Mohawk outlasts Ellwood City

By RON PONIEWASZ JR.

rponiewasz@ncnewsonline.com

The Mohawk High football team is clinging to life in its quest for the playoffs.

Ellwood City Lincoln’s woes continue to linger.

Justin Upham and Colin Bredl scored two touchdowns each to lift the Warriors to a 26-14 Midwestern Athletic Conference victory over the Wolverines last night.

The win was vital to Mohawk in the bid for its first postseason berth since 2005. The Warriors need at least to split their last two conference games to have any shot at the playoffs.

Mohawk (3-3 conference, 3-3 overall) hosts Beaver Falls on Friday and travels to Beaver on Oct. 23 to close conference play.

“Our kids are well aware of our playoff position,” Warriors coach Jason Long said. “We’re just going to continue to work hard and try to get better; we want to give ourselves a shot.

“Every year, every conference game has meant something and that’s what we’re trying to do again this year.”

The Wolverines (0-5, 0-6) lost their 30th straight game, a streak that started following a 28-13 win over Quaker Valley in 2006.

“We have to get better and we have to do the things that we’re coached to do,” said second-year Ellwood City coach Don Phillips.

Upham got the Warriors on the board before halftime on a 1-yard run with 37.2 seconds left. The score came after Ellwood City’s Codey Hunter fumbled on his own 4 with 2:18 to go. Three plays later, Upham plowed up the middle for the score.

The Wolverines were backed up after Mohawk quarterback Johnny Beatty fumbled the snap two plays before Hunter’s fumble on the Wolverines’ 1. The Warriors fumbled three times in the opening half, losing two of them.

“There’s no excuse for stuff like that, I don’t care what type of weather we’re playing in,” Long said.

The Warriors pushed the lead to 14-0 with 5:09 left on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Beatty to Bredl. Bredl snared the aerial in the left corner of the end zone on fourth-and-goal.

“At first, I didn’t think I had it,” Bredl said. “I laid out for it and it was there when I looked in my hands.”

Said Long, “He ran a nice route. They were playing some man defense on us and Johnny put the ball right on the numbers. Colin did a nice job to stay in bounds.”

Mohawk went up 20-0 with 3:23 left in the third when Bredl took a shovel pass and dashed 41 yards for the score. The touchdown came on the first play following Evan Degaton’s interception.

Bredl took the shovel pass and sprinted down the right sideline, bowling over an Ellwood City defender and tightroping down the sideline for the score.

“I had a real nice block from Matt Vogel,” Bredl said. “If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have got the score; he opened it up for me.

“I had a good stiff-arm. Usually when I get going pretty fast I can break tackles. I just leaned my upper body to the inside and I was able stay inbounds.”

Mohawk tried to put the game away leading 20-0 with just 10 minutes left. However, Ellwood City held when Beatty tossed an incompletion on the hosts 13.

The Wolverines’ Jared Feit raced 87 yards for a score on the next play to close to 20-7. Ellwood City forced a three-and-out by Mohawk and Gino Ceriani hooked up with Codey Hunter on a 77-yard scoring pass on the next drive to close the deficit with 6:33 to play.

“We made some big plays in the fourth quarter,” Phillips said. “A couple of the kids made some nice plays defensively and our kids started to come together and rally.”

The Warriors put the game away on their next drive. Beatty hooked up with Bredl on a screen play for a 12-yard gain on third-and-10. Upham culminated the scoring two plays later on a 74-yard jaunt.

“I thought we did let down for a couple of plays defensively,” Long said. “Fortunately, Justin Upham had a monster game for us. That’s really what saved us at the end.”

Upham rushed for 114 yards on 17 carries and Bredl hauled in five passes for 87 yards.

Feit rolled up 96 rushing yards on four attempts for the Wolverines.

Ellwood returns to conference action at 7 p.m. Friday at Center.

MOHAWK ELLWOOD CITY

11 First downs 6

156 Yards Rushing 156

47 Yards Lost 33

109 Net Rushing 123

15 Passes Attempted 8

7 Passes Completed 3

2 Passes Intercepted 1

162 Yards Passing 101

271 Total Yards 224

4-2 Fumbles-Lost 5-3

4-32.5 Punts-Average 5-31

6-40 Penalties-Yards 7-45

MOHAWK 0 7 13 6 — 26

ELLWOOD CITY 0 0 0 14 — 14

Scoring plays

MOHAWK — Justin Upham, 1-yard run (Cody Dean kick).

MOHAWK — Colin Bredl, 14-yard pass from Johnny Beatty (Dean kick).

MOHAWK — Bredl, 41-yard pass from Beatty (kick failed).

ELLWOOD CITY — Jared Feit, 87-yard run (Scott Lewis kick).

ELLWOOD CITY — Codey Hunter, 77-yard pass from Gino Ceriani (Lewis kick).

MOHAWK — Upham, 79-yard run (run failed).