By Bill Albright

The Red Hurricane advanced to the second round of the WPIAL playoffs.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — To say the New Castle High football is on a roll might be an understatement.

After suffering through three disappointing losses to begin the season, the Red Hurricane have strung together seven straight wins, including Friday night’s 53-20 victory over Franklin Regional in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs.

“I just told our kids that I didn’t think we played our best football tonight,” said New Castle coach Frank Bongivengo.

“I thought we were a little sloppy offensively at times, but we scored pretty quick and that might have had something to do with it. They were trying hard to stop us from throwing the ball and that made it possible for us to run it inside.”

One of the big keys to the Hurricane win was the outstanding effort of tailback Keith Keene who only touched the ball nine times, but reeled off 180 yards and a pair of touchdowns covering 55 and 45 yards.

“Keith Keene is a difference maker when he gets the ball,” said Bongivengo.

“He makes people miss because he is so quick.”

Keene said it was all about the play of his offensive line.

“Our line is great and tonight, they did an outstanding job of blocking,” said Keene. “The holes were there for me and that allowed me to run all over the place.”

The Hurricanes set the tone of the game in the first four minutes of the game when they scored twice in a little more than two minutes before adding two more scores in the opening period for a 27-0 lead.

Brandon Burley picked up a fumble and took it 43 yards to the end zone on the Panthers’ first possession. Burley recovered his second fumble two plays later, setting up Michael Bongivengo’s 6-yard run for a touchdown.

“I was just getting back, playing my zones like Coach told us to do and playing football like I know how,” said Burley.

Franklin Regional drove 65 yards deep into New Castle territory, but E. J. Padula picked off an Anthony Vendemia pass and returned it 100 yards for a score, then Keene scored his first touchdowns with two minutes left in the period for the 27-0 lead.

“Those big turnovers were key for us,” said Frank Bongivengo. “We haven’t scored on defense all year and tonight we scored twice [on defense] in the first quarter. That was definitely a big key for us to start moving ahead.”

Franklin Regional coach Greg Botta knew his team was in trouble with the huge hole they dug for themselves.

“With the speed they have and the weapons they have, you just can’t dig yourself into a hole like we did tonight,” said Botta. “I told our guys that we could win this football game if we were sound with penalties, sound with turnovers and finishing drives. As it turned out, we did none of that tonight.”

Although Michael Bongivengo didn’t have a good night throwing the football (3-for-9), he used his legs to get the job done as he carried the ball six times while scoring three touchdowns.

“Our offense and defense both played very well tonight,” he said. “The defense was tackling hard, getting turnovers and as a result, we were able to put a lot of points on the board early.”

New Castle (7-3) will get a rematch with Indiana, a team that defeated the Hurricane 27-18 in the second game of the season.

“That is going to be a big rematch for our kids,” said Frank Bongivengo. “We wanted another chance at Indiana and our kids are excited about getting the opportunity. They put it on us pretty good up at their place, but this is a different New Castle team than they saw in week two.”