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Lycoming bounces back
Guy Cipriano Sun-Gazette
Staff
BETHLEHEM — Lycoming linebacker
Tim Schmidt is the type of player a team needs before playing a game
like this.
When Schmidt makes a tackle,
he pumps his fists, bangs teammates’ helmets and does all the other
emotional stuff that looks pleasing from the
bleachers.
So as long as Lycoming had a
collection of seniors such as Schmidt there would be no letdown
after a loss this season.
One week after
losing to Delaware Valley, the Warriors recovered by defeating
Moravian, 26-14, Saturday at Steel
Field.
Schmidt and senior captain Garrett
Zoschg — another emotional player — led a stingy defense which
allowed less than 160 yards of total
offense.
“The seniors and captains are
always preaching about emotion,” said Schmidt, who recorded a
team-high seven tackles. “I don’t think you can play the game of
football without emotion. You have to be fired up the whole game.
Even if you have to feed off your teammates. Emotion is definitely
the No. 1 factor in how I play.”
Last
year, the emotions of Schmidt and his teammates were drained after
the Warriors suffered consecutive losses to Widener and FDU-Florham.
So far, this Lycoming team, which will enter the final three weeks
of the regular season tied with Delaware Valley for first place in
the Middle Atlantic Conference standings, has proven it will not let
one loss dictate the fate of its
season.
“We bounced back real strong,”
senior guard Dickie Houck said. “We have a lot of team unity and a
lot of team leadership, so we had to bounce back. That was real
important.”
Lycoming (5-1) dominated
Mor-avian (3-4) in almost every major statistical category,
including passing yards, which the Warriors held a 265-31 advantage.
But the Warriors’ bounce-back game didn’t come without some testing
moments.
With 5:29 remaining in the third
quarter, a 6-yard touchdown run by Chris Jacoubs cut Lycoming’s lead
to 19-14. Moravian started its comeback four minutes earlier when
Tyler Chomik returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown.
“They made a great play there,” Lycoming
coach Frank Girardi said. “That gave them momentum to get back into
the game. Was I concerned? Absolutely. But our kids are used to
being in that situation and they withstood that ninth-round
flurry.”
The kickoff return gave Moravian
a spark, but it represented the second biggest play of the game.
Lycoming senior wide receiver Ricky
Lannetti recorded the game’s best play when he jumped over Chomik
for a 56-yard reception. The 5-foot-9 Lannetti extended his arms to
catch Phil Mann’s pass on Chomik’s
back.
“That was a heck of a catch,” Houck
said.
Even Chomik, who had an
interception in the first half, admired the catch made on his own
back.
“That was a good play,” Chomik
said. “He was my responsibility. I take the responsibility for that,
but he did make a good catch.”
Two plays
later, Drew Corsilli scored on a 5-yard run to give Lycoming a
12-point lead with 12:35 remaining. Lannetti, who caught seven
passes for 172 yards, also had a 62-yard reception in the first
quarter which led to Lycoming’s first
touchdown.
“I knew we would be able to go
deep on these guys,” Lannetti said. “Phil just made some nice passes
to me and we were able to put it
together.”
While Moravian’s defense
allowed a slew of big plays, the longest play recorded against
Lycoming was a 21-yard run by fullback Kevin Lukich on the first
offensive play of the second half. The Warriors pressured Moravian
quarterback Jerry Venturino throughout the game, forcing the
sophomore into completing just 4 of 22 passes. In the second half,
Venturino completed one pass for six yards.
The Warriors sacked Venturino three
times. Zoschg led the defense with two sacks, while freshman
cornerback Matt Murdock intercepted two first-half passes. Both of
Murdock’s interceptions came on passes intended for Jeff Lowry,
Moravian’s leading receiver. Lowry, a senior who graduated from
Southern Columbia three years before Murdock, caught just two passes
for 17 passes.
“We just had to prevent
the big play,” Murdock said. “We had to make them try to sustain
drives and we did what we had to do offensively and defensively.
Special teams had a couple of breakdowns, but Coach (defensive
coordinator Steve) Wiser always tells us we have to win two out of
three, and I think we did that offensively and
defensively.” |
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Sports Date Posted:
10/26/2003 |
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As appearing in Sunday - October 26, 2003 edition of
The Sun-Gazette
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