Hawks go to the air for victory
St. Joseph’s stifles Pine-Richland’s ground attack
ALTOONA, Pa. — With a potent passing attack and stifling defense, St. Joseph’s Prep put Pine-Richland, WPIAL 6A champions and defending PIAA champions, on its heels.
In the pouring rain, Hawks sophomore quarterback Kyle McCord, who already has Division I offers from Michigan, Penn State, West Virginia and Arizona, sliced up the Rams secondary with three touchdown passes, and Pine-Richland couldn’t get going on offense in a 37-0 loss Saturday in the PIAA Class 6A semifinals at Mansion Park Stadium.
“I’m extremely proud of our seniors, the most winningest group of seniors ever at Pine-Richland, so I’m proud of them and what they’ve done for this program,” Rams coach Eric Kasperowicz said. “It’s an awesome group of kids.
“As far as the game goes, we got outmatched. I think we were just outmatched, especially on the outside, there. They just had better guys than we did. Threw the ball up and made catches.”
McCord completed 22 of 32 passes for 305 yards.
Pine-Richland and its veteran defensive line limited the run game of St. Joseph’s for most of the game, with 65 of the Hawks’ 105 rushing yards coming on one play in the fourth quarter.
St. Joseph’s, which did not register a turnover, avenged last year’s 41-21 loss to Pine-Richland in the PIAA championship.
“For a lot of my team, we watched their film, and they were really playing, it looked like, teams that were scared of them,” Hawks junior running back Kolbe Burrell said. “We had that mentality of we’re just going to fight. Fight, fight, fight. And that’s really it. We don’t care if we’re the underdogs, we don’t care if we’re the big cats, we’re going to fight no matter what. So that’s what we did. Stayed in the hole, stayed in the trenches and fought.”
Under consistent pressure, Pine-Richland sophomore quarterback Cole Spencer completed 6 of 25 passes for 39 yards and two interceptions.
The Rams recovered an onside kick to start the game but couldn’t score, turning the ball over on downs. That slow start threw Pine-Richland off a bit, Kasperowicz said.
“Lots of opportunities,” Kasperowicz said. “I think that onside kick at the beginning, not being able to convert down in, kind of took the momentum out of us a little bit. We were so used to kind of putting that away and getting some points there, and I think that first half probably goes a little differently if we do that. But that’s a good football team. Well-coached and they’ve just got dudes everywhere.”
St. Joseph’s started out strong, with a drive capped by a 43-yard touchdown pass from McCord to receiver Marques Mason.
McCord passed for 242 yards in the first half to give the Hawks a 23-0 lead. A 24yard pass set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Burrell to open the second quarter, and a 19-yard pass set up a 2yard touchdown run by Burrell at 8:42.
McCord connected with Anthony Rightley and Tyrio Jones-Garland for touchdowns in the second half for a 37-point lead.
In the third quarter, PineRichland called a fake punt on fourth-and-14, and senior running back Anthony Cerminara ran for 21 yards the Rams’ longest play from scrimmage. But Spencer threw an interception on the next play.
The Hawks closed on the ball quickly and made some shoestring tackles to contain the Rams’ usually-dominant ground game.
“They sold out on the run game to stop the run, that’s kind of what we’ve been hanging our hats on, and when teams do that, you’ve got to be able to throw the ball and make them get out of that, and we weren’t able to complete many passes tonight,” Kasperowicz said. “Normally we can throw some balls out to the perimeter and loosen them up a little bit and create some lanes, and they’re fast. Even when we did have a couple guys pop, [junior running back] Luke Meckler popped once or twice, and Cole, and they’re getting tripped up right at the last minute.”