Westminster’s 16-0 run too much for Thiel

By Bill Albright

The Titans’ victory keeps the Tomcats winless and frustrated.

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. — Westminster tallied 16 unanswered points between a Thiel field goal and touchdown in Saturday’s 16-10 victory at Harold Burry Stadium.

“It was very nice for us to get the win today,” Westminster head coach Jeff Hand said. “There are still things that we need to correct and shore up, but the guys kept focused and played their tails off to pick up the win.”

Mistakes and inability to finish drives plagued Thiel.

“When you turn the ball over inside the 20-yard line, it is tough to win,” Thiel coach Jack Leipheimer. “With the way we have been playing, we just can’t do that and we just keep killing ourselves. Then we have the ball thrown over our head when we had a chance to score in the third quarter.

“It is frustrating,” Leipheimer said. “I feel so bad for the kids because they work their butts off. We soon have to get a break somehow.”

After a scoreless first period, the two teams traded field goals. The Titans (3-2, 1-1 Presidents Athletic Conference) scored on a 30-yarder from Fred Romeo (Poland) after John Madeline gave Thiel (0-5, 0-2) the initial lead with a 36-yard effort.

In the final minute of the opening half, the Titans took the lead for keeps when quarterback Kevin Franz hit Chad Rosatelli with a 22-yard scoring pass. Romeo’s PAT, gave Westminster a 10-3 lead.

“We had double receivers on one side and it is kind of a post up type of situation,” Rosatelli said. “We figured the middle was going to be open, and when we lined up, it was.

“It was something that Kevin and I both saw, and when I made my move, he knew where to put the ball and he put it right there.”

Rosatelli finished with six catches for 94 yards and the one score.

Although the Titans never trailed in the second half, his squad gave Hand and his coaching staff a few anxious moments.

Following Franz’s second TD toss, a 32-yard effort to John Baummer in the third period for a 16-3 Titan lead, the Titans missed the PAT. Add to that a pair of field goal attempts that were blocked along with costly penalties that nullified several other big plays, and it allowed the Tomcats to hang around.

“That was a concern of mine, for sure,” Hand said. “Those kinds of mistakes disrupt any consistency you have to try and put together a long drive to give you somewhat of a comfort zone, but for us, the comfort [zone] never came.”

Franz finished with 22 completions on 29 attempts for 270 yards and the touchdown tosses. He put his name into the record books one more time as he became the all-time completions leader in Westminster history.

“The ‘W’ is always more important to me than the individual stuff,” Franz said. “The individual things come because of your teammates. That is the line, the receivers, the running backs and that is everybody who does their thing to allow me to break the record. Without them, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Trailing 16-3 margin, the Tomcats didn’t go quietly as they marched 80 yards on 10 plays. Quarterback Willie Bova hit Cody Sirgey with a 2-yard scoring pass with about a minute remaining.

The ensuing onside kick went out of bounds before the Tomcats could recover it and the Titans ran out the clock.