One game from main goal: McDonald bottles Rockets
The Blue Devils can clinch the ITCL Tier Two title outright next week.
By GREG GULAS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
LOWELLVILLE — A year ago, the McDonald Blue Devils lost their last game of the season to Jackson-Milton in four overtimes in a game that eventually cost them a share of the ITCL Tier Two championship.
With their 27-12 victory Friday night over Lowellville, McDonald has positioned itself to win the title outright with a win over Wellsville in the season finale next week, hoping to accomplish a goal that they had set almost immediately upon their return to the locker room a season ago.
Alex Sampson rushed for 139 yards and two touchdowns while Matt Krumpak threw for two touchdowns and 125 yards in just one half of play to pace the Blue Devils to their eighth win in nine outings.
They remained undefeated in six league contests.
“We let one slip away last season when we lost our season finale [last year]. To be within one game of an outright title now is a pretty good feeling. We’re just concentrating, however, on Wellsville next week and not even looking at week 11,” Blue Devils coach Dan Williams said.
Krumpak, the Blue Devils’ starting quarterback, did all of his passing in the first half as he suffered an ankle injury near the end of the second quarter and turned over the signal-calling duties to sophomore Nick Accordino.
“With Krumpak down, Accordino did an excellent job of leading our offense. We told the team at the half that we needed everyone to step it up as we would be without the services of Matt. Our offensive and defensive lines responded, and so did our running backs and defensive backs as well,” Williams said.
McDonald got on the board first at the 1:52 mark of the opening period when Joe Witkoski caught a 45-yard scoring strike from Krumpak for a 7-0 advantage.
Krumpak’s second strike of the game, to John Seaquist at 6:51 of the second quarter, a 39-yard toss, increased the Blue Devils lead to 13-0 after the failed two-point conversion. But Lowellville’s Vince Travaline, who had a team high 121 yards, scored on a 25-yard run to cut the McDonald lead to 13-6 at the intermission.
Sampson, a junior, notched the first of his two scores at 8:01 of the third period for a 20-6 Blue Devils advantage and when he scored from 8 yards out at 8:00 of the final frame, McDonald had a 27-6 lead.
“Give our offensive line credit tonight because they had some problems with the Lowellville defense early in the game, then made some adjustments at halftime which proved to be a big difference,” Sampson said.
“Nick [Accordino] did an excellent job of filling in for Matt [Krumpak] so it’s great to have a 1-2 punch like we have at the quarterback position,” he added.
With 1:52 remaining in the game, Rockets quarterback Joe DePasquale found Jim Sudon, who then lateraled the ball to Anthony Schiraldi for a 35-yard touchdown.
“Turnovers and big plays hurt us tonight and quite frankly, they’ve hurt us all season long. On senior night, nobody quit. Everyone played together and that really pleased me,” Rockets coach Mike Palumbo said.
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