Mars struggles in loss to Shaler
SHALER TWP — Mars quarterback Rafael Bartley's pass was deflected on its way to tight end Hunter Hart inside Shaler's 10-yard line Friday night at Titan Stadium.
Growing pains from a new offensive system never seemed so cruel as when the pass fell into the hands of Shaler defensive back Luke Cignetti, who raced 95 yards for a touchdown.
The interception snuffed out a 15-play, 52-yard trip the Planets took to the Titans' 13-yard line. Mars, which is transitioning from a run-heavy Wing-T to a more balanced spread attack, never found its mojo in a 25-6 non-conference football loss.
Injuries, mistakes and inexperience have made it a difficult transition for the Planets, who fell to 0-2 for the first time since 2005.
“The biggest factor is you can't turn over the ball,” Mars coach Scott Heinauer said. “That's the biggest factor. When you are moving the ball down the field, you can't make turnovers. Young teams do things like that.”
Mars would score its lone touchdown on a 7-yard run by Evan Wright in the fourth quarter.
Wright finished with a game-high 104 yards rushing on 21 carries. Wright's touchdown was set up by a 48-yard pass from Bartley to Hayden Mayer.
Mayer led the Planets with 56 receiving yards, while Bartley was 8-of-20 passing for 104 yards with two interceptions.
“We've only been in this offense for a solid three weeks with our new coach,” Wright said. “We're learning and we're getting better. Our quarterback is good, we need to focus on protection.
“I need to focus on protection so we can give him more time to get the ball off. Things will get better as the season goes on.”While Cignetti's interception hurt, the Planets had another drive stopped by their own miscues before halftime.Mars moved the ball to the Shaler 29 before being hit with a holding penalty and a false start. Titans linebacker Brandon London compounded Mars' misery by stepping in front of a Mars receiver to intercept Bartley's pass on the next play with less than two minutes before halftime.“We saw it was a new system they were trying to run,” Titans coach Jim Ryan said. “You can see the Mars kids are unsure of it. You could see that bringing pressure was going to cause problems for them.”Not being able to stop Shaler's versatile offensive attack didn't do much to help Mars' struggling offense. The Titans' first two possessions were nearly identical.Both went 69 yards and ended with touchdowns. Keegan Smetanka put Shaler ahead 6-0 with a 9-yard touchdown pass with 8 minutes, 46 seconds left in the first quarter.Following a Mars three-and-out, Shaler embarked on another 10-play drive which culminated in a 5-yard touchdown run by Josh Miller.“We saw that our sweep game was going to be there,” Ryan said. “It's just a classic buck sweep we run. We knew we were going to be able to get that rolling tonight. We're an offense that wears many formations and we do it well. We are confident we can do that to give our opponents more to prepare for.”Cignetti's interception return gave Shaler a 19-0 lead at halftime.The Titans added one more score, on a 1-yard scoring plunge by running back Augie Tortorea in the third quarter.Mars showed promise at times when it moved the ball downfield. The vital next step will be making sure those chances end in points.“That happened a couple times, we drove down the field and we'd get close to the end zone and we'd have a mental error,” Wright said. “On the next drive, the momentum would pick back up. Eventually, we capitalized.”Mars 0 0 0 6 — 6Shaler 12 7 6 0 — 25First QuarterS — Dylan Schlagel 9 pass from Keegan Smetamka (kick failed), 8:46S — Josh Miller 5 run (pass failed), 2:34Second QuarterS — Luke Cignetti 95 interception return (Jack Keenan kick), 2:34Third QuarterS — Augie Tortorea 1 run (kick blocked), 6:24Fourth QuarterM — Evan Wright 7 run (kick failed), 5:59Individual StatisticsRushing: Mars, Evan Wright 21-104, Rafael Bartley 17-44, Luke Motran 1-2. Shaler, Josh Miller 13-52, Luke Cignetti 5-43, Augie Tortorea 5-14, Keegan Smetanka 4-3, Kaden Orga 2-3.Passing: Mars, Rafael Bartley 8-20-104-2. Shaler, Keegan Smetanka 13-18-148-1.Receiving: Mars, Hayden Mayer 2-66, Chris Dvorak 3-35, Aiden Alessio 1-10, Evan Wright 2-3. Shaler, Brandon London 3-62, Dylan Schlagel 5-54, Luke Cignetti 1-17, Dom Rossi 1-6, Kaden Orga 2-5, Justin DeSaboto 1-4.
