Neshannock season comes to end
Neshannock (14) vs. Steel Valley (49)
Written: Nov 27, 2016
  By Ron Poniewasz Jr.
New Castle News
CORAOPOLIS — A WPIAL championship will have to wait for at least another year for the Neshannock High football program.
The Lancers struggled to mount enough offense early on against Steel Valley. And the Ironmen raced out to a quick start to put Neshannock in an early hole.
It was enough to foil the Lancers' bid for a district crown.
DeWayne Murray scored five touchdowns to propel Steel Valley to a 49-14 win over Neshannock in the WPIAL Class 2A championship game Saturday night at Robert Morris University's Joe Walton Stadium.
Murray finished with 213 yards rushing on 16 carries.
"It's been an awesome experience and it's been a great ride," said fifth-year Lancers coach Fred Mozzocio. "The experience is something they will remember for the rest of their lives.
"We wanted to be champions, but we're runners-up. There's a lot of other teams that wish they were runners-up today. We'll take the second-place trophy proudly and bring it back home with us."
It was the first appearance in the district championship game for the Lancers. They began playing varsity football back in 1958. Neshannock (12-2) has qualified for the WPIAL playoffs nine times in that span, five of them coming during Mozzocio's tenure.
"Our kids played their hearts out," Mozzocio said. "We came up short, but, sometimes you lose to a better football team. Tonight, we lost to a football team that is very talented. It was just a little too much for us. There's no shame in that."
Steel Valley (13-0) advances to meet Wilmington (12-1) in the PIAA Class 2A semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday at North Allegheny High School.
"I can't say enough about Neshannock and the job the staff has done with their team," Ironmen coach Rod Steele said. "That's a very good football team and they had a remarkable year. We knew eventually we would run into them.
"I don't know anything about Wilmington yet. But I do know that's another great opponent we'll be facing and we'll be up for another big challenge."
Steel Valley captured the program's first WPIAL championship since 1989.
Neshannock opened on defense after the Ironmen won the toss and elected to receive. The Lancers were able to force a punt and build some early momentum.
"We felt pretty good," Mozzocio said of the early stand. "We felt all along that we could contain them and hold them in check."
Neshannock, though, couldn't take advantage of the early momentum turned in by the defense. The Lancers went three-and-out and punted, but Danny Welker's punt was partially blocked by Kaleb Hughes. Welker scooped the ball up and scooted for a first down.
Neshannock stalled again and lined up for another punt. Once again, Hughes broke through and blocked the punt. This time, the Ironmen took over on the Lancers' 5.
"I don't know what they saw there," Mozzocio said. "But it's just their overwhelming speed coming off the edge. It's just athletes and they made some plays."
Said Steele, "We seen that it was possible to get something off the edge. We didn't have a block call on. It was just a great edge rush, on both of them."
Murray punched in the first of his five touchdowns when he plowed in from five yards out on the next play for a 7-0 lead with 5:03 left in the first half.
It opened a flurry of scoring for the Ironmen. Steel Valley burned the Neshannock secondary on two long passes in the first quarter from quarterback Ryan Harper, covering 65 yards and 55 yards. That pushed the count to 21-0 after one period.
"Once a good team like Steel Valley does that, they smell blood," Mozzocio said of the first-quarter big plays. "They turned it up to another level. After that, they were just pinning their ears back and cutting loose. We had to take some chances and get out of our gameplan to try and hit some big plays. It just snowballed from there."
The Lancers did little offensively in the first half. They executed 34 plays from scrimmage, managing just 67 total yards and six first downs. Neshannock senior quarterback Frank Antuono, who will play linebacker at Robert Morris, was 4 of 17 through the air for 22 yards and an interception in the opening half.
"They just have speed all over the field, from their secondary to their linebackers to the defensive line. They just have speed all over the field," Antuono said. "We knew they were fast from the film and what they've done all year. We just came out there and it wasn't surprising to us. We knew we had to play a perfect game."
Steel Valley led 28-0 late in the first half and was looking to push the game to the mercy rule by halftime. But Neshannock's defense stepped up and forced the Ironmen into a 37-yard field goal on the final play of the half that fell short.
"We knew it was going to be tough," Antuono said. "I told everyone, I don't care what the scoreboard says, we're going to play Neshannock Lancer football in the second half. Coach Mo echoed what I said."
Said Mozzocio of the defensive stand, "This football team, these seniors, that's a gut check. That's character. That's what we preach here."
The Ironmen, though, put the game away with three more touchdowns in the third quarter to push the count to 49-0.
Neshannock never quit, scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Anthony DoVidio broke up the shutout when he hauled in a six-yard touchdown pass from Antuono with 6:54 remaining. It marked the first time all season that the Ironmen's first-team defense had been scored on.
"Even at the end of the game, when they had it in check, we got the ball and drove down against their first team and punched one in," Mozzocio said. "A lot of teams give up. This team didn't give up. We fought them tooth and nail the entire game. We lost, but the character stood out.
"My goal, as a coach, is to create character for young men. I think that was a great testament to those young men."
The Lancers got another score, this time with 15 seconds to go, when Greg Fornataro snared a six-yard touchdown pass from Jared Staph against the Steel Valley reserves. Tristan Tuck converted both of the Lancers' extra points.
"There's nothing to hang their head about," Mozzocio said. "In a couple of weeks, a week, whatever it takes for the dust to settle, we'll look back on this season and there will be nothing but celebration and joy looking back on the time we had. It's the journey. We've made friends for a lifetime."
(Email: rponiewasz@ncnewsonline.com)
NESHANNOCK STEEL VALLEY
16 First downs 12
144 Yards Rushing 266
31 Yards Lost 11
113 Net Rushing 255
27 Passes Attempted 14
11 Passes Completed 7
2 Passes Intercepted 0
90 Yards Passing 186
203 Total Yards 441
2-2 Fumbles-Lost 1-1
5-13.8 Punts-Average 3-31.0
5-40 Penalties-Yards 9-82
NESHANNOCK 0 0 0 14 — 14
STEEL VALLEY 21 7 21 0 — 49
Scoring plays
STEEL VALLEY — DeWayne Murray, 5-yard run (Alex Grace kick).
STEEL VALLEY — Zai'Quan Henderson, 65-yard pass from Ryan Harper (Grace kick).
STEEL VALLEY — Trevon Adams, 55-yard pass from Harper (Grace kick).
STEEL VALLEY — Murray, 2-yard run (Grace kick).
STEEL VALLEY — Murray, 3-yard run (Grace kick).
STEEL VALLEY — Murray, 75-yard run (Grace kick).
STEEL VALLEY — Murray, 13-yard run (Grace kick).
NESHANNOCK — Anthony DoVidio, 6-yard pass from Frank Antuono (Tristan Tuck kick).
NESHANNOCK — Greg Fornataro, 6-yard pass from Jared Staph (Tuck kick).
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