Shenango outshoots Mars
ADAMSTWP — With just over five minutes remaining, Friday's football matchup between Shenango and Mars came down to one quarterback and six good receivers.
Shenango quarterback Rocco Colavecchia threw for 442 yards victory over the Planets.
"We threw quite a bit tonight," Colavecchia said. "We have six good receivers who are able to get up the field once they make a catch. It's crazy. Last week for us, it was a struggle of the defense and this week's game it was offense the whole way through."
Coming off of a 17-12 victory last week, Shenango topped the Planets with a nine-play, 87-yard scoring drive that ended with 1:22 to play.
Colavecchia completed three passes on that drive, hooking up with receivers Aaron Maxwell (14 yards) and Ryan Tanner (6 yards), as well as tight end Steven Burick (6 yards). The senior quarterback finished off the drive by busting through the Planets defense for a 12-yard run that gave his team 41-35 advantage.
"We really persevered," said Shenango head coach Brian Cooper. "We kept going and overcame a lot of weapons. They really put up some big play threats."
One of those threats was running back Josh Keil, who caught three balls for 109 yards and found his way into the end zone twice for the Planets. Keil was also responsible for picking off Colavecchia in the third quarter, paving the way for Mars to close within one point of Shenango.
When the ball stayed in his hands, another of those threats was running back Billy Bair who came out, broke tackles and ran the distance, putting up 231 yards in the second half alone.
Bair scored two touchdowns in the final two quarters, one of them on a 91-yard run that put the Planets ahead 35-28.
But Bair fumbled the ball four times, resulting in 21 points for the Wildcats.
"You have to execute and you have to come up with the stop," said Mars head coach Scott Heinauer. "You can't have fumbles or turnovers and give up 41 points and expect to win a ballgame."
Things started slowly for Mars, which was unable to string together more than two plays in the first 19 minutes. The Planets did score on a 60-yard touchdown reception by Keil.
But during the Planets' struggle, Colavecchia and his team were able to scoring 21 points, as the Wildcats quarterback completed touchdown passes to Maxwell and Tanner, and senior running back Spencer Haben pounded the ball into the end zone on a 6-yard touchdown run.
The Planets came out of the locker room and put up three consecutive scores. They forced a Wildcats turnover, eventually pulling ahead 35-28 on a 91-yard run by Bair with 8:54 remaining in the game.
But Shenango answered right back with a 32-yard touchdown reception by Tanner, tying the score at 35 with 6:58 left. On the ensuing drive, Bair fumbled on the Wildcat 15-yard line, paving the way for the final Shenango score.
When the time came for the coach to put the ball in the hands of his senior quarterback, Colavecchia scored on the 12-yard run to put his team on top.
