Ironmen’s running game shut down
District 10 Greyhounds packed box, contained ‘Thunder and Lightning’
It was a cold, crisp night Friday in Ambridge, certainly not ideal conditions for some Thunder and Lightning.
Steel Valley’s Thunder and Lightning backfield was held in check most of the night. No, Todd Hill and Kam Williams were pretty much stopped cold.
Wilmington’s defense played climate control and shut down Steel Valley’s prolific running duo, which had been tagged Thunder and Lightning by Steel Valley faithful. Wilmington defense was the chief reason the Greyhounds ran to a 26-6 victory in a PIAA Class 2A semifinal at Ambridge’s Moe Rubenstein Stadium.
The speedy Williams and powerful Hill came into the game with 3,741 yards between them. But Wilmington’s defense was unreal, holding Williams to 15 yards on nine attempts and Hill to 18 yards on eight carries.
And without a running game, Steel Valley was doomed. It didn’t help that Steel Valley, the WPIAL champion, played the contest without starting quarterback Ronnell Lawrence, who was ruled ineligible to play by Steel Valley earlier this week because of academics.
Two statistics tell everything about Wilmington’s defensive dominance: Steel Valley had only two first downs and one came by penalty. Steel Valley had a total of 6 yards of offense.
“I have to give credit to our defensive coordinator Robb Shimrack and his lead assistant Casey Hilton,” said Brandon Phillian, Wilmington’s first-year coach. “They put together a terrific game plan defensively.”
The plan might have been good, but the Greyhounds defense was beyond good. It was surreal.
“To be honest, not even in my wildest dreams, did I think we’d be able to contain Kam Williams and Todd Hill like we did tonight,” Phillian said.
On offense, Wilmington’s wing-T was led by 5-foot-8 senior running back Cameron Marett, who rushed for 146 yards on 28 carries. Wilmington (13-1), the District 10 champion, had only 36 yards passing.
Steel Valley used freshman Nijhay Burt at quarterback and he was 0 for 5. Wilmington regularly had eight or nine defensive players within 5 or 6 yards of the line of scrimmage. Their eyes were on two people — Williams and Hill.
“All they had to do was load up the box. It’s as simple as that,” Hill said. “We couldn’t throw the ball, but he had a ninth-grader back there. … They were just coming off the ball faster than us. They knew what we were doing.”
Both of Steel Valley’s first downs came in the first half. Wilmington led, 12-6, at halftime and tacked on two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Steel Valley, which dressed only 18 players, finished 12-2.
“Wilmington knew we didn’t have our quarterback, so they loaded up the box,” Steel Valley coach Rod Steele said. “They were making our quarterback make some throws. I tried to loosen them up defensively and took a couple shots throwing deep early in the game. It just wasn’t there.”
Wilmington scored on its first possession when Ethen Susan ran 12 yards into the end zone. But Steel Valley tied it, 6-6, later in the first quarter when Eshawn Carter field a punt at his 30, hit the fastforward button and raced past defender after defender for a 70-yard touchdown return. That play was about 10 times more offensive yards than Steel Valley had from scrimmage.
Wilmington took the lead in the second quarter on Robert Pontius’ 8-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jacob Yohman.
Pontius scored on a 2-yard run with 11:41 left in the game and Maret on a 12yarder with 2:33 left.
“I say it every game. The reason why we won games this year is because we were dominant on the line of scrimmage,” Steele said. “We lost this game because Wilmington dominated the line of scrimmage.”