Lancers, Scotties playing for pride, postseason positioning
Written: Oct 30, 2015
  By Andrew Koob
New Castle News
Teams usually don’t need added motivation heading into a rivalry game.
Yet there is be a little more at stake when Neshannock travels to Socs Russos Stadium to face Union for a 7 p.m. bout in the regular-season finale Friday.
Both sides already have secured a postseason berth for next week’s district playoffs, yet this matchup will help determine which seed each team receives at the end of the regular season.
A Neshannock victory would firmly entrench it as the Big Seven’s No. 2 team. A win for Union, coupled with a South Side Beaver loss to Western Beaver, would move the Scotties up to that second spot behind Big Seven champion Shenango.
The Lancers can finish no worse than third place in the Big Seven thanks to a victory over South Side.
The Neshannock offense runs through quarterback Frank Antuono. The junior signal-caller is the top passer in Lawrence County with 1,740 yards, 15 touchdowns and three interceptions while completing just under 65 percent of his passes. Antuono also is third in the county in rushing with 659 yards and 14 touchdowns on 108 carries.
Since Antunono took the starting position at the beginning of last season, he has totaled 3,437 passing yards, 1,162 rushing yards and a total of 62 touchdowns.
That sort of versatility has been hard to counteract for opponents, an issue that presents itself yet again to the Scotties.
“That’s been a tall task over the last couple years for a lot of people,” Union coach Stacy Robinson said. “They stretch your defense in many ways, so there isn’t an exact answer. But we’ll come up with a plan and try to work it.”
Added Neshannock coach Fred Mozzocio, “I think it’s more of a matter of, when we play people, we’ll do what we do and we’ll put the pressure on them to stop us. They’re going to have make some decisions and we’ll play off of that.
“We have a lot of different weapons and we’ll take what their defense gives us.”
Union quarterback Joe Gunn will be a game-time decision, as he has been for the last three weeks while dealing with a lingering shoulder injury.
Gunn played sparingly in last week’s 25-22 win over Western Beaver, throwing justing one pass, completing it for nine yards, before giving way to Randy DeJohn.
On the year, Gunn has thrown for 608 yards and two scores while completing 60.8 percent of his passes. He’s just as dangerous with his feet, rushing for 304 yards and five touchdowns on 70 carries.
DeJohn has been more than efficient in relief, totaling 472 yards and six touchdowns through the air.
“We don’t know what kind of shape he’ll be in,” Robinson said of Gunn. “It’ll be an added plus for us but, if he isn’t, we’ll go in a different direction. Randy has done well for us and we expect that from him.”
The Lancers have won the last five games against Union, including last year’s 48-19 blowout at Bob Bleggi Field. A win for Neshannock would give it its seventh straight this season, while a Scotties victory would earn them their first four-game winning streak since 2000.
(Email: AKoob@ncnewsonline.com)
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