Mars youth team caps memorable season with Super Bowl win

By DEREK PYDA Eagle Staff Writer

December 02, 2004 Last Updated: January 06, 2005 12:14 PM Amateur

The journey is sometimes more memorable than the destination.

This adage proved to be true for the Mars Martians 11- and 12-year-old football team recently when it won the North Youth League Super Bowl with a 28-6 win over Pine-Richland (8-3).

The victory capped the Martians' season at a perfect 11-0.

"Just being able to see the fun the kids had this season and the smiles on their faces throughout the year, it was great," said Martians coach Joe Grosso. "I was lucky to get the chance to coach them."

It was the second year Grosso headed the Martians. They finished 4-4 in 2003.

"Last year Saxonburg was very strong and we were a bit younger," said Grosso. "But I knew we had a lot of experienced and bright kids coming back who work very hard."

Mars' game plan featured nothing fancy, but the players executed it perfectly.

"They mastered the basic plays of power football - the wishbone and the straight T," said Grosso. "We just ran the ball and our offensive line opened up the holes for our backs.

"Plus we had a very strong defense," Grosso added.

The Martians surrendered seven or fewer points in eight of their 11 games while they scored more than 20 in all but one contest - an 8-6 win over Saxonburg.

Prior to the meeting with Pine-Richland in the Super Bowl, Mars had defeated P-R twice in the regular season by scores of 38-13 and 26-6.

"A lot of the credit goes to our assistant coaches," said Grosso. "We had one for every position and it really helped."

Assistant coaches included Bob Geyer, Ron Dakan, Ron Cress, Bob Haraczy and Bruce Gold.

Just after the Super Bowl, the best players from Mars, Seneca Valley and Saxonburg joined forces in the league's all-star game against the best from North Boro, Allegheny Valley and Pine-Richland.

The Butler County team won 40-0.

"The talent from the Seneca Valley and Saxonburg teams was so strong," said Grosso. "And I credit the coaches from those teams who helped out. We had just three days of practice before the game."

The Martians' good fortune is just part of recent success for the Mars youth teams.

The Mars Astros (ages 9-and-10) won last year's Super Bowl while the Rockets (ages 7-and-8) finished this season with a 9-2 record.

"I think it all means that Mars football is going to be very strong as these kids get older and move up," said Grosso.

Grosso will take over coaching duties for the Astros next season.

"It's going to be tough to duplicate what we did this season, but our goal is always to get to the Super Bowl," he said.

Members of the Mars Martians were:

Erick Guzak, Cameron Malewski, Matt Davidson, Mikal Daskivich, Josh Pinkerton, Vincent Dennis, Austin Meile, Christopher Boggs, Aaron Lozzi, Daniel Offley, Evan Pappert, Ronnie Dakan, Ian Hindley, Shane Cress, Cody Kaiser, Dylan Bear, Michael Parrish, Lenny Boyd, Shane Hughes, Bryan Edwards, Seth Geyer, Tyler Chepponis, Brandon Williams, Billy Price, Chris Hardt, Patrick Duffy, Elliot Woodward, Cameron Cress, Billy Matoka, Jeff Quail, Zack Zwigart, Brad Grosso, Ryan Gold, Scott Haraczy