GREENVILLE, PA. Thiel basking in limelight as Presidents' Athletic Conference champions

The Tomcats beat Thomas More, 24-14, to taste their first title since 1972.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- The Thiel College football team had never won eight games in a season. Saturday afternoon at Alumni Stadium, that all changed.
Playing host to Thomas More (5-3, 4-1) in the Presidents' Athletic Conference championship game, the Tomcats (8-0, 6-0) captured the title with a 24-14 victory over the Saints.
"I am more excited about this win as a coach than I was as a player," said Thiel coach Jack Leipheimer, who played on the last Thiel team to win a championship in 1972.
"I think the reason why I feel that way is that as a coach, you can see all of the effort that goes into making it happen that most people don't know about. Just to see it all come together is very rewarding."
Glory days
Leipheimer realized what winning a championship meant as a coach at Allegheny.
"This is as good a win as I have ever had as a coach," Leipheimer said. "I was a Gator [at Allegheny] for 17 years, but I have been a Tomcat for life. This one is special."
Steve Minton led the Tomcat offense with 217 yards rushing and a pair of scores, but his effort wouldn't have been possible without the outstanding job by the offensive line. Leading the charge that saw the Thiel offense rack up 266 yards was Warren Harding High graduate Nelton Neal.
"As an offensive line, we go into each game with a plan that our coaches work out for us," said Neal. "It isn't about us [the linemen], but about our team and our running back Steve Minton. We feel that we have to get 230 yards a game to be successful. We got him [Minton] 217 and we had 266 for the team, but the most important thing right now is that we are the champions."
Thiel receiver Tom McEntire (Reynolds) made five clutch catches for 67 yards, with four coming on third-and-long plays to keep the chains moving.
Called his number
"It was the same stuff we have been running all year," said McEntire. "We have a lot of receivers who can make those catches, and today, it just happened that [quarterback] Darrel [Satterfield] called my number a few times. He put the ball there, and I was able to make the play."
The teams traded touchdowns on their first possessions before the Tomcats scored in the final minute of the second period and early in the third quarter to take a 21-7 lead.
It took the Saints less than three minutes to answer Thiel's third touchdown with one of their own to cut the Tomcat lead to 21-14, and that is the way the score stood for most of the final 22 minutes of the game.
Thiel set up the final points by intercepting a Seth Ellis pass.
"I noticed that on two of their previous series they had big plays on hitches-and-gos," said Thompson. "I saw him [Ellis] pump fake and when he did that, I knew I had to go and get the ball. As soon as I saw the ball in the air, I just took off, I guessed right and I was right there to pick it off."
Sammy Koyl kicked a 28-yard field goal to seal the win.