New Castle unable to stop Montour ball carrier

Christian Wilson rushed for 120 yards and four TDs to sink New Castle, 28-20.

By CALEB PARDICK

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Christian Wilson isn’t a name the New Castle Red Hurricanes will be forgetting anytime soon.

That’s because Wilson, Montour High’s 6-foot-4, 235-pound running back, ground and glided his way to 120 yards and four touchdowns on 22 carries in the Spartans’ 28-20 win at New Castle’s Taggart Stadium on Friday night in WPIAL Class AAA Parkway Conference action.

Wilson, who scored on carries of 4, 28, 1 and 3 yards, said his outburst wasn’t something he saw coming.

“My stats don’t matter to me, but if I can score four touchdowns to help us win, it’s always nice,” Christian said. “But if it comes down to me making a catch or throwing a block, that’s OK, too.”

Leading 14-7 late in the third quarter, New Castle’s momentum seemed to slip away when a backward pass on fourth-and-four from the Montour 28-yard-line got away from running back Brian Rice. Montour’s Michael Muha scooped the ball up and chugged 39 yards to set up the tying score.

Rice goes 84 yards to TD

But New Castle struck back quickly, as Brian Rice took the ensuing kickoff 84 yards to the house to put the Hurricanes back on top, 20-14.

While Wilson carried the team all night, Gianni Ricci’s only carry of the game proved to be the most important. After the Rice kickoff return and with just over six minutes to play, Ricci took the snap as the up-man in a punt formation near midfield and rambled for seven yards to give the Spartans a much-needed first down. From there, it was back to business for Wilson, who collected 25 more yards in the remainder of the drive before plunging in from one yard out five plays later. He would later add his fourth touchdown to ice the win with 1:36 to go.

“We kind of just knew that we weren’t going to lose this game,” Montour (4-0, 2-0) coach Lou Cerro said. “And to our credit, our kids sucked it up and made big plays at the end.

“Christian can do a lot of things, we told him at half time, ‘we’re riding you until you can’t go anymore,’ and that’s what we did in the second half. We tip our cap to New Castle because they played such great defense, but they just couldn’t stop Wilson tonight.”

Rice, Perrotta aid ‘Canes

For the Hurricanes (3-1, 1-1) Rice was solid on offense. Rice, in addition his 84-yard kickoff return, he gave the ’Canes a 14-7 lead in the second quarter after catching a pass from Mike Bongivengo and shedding a would-be tackler to reach the end zone on the 45-yard strike.

Senior running back Joey Perrotta was also solid for New Castle, racking up 91 yards on 23 carries to carry the ground game.

“Anytime you lose it’s a tough pill to swallow,” New Castle coach Frank Bongivengo said. “I think we did a lot of good things, but down the stretch there, we had a couple bad things happen to us.

“I’m not going to put this one on the kids. They played hard; I’ll take full responsibility.”