Ground assault
Wilmington (63) vs. Sharpsville (21)
Written: Sep 17, 2016
  By Clayton Sauertieg
New Castle News
The Wilmington High football team hit the ground running Friday night and kept on running en route to a 63-21 win over Sharpsville in a battle of unbeatens at Greyhound Stadium.
The game was billed as a District 10, Region 2-AA showdown, but neither started nor ended that way.
Wilmington (3-0 region, 4-0 overall) was able to rack up nearly 500 yards on the ground in a game that saw them move into a tie with Hickory for the region lead. Sharpsville (2-1, 3-1) dropped its first game of the season after a hot start during which it had yet to allow a point by their opponents.
“Our guys performed great,” veteran Greyhounds coach Terry Verrelli said. “We didn’t really expect that, but we moved the ball, everybody did a great job on offense and then after the first quarter the defense picked it up, too.”
The Greyhounds were let by the relentless running trio of Spencer DeMedal, Kyle Slicker and Cameron Marett, each of whom exceeded 100 yards rushing for Verrelli’s side.
Slicker led the way with 211 yards, followed DeMedal with 103 and Marett with 100.
Wilmington jumped out to a 28-7 lead behind the strength of three DeMedal rushing touchdowns and a 26-yard connection between quarterback Reese Bender and junior tight end Colton Marett, but the Blue Devils had an answer. Senior quarterback Luke Henwood hooked up with Marquis Altman for two quick scores in the second quarter to cut the lead to 28-21.
That was as close as Sharpsville would get, however, as the Greyhounds hunkered down and Bender produced two key plays, the first a 43-yard touchdown run followed by a 21-yard pass for a score to DeMedal which extended the Wilmington lead to 42-21 at the half.
“DeMedal’s a great player. I think everybody knows that. But you can’t just leave it up to one guy, so I use them all. I expect them to get the job done and they did,” Verrelli said.
DeMedal scored four touchdowns for the Greyhounds who never looked back after halftime. A 70-yard touchdown run for Slicker early in the third quarter, his first of two, all-but sealed the game for the Greyhounds, as they extended their lead to 49-21 with a little over eight minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The Slicker touchdown was not without controversy, however, as the bruising fullback appeared to have dropped the ball before crossing the goal line, despite officials awarding the touchdown.
“That’s not something we practice, I can tell you that,” Verrelli said when asked about the play.
The play was indicative of a night where it seemed everything that could go right, did for an upperclass-laden Wilmington team. Slicker, Bender and DeMedal are all seniors on a team which knows not to look too far ahead.
“We beat a really good team, but we can’t get too big-headed,” DeMedal said. “We have to stay grounded and take it one week at a time, beat one team at a time and hopefully come out with a regional championship.”
The Greyhounds controlled the line of the scrimmage on their way to winning the yardage battle, 585-259 — a fact that wasn’t lost on Sharpsville coach Paul Piccirilli.
“They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball,” Piccirilli said of his team’s play up front. “We didn’t do one thing positive. But you have to understand, we’re very young. So when you’re that young, you just have to keep working and get better weekly. The wins and losses may not add up the way you want to, but as long as us as coaches know we’re getting better each week and we’re progressing on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, we’ll be just fine.”
Wilmington will head to Mercer at 7 p.m. next Friday.
(Email: csauertieg@ncnewsonline.com)
SHARPSVILLE WILMINGTON
5 First downs 16
168 Yards Rushing 493
14 Yards Lost 0
154 Net Rushing 493
13 Passes Attempted 7
6 Passes Completed 4
0 Passes Intercepted 0
105 Yards Passing 92
259 Total Yards 585
1-1 Fumbles-Lost 0-0
5-30.2 Punts-Average 2-25.5
4-32 Penalties-Yards 5-45
SHARPSVILLE 7 14 0 0 — 21
WILMINGTON 28 14 14 7 — 63
Scoring plays
WILMINGTON – Colton Marett, 32-yard pass from Reese Bender (Jacob Winters kick).
SHARPSVILLE – Robert Besser, 80-yard run (Connor Williams kick).
WILMINGTON – Spencer DeMedal, 15-yard run (Winters kick).
WILMINGTON – DeMedal, 15-yard run (Winters kick).
WILMINGTON – DeMedal, 7-yard run (Winters kick).
SHARPSVILLE – Marquis Altman, 62-yard pass from Luke Henwood (Williams kick).
SHARPSVILLE – Altman, 26-yard pass from Henwood (Williams kick).
WILMINGTON – Bender, 43-yard run (Winters kick).
WILMINGTON – DeMedal, 21-yard pass from Bender (Winters kick).
WILMINGTON – Kyle Slicker, 70-yard run (Winters kick).
WILMINGTON – Slicker, 1-yard run (Winters kick).
WILMINGTON – Nathan Shaw, 10-yard run (Winters kick).
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