Saturday, October 22, 2005
The Tomcats will play Thomas More for the PAC crown next Saturday.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW WILMINGTON -- After facing close calls two of the past three weeks that resulted in overtime wins over Washington & amp; Jefferson and Waynesburg, Thiel College didn't want to face that same scenario again.
Getting out of the gate at a fast pace, the Tomcats (7-0, 5-0) kept their unbeaten mark intact as they broke out to a 21-0 halftime lead before cruising to a 34-0 Presidents' Athletic Conference win over Westminster (3-4, 1-3).
"[Westminster's] goal coming was the same as ours and that was to stop the run," said Thiel coach Jack Leipheimer. "When they packed seven or eight in the box, we had to take advantage of that."
Hand has answer
Westminster coach Jeff Hand said there was no secret to Thiel's success.
"Plain and simple, they executed," said Hand. "They tweaked a few things they don't normally do. As for this game, we have 24 hours to think about it, grow from it and then we have to get our minds on the next game. We'll look at the positives and the negatives and then move forward."
Tomcats quarterback Darrell Satterfield threw for 334 yards and four touchdowns in the win. Coming into the game, Satterfield had 27 TD tosses for his career. With the four against the Titans, he is now tied for the career lead with TD passes at 31 with former Thiel QB Jeff Sorenson (1988-91).
"I don't really pay much attention to records and they don't really mean that much when you have the teammates like I have," said Satterfield. "I know that if I do my job and the receivers do their job, we will win football games. I am willing to do whatever it takes to win and if the passing game is not working, I have no problem handing the ball off to Steve Minton and letting him run with it."
Chambers is choice
In his record-tying day, Satterfield's primary target was Brandon Chambers (Farrell) who finished with nine catches for 140 yards and three scores.
"It is just a matter of trust between us," said Chambers about the success. "[Satterfield] knows me and I know him and he trusts me that if he throws the ball up to me, the chances of my catching it are good."
After failing to move the ball down the field in their first two possessions, the Tomcats scored the next three times they touched the football as Satterfield tossed a pair of TD passes to Chambers sandwiched around a scoring effort to Marc LaScola (Wellsville).
Although LaScola only had two catches for 117 yards in the game, both were instrumental in the victory.
His first reception from Satterfield went for a 78-yard touchdown. His second catch -- a 39-yarder -- eventually led to Thiel's third score.
The route
"Basically it is called a boundary route," said LaScola of his TD reception. "My job is to read the defender. If he comes up on me, I go deep, and if he sits back, I snap it. I just felt I could beat him deep so I took it deep, Darrell made a perfect pass, I was able to break the tackle and it happened."
The Tomcats completed their scoring in the second half when Chambers caught an 8-yard scoring strike from Satterfield on the final play of the third quarter before Jeremiah Conley was on the receiving end of Satterfield's fourth TD toss covering 10 yards with less than two minutes left in the game.
With the victory, the Tomcats will now play unbeaten Thomas More for the PAC crown on Saturday at Alumni Stadium.