Ellwood flirts with upset in loss to Beaver
Ellwood City (6) vs. Beaver (14)
Written: Oct 03, 2009
 By STEVE TREU
ncsports@ncnewsonline.com
If moral victories are counted, Ellwood City Lincoln’s long losing streak is over.
Conventionally, however, the drought lives on.
The Wolverines flirted with an upset of visiting Beaver last night in Midwestern Athletic Conference action, but turnovers on their last two drives turned them away in a 14-6 defeat and a 29th consecutive loss.
“To be this close this late in the game is unfamiliar territory for our kids,” Ellwood coach Don Phillips said. “Beaver’s a veteran club that knows what it takes to win in those situations. Now we have to learn how to do that.”
Relying on a rugged defensive effort that completely shut down the Bobcats (4-1, 4-1) after falling behind 14-0 early in the second, the Wolverines (0-4, 0-5) “won” the second half 6-0 and threatened to pull out an actual victory.
Gino Ceriani capped a 10-play drive by hoisting the ball over the goal line for a 1-yard touchdown late in the third quarter, the lone points by either team after halftime. The junior quarterback, who had missed most of the season with an ankle sprain, keyed the scoring march with completions of 14 and 12 yards to Garrett Thomas and Ronnie Grymes, respectively.
Less than a minute later, Josh Guisler pounced on a fumble to put Ellwood in prime position for a game-tying score.
Ceriani hit Matt Morella for a 14-yard gain to the Beaver 20, but three straight runs netted just 1 yard and Ceriani’s fourth-down attempt into the end zone fell incomplete.
Although Ellwood’s defense stuffed Beaver two more times to get the ball back, one lost fumble and another interception on a flea-flicker denied the Wolverines their shot at victory down the stretch.
Ellwood also squandered another great scoring chance in the second quarter, after Codey Hunter turned a Beaver defender inside-out on a 51-yard breakaway run down to the 7. Two short runs and two incomplete passes later, though, ended that threat.
“We had our opportunities,” Phillips said. “We have to grow and get better so we can take advantage of those opportunities when we get them.”
The Bobcats scored their touchdowns in the first 14 minutes of the game, as Sam O’Neill twice did the honors on runs of 1 and 16 yards.
The rest of the way, Beaver was unable to mount much of an attack against the Wolverines, who held the Bobcats to just 35 total yards in the second half.
“A win is the most important thing for us,” Beaver coach Jeff Beltz said. “We played pretty sloppy in the second half, but you have to give Ellwood credit. They did a nice job and came after us. They put us in situations where we made bad plays.”
Hunter was Ellwood’s leading rusher with 79 yards on 14 carries. Ceriani completed 4-of-6 attempts for 55 yards.
Grymes was the leading tackler on defense for the Wolverines, while Michael Ierino chased down Beaver quarterback Steve Neeley for a 20-yard sack.
“In a situation like we are where the program hasn’t been successful, we need to be able to learn from this,” Phillips said. “We plan to take this and grow from it.”
BEAVER ELLWOOD CITY
10 First downs 6
212 Yards Rushing 104
35 Yards Lost 23
177 Net Rushing 81
3 Passes Attempted 7
1 Passes Completed 4
0 Passes Intercepted 1
8 Yards Passing 55
185 Total Yards 136
3-1 Fumbles-Lost 4-1
4-34 Punts-Average 3-31
4-30 Penalties-Yards 1-15
BEAVER 7 7 0 0 — 14
ELLWOOD CITY 0 0 6 0 — 6
Scoring plays
BEAVER — Sam O’Neill, 1-yard run (Nathan Mick kick).
BEAVER — O’Neill, 16-yard run (Mick kick).
ELLWOOD — Gino Ceriani, 1-yard run (kick failed).
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