WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA Kennedy Catholic rolls, 62-32, for fourth victory

Ross Gargano rushed for 181 yards and scored four TDs for the Golden Eagles.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
SHARON -- Scoring early and often, Kennedy Catholic built up a 55-8 halftime lead over Cochranton before cruising to a 62-32 win over the Cardinals Saturday at Butala Memorial Stadium.
"We wanted to work on a few things and we were able to do that," said Kennedy coach Mike Donato. "We were able to get a couple of other guys involved in the offense and we wanted to be able to throw the football other than in practice. I think we got accomplished what we wanted to get done coming into the game."
With the win, Kennedy improved to 4-1 overall and 3-1 in D-10. Cochranton fell to 0-5, 0-4.
Donato said the Golden Eagles are about where he had thought they might be at this stage of the season.
"We hoped that we would be here," he said. "I think we are moving at the pace we wanted to move at and we are jelling at the pace we wanted to jell at. Fr
Turnabout
Fom the coaches perspective, I think we are right where we thought we would be."
One year ago, Donato's first as Kennedy coach, the Golden Eagles went 2-7 overall and 0-2 in the defunct Mercer County Athletic Conference. As for the turnaround this season, Donato wasted no time putting his finger on the reason.
& quot;We played a bunch of young kids last year and we are still young with only one senior," he said. "I think now that the kids have had a year of us [the coaches] under their belts, they are much more familiar with our system. We had five freshmen last year that played a lot. Three of them were starters and the other two were major contributors. They are still young kids, but I think it is just a matter of them maturing and growing up."
One of those young starters last year was Ross Gargano, one of the premier running backs in District 10. One year ago as a freshman, Gargano rushed for more than 1,400 yards, and following Saturday's 181-yard performance, Gargano shows 943 yards with four games remaining. In Saturday's win, he scored five times, four on rushes and one when he recovered a teammate's fumble in the end zone.
Anchor
"He is a real good one to build your offense around," said Donato. "We are an I-formation team anyway, so our tailback is going to get the ball a lot. In the immortal words of Paul Brown about Jimmy Brown, if you have the big gun, you have to shoot it and now that we have the big gun, we are going to shoot it. After all, if you don't shoot it, what is the purpose of having it. He [Gargano] is very good now, and before it is all over, he has a chance to be a great one."
Prior to this campaign, the only teams in the MCAC Class A division were Sharpsville, West Middlesex and Kennedy. Now, with the realignment of District 10 into regions, the Golden Eagles play six league games, and Donato likes the change.
"Now we are playing six league games instead of just two and we don't have to get on a bus and travel two or three hours to play games," he said. "We are playing against teams of our size, and that is a big thing for us. For those reasons, we are very happy with the new format."