Big Seven crown in sight for Shenango
Written: Oct 22, 2015
 By Andrew Koob
New Castle News
It’s tough to ignore a possible season-defining accomplishment when it’s at your feet.
Yet, with sole possession of the Big Seven Conference simply a win away, that’s what the Shenango High football team has to deal with as it enters its final conference game against Riverside at 7 p.m. Friday.
A win would give the Wildcats (6-0 conference, 6-1 overall), who already own at least a share of the Big Seven title, the outright conference championship. That still would be attainable even with a loss, but they would also need Neshannock to lose to Union in the final week of the regular season.
It would be Shenango’s first outright Big Seven title since 2003.
“It’s important to us,” Shenango coach Mike Commesso said. “We’ve been working hard and don’t really want to share it. It would be a big deal, it’s something that the kids and program could be proud of.”
To do that, however, requires topping a Riverside team that is much better than its record (1-4, 2-5) suggests.
The Panthers’ offense, which averages 30.4 points per contest, is led by quarterback Jason Dambach. The senior quarterback has thrown for 1,552 yards and 16 touchdowns while completing 55.7 percent of his passes.
His two favorite targets, Ricky Wass and his brother, Austin Dambach, have combined for 1,264 of those yards and 14 scores.
“They’re dangerous,” Commesso said. “They’ve only won a couple times but they’ve had injuries and they showed they can be dangerous. We recognize that. We’ll just try to prepare to slow them down as much as we can. I think we’ve prepared through our schedule, I feel like we’ve been prepared for this game and we’ll try to draw on that experience.”
While the Riverside offense has been able to find the end zone, its defense hasn’t been able to stop opponents from getting there as well. The Panthers are allowing 37.1 points per game, the second-worst mark in the Big Seven (winless Western Beaver has allowed 40.3 per game).
Shenango, in turn, has one of the best defenses in WPIAL Class A, allowing a fourth-best 9.3 points per game. The Wildcats offense is scoring with an average of 32.1 points per contest.
It’ll be interesting,” Riverside coach Tom Liberty said. “They’re good, they’ve been playing together since eighth grades We’re finally getting healthy and getting kids back, we’ll see how we really do. “We’ll do what we do and continue see what happens.”
While the excitement of breaking a 12-year streak abounds, Commesso has reminded his players about the dangers of looking past an opponent.
“It’s an outcome we want and have been working toward, but we talk about the process and doing everything in preparation that we do to win any game,” Commesso said. “We’re going about it in the same way we do every game.”
(Email: AKoob@ncnewsonline.com)
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