The Arcanum Trojans completely dominated the Central Catholic Irish in their first home game of the season. And for that matter their first game of the season – as their season opener was canceled due to the opposing team having to forfeit due to injury. So it was a long wait for the Trojans to finally take the field for first time, but when they did – they made their presence felt. The dominated on offense and defense, leaving the field with a convincing 43-6 win.
The Trojans wasted no time in establishing their dominance. They scored four touchdowns in the first quarter for a 28-0 lead. They mainly used the run, but mixed in the pass with their offense. The team would not punt until late in the third quarter.
The defense likewise came out strong. Besides a penalty that granted Central Catholic a first down, they were three downs and punt during most of the first half. It took an interception to finally give the Irish a first down inside Arcanum territory in the second quarter. Until then they had been bottled up in their half of the field. For the night Central Catholic had negative yards rushing a testament to the strong run defense of Arcanum.
Special teams had a good night as well. They pressured the punter on most kicks and got second partial blocks. They recovered a muffed ball on a kick off and did well scoring extra points. And when Arcanum emptied their bench, there was not much of a difference in performance. The reserves did well, holding off Central Catholic when they threatened to score again late in the game by ending their final drive with an Arcanum interception.
“I am proud of the way that our subs played. They work really hard during the course of the week. And to have an opportunity to get those guys out there on the field is great. I felt like our young guys did a good job of stepping up.”
Central Catholic did score once with a 56-yard interception return for a TD. Arcanum did throw two interceptions in the first half, so that is the only blemish on an otherwise impressive night. Next week the Trojans will head north to play the Bradford Railroaders.
Coach Schondelmyer on the game, “We work the year around for this and to see them perform this well tonight – it makes us proud. Last year it was not until week 10 that we had 2-wins. Now we are 2-0 and it’s a great feeling. There is room for improvement, but I like where we are at.”
He continued, “All phases of the game we played pretty well. We could improve our kicking game a little and get rid of some penalties. Our line did really well – it is a big group. They communicate up front and work together.”
Sacks: Braden Garbig, Cameron Burke, Elliot Wackler. Block Kick/Partial Block: Braden Garbig, Eli Shelton. Fumble recovery: Tyler Huber. Interception: Ben Coats.
Passing: Nick Fry 3-5 54-yards; Bryce Schondelmyer 4-5 49yards. Receiving: Zade Shank 3-49 yards; Ian Baker 3-45 yards; Brennan Troutwine 1-9 yards. Rushing: Cory Ross 9-71 yards; Elliot Wackler 8-37 yards.
Scoring: Cory Ross 25-yard run. Ben Coates 1-yard run. Ian Baker 25-yard pass from Nick Fry. Bryce Schondelmyer 19-yard run. Zade Shank 20-yard pass from Bryce Schondelmyer. Zade Shank 24-yard run.
