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Mountie beat Laurel Valley, improve to 3 - 2Posted Wednesday, October 07, 2009 by Elis Nellis Ligonier Valley thrashes sister school, 42-0
By ELI NELLIS, eli@indianagazette.netNEW FLORENCE - Laurel Valley and Ligonier Valley are very familiar with each other. The schools, which are in the Ligonier Valley School District, are separated by about 13 miles. (Originally published Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009) At Ram Field on Saturday, though, the teams couldn't have been more different. Ligonier Valley ran all over the Rams, dominating the ground game en route to a 42-0 thrashing of its rival on homecoming. ``I think the credit really has to go to the offensive line,'' said Ligonier Valley coach Roger Beitel of a unit that consists of Sam Skovira, Devon Cesario, Jon Cesario, David Adams and Rusty Knupp. ``Without those guys doing their job up front, there's not much running room.'' Jackson Corcoran was the main beneficiary of the line's work, gaining 142 yards on 15 carries and scoring two touchdowns. Corcoran gained 112 yards in the first half and added a lone 30-yard carry in the second half before his workload was lessened with the Mounties taking a 28-0 lead in the third quarter John Jones threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Tutino, who pulled the ball in nicely in tight coverage in the left side of the end zone. Jones scored from 9 yards to open up the scoring. For the Mounties, the focus wasn't necessarily on beating their backyard rival as much as getting back on track after last week's 22-20 loss to Marion Center in which Ligonier Valley blew a 14-0 halftime lead. ``We came off a tough loss last week, and we haven't focused very much on who we're playing,'' said Beitel. ``Our kids, I thought they responded real well to the tough loss. That was our focus, not necessarily the fact that we were playing Laurel Valley.'' For the Rams, there wasn't a whole lot to say after their worst loss since falling to Southern Huntingdon, 43-0, in the 2006 District 6 Class A playoffs.
While a young but experienced Mounties squad ran up and down the field Saturday, the green Laurel Valley squad has yet to find its rhythm. ``Like I said at the start of the year, we had no offensive starters back, and I hope people were listening because that's what we have back,'' said first-year Laurel Valley coach Chuck Nanassy. ``We don't have experienced kids offensively. We have a few more defensively, and although we play well at times, we're not able to put up a good fight, apparently, against a very good team.'' Laurel Valley was again plagued by turnovers. The Rams fumbled four times, losing three. ``You can't turn the ball over. We turned the ball over last week (against Saltsburg), and it cost us the game,'' said Nanassy. ``The turnovers didn't cost us the game this week, but it certainly slows us down for what we need to do: give 100 percent effort to get two or three first downs in a row. A team like Ligonier comes in and gets that yardage back in one or two plays. We're not capable of doing that.'' ``Coach (Adam) Foust did a great job preparing a game plan for them,'' said Beitel. ``The kids executed the plan well. The kids were well-prepared.'' A host of Ligonier running backs complemented Corcoran's running. Curtis Markosky gained 62 yards on six carries and had a 77-yard touchdown run nullified by a block-in-the-back penalty. ``(Corcoran) ran the ball hard, all of our backs did. We got Curtis involved a good bit more today,'' said Beitel. ``We're happy with the team win, that's for sure.'' Russell Markosky rushed for 50 yards on 10 carries, including a touchdown. Luke Crumrine added 29 yards, and Jones and Daniel Kenyon finished with 22. Isaac Cornell totaled 21 yards and Devon Cesario had 19. Kenyon scored the Mounties' final touchdown from 8 yards in the fourth quarter. Chris Morrow led a short-handed Laurel Valley rushing attack with 71 yards on 19 carries. Kegan Hall carried 12 times for 37 yards. Laurel Valley again played without two key injured players, Bryan Saxton and Clayton Nanassy.  |
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