CLASS A PLAYOFFS Devils top Panthers, advance to title game

Sharpsville will take on Linesville, a team it beat 21-18 earlier in the season
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW WILMINGTON -- The Sharpsville recipe for victory over Saegertown in the opening round of the District 10 Class A playoffs was a simple one.
Mixing an explosive offense with a stingy defense, the Blue Devils tossed a 35-0 shutout at the Panthers to advance to the title game.
Sharpsville will meet Linesville, a 35-28 winner over Fairview in the other semifinal. The Blue Devils defeated Linesville 21-18 during the regular season.
"The layoff (two weeks) might have been a factor for us early in the game," said Sharpsville coach Paul Piccirilli. "But overall, I was really pleased with the way we played on both sides of the ball tonight.
"The kids wanted to play Linesville again, so I guess they got their wish."
Cataldi scored 4 TDs
Tailback Jordan Cataldi led Sharpsville with 18 carries for 280 yards and three touchdowns on runs of 34, 16 and 80 yards. The 5-11, 195-pound senior also returned an interception of a Brandon Crum pass for a fourth score.
"I have to give a lot of credit to our line because they blocked real well tonight," said Cataldi. "Not only did they block well tonight, but they dominated the lines of most of the teams we played against this year. Our line averages somewhere around 250 and the way they were knocking people around, I could run behind them all night."
Sharpsville stuck with the same play -- the buck sweep -- for most of the game.
"They couldn't seem to stop it," said Piccirilli. "[Cataldi] had a heckuva game. We are usually a three of four offensive-minded with each back getting so many carries, but sometimes you have to do dig deep and do something out of character and that is what we did tonight with Jordan.
"He is a heckuva cutback runner anyway, and when the offensive line picked it up, he just took off."
The Blue Devils led 14-0 at halftime, but it could have been a lot worse as they turned the ball over three times.
"We told our kids that is was one of those days where if you don't pick it up and go with full intensity, you can end up in trouble," Piccirilli said. "If they think everything is going to be easy at this level, they have another think coming because you can lose it at any time."
Fourth straight shutout
It was the Blue Devils' fourth shutout in four games. Sharpsville racked up 445 yards of total offense, while limiting Saegertown to 65 yards on the ground and another 77 in the air.
"They have been playing well all year," said Piccirilli. "Coach (Matt) Joseph has them playing well. We hit three or four days every week in practice so the intensity is always there. They hit us for a couple of passes for first downs, but other than that, we stopped their big number 33 (Pat Bradshaw, 36 yards on 15 carries) for most of the game and that was our main goal coming in."
Leading 28-0, Sharpsville completed the scoring midway through the final period when Jarryd Summers hauled in a 46-yard scoring pass from quarterback Shayne Stiger.
Stiger completed 7 of 12 attempts for 107 yards.