller to push the lead to 35-0 to start the second quarter.

Schuback then got into the act defensively, stepping in front of a pass for an interception before returning the pick 40 yards for a touchdown to put Old Forge ahead 42-0 with 7:37 remaining before halftime.

Another defensive stand almost saw the Blue Devils score their first special-teams touchdown of the season, but Anthony Piccolini’s 50-yard punt return for a score was nullified by a holding penalty to hold Old Forge to a six-touchdown lead at the half.

The Blue Devils opened the third quarter by handing the ball to Tomasetti until the senior went over the 1,000-yard mark on his 18th carry of the night - an 8-yard gain - to give Old Forge a first down. 

From there, Yescavage carried once for 17 yards and Bobby Rinaldi rushed twice for 15 yards before Coach Mike Schuback fed the pigskin to senior Tyler Salerno five straight times for 10 yards before the first-year running back found paradise with a 2-yard run to paydirt to put the Blue Devils a 49-0 lead.

The Meteors finally got on the board after a 12-play, 40-yard drive against the reserves for the final, 49-7.

Tomasetti finished with 175 yards and two touchdowns to push his season totals on the ground to 1,009 yards and 18 TDs.

Wahl ended 5-for-8 for 95 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

B&G Blog Player of the Game: Brenden Wahl. Stop the online presses!!!! Two weeks in a row and the POG is not Bubba??? Well as I am sure Bubba would acknowledge, its time to start spreading some of the credit around. And where no better a place to start then the quarterback. Wahl rushed for two touchdowns, including, an 18-yard scamper on the Blue Devils first play from scrimmage, an threw for another as he eclipsed 800 yards passing for the season with 95 yards on 5-for-8 passing.

(Editor’s Note: The B&G Blog wishes to acknowledge to Bubba, that this is all truly done in satire, and that he truly could have been named the offensive player of the week the past two weeks. But if you are indeed offended Bubs, then USE THIS FOR MOTIVATION!!!)

B&G Blog Defensive Player of the Game: Shane Schuback. With under eight minutes left in the second quarter, Schuback dropped into his curl zone from his linebacker position on a pass play on third-and-8. The junior then was hit right in the breadbasket with the pass from the Montrose quarterback, and returned the pigskin 40 yards to the endzone for a touchdown - the Blue Devils fifth score from the defensive side of the ball on the season. 

(Editor’s Note: I must say, Shane looked much better running down the sidelines to the endzone than his father did 23 years ago in Pottsville during the Eastern Conference Title victory in 1989.)

B&G Blog Play of the Game: It was the second play from scrimmage when a host of Blue Devils tackled the ball literally, and ripped it from the Montrose ball carrier for Shane Schuback to recover and give the explosive offense the ball jut one minute into the contest. Wahl scored on the next play as Old Forge released the hounds from that point on.

B&G Blog Coaching Move of the Game: Two moves stand out in Friday night’s blowout win, and none had to do with X and Os. First, leading 42-0 with 5:51 to go in the  first half, Coach Mike Schuback called a pass play. The reason, Schuback wanted to get senior backup tight end Phil Vahey - who has battled a knee injury all season - a reception on Senior Night. Vahey hauled in a quick out and took off for a 14-yard gain. Then to finish off the first drive of the second half, Schuback called first-year senior running back Tyler Salerno’s number five straight times to allow the player known as T-Sal to experience the warmth of scoring a touchdown. Kudos to Coach Schubie!!!