Perfection
Vikings were the first area football team to go 16-0
The coronavirus pandemic not only had a negative impact on the 2020 high school football season, but it also affected a special team from 2010. Due to COVID-19, plans to honor Central Catholic’s league, district and state champions from a decade ago have been put on hold. But no special event is needed to bring those 16-0 Vikings back together because they still talk all the time about that special season and one of the most special teams in Lehigh Valley football history. OnDec. 17, 2010, CCHSrallied for a 28-27 win over Bishop McDevitt at Hersheypark Stadium for the school’s third state championship and eighth in Lehigh Valley football history.
Perhaps because a decade has gone by without another state title for another local team, the memory of that compelling victory resonates strongly for many area football fans.
It certainly remains prominent in the minds of the players, coaches and others who made it happen.
“It feels like yesterday; it really does,” said Jack Sandherr, whose late 70-yard reception on a special play set up the game-winning score in the state final. “The fact that it still feels like yesterday shows the impact it had on all our lives.”
It started in Shamokin
The 2009 season ended with a 31-10 loss to Selinsgrove in a PIAA 3A quarterfinal at Shamokin.
“We weren’t supposed to do much in 2009, but we went 12-2, 8-1 in the league, and won the district title,” said then-coach Harold Fairclough. “We had a bunch of young talent. A lot of those guys were sophomores and juniors. We just went on a run in 2009 and got so much out of that group. That group actually set the tone for the next year.”
The important thing to Fairclough was that the younger players got the taste of success in 2009 and grew hungry for more.
“That off season was awesome ,” he said. “They attacked the weight room and didn’t miss any days. They worked their butts off. We barely had to say anything.
“The older kids took ownership and leadership, and they made sure the younger players were getting in all of their workouts. They knew exactly what they had to do and they had their desire to leave their mark on the program.”
Fairclough was a defensive standout on Central’s 1993 state title team, and senior Shane McNeely wanted to follow in his coach’s footsteps.
“Many of the freshmen were intimidated by me, but not McNeely,” Fairclough said. “One day when he was a freshman he came right into my office, sat down and started asking me questions. He’d ask ‘What about this guy? What about that guy? What about that team? What did it feel like?’ For me as a coach, it was awesome.”
As for McNeely, the end to the 2009 season was a steppingstone.
“We had a big pit in our stomach after losing to Selinsgrove and felt there was unfinished business,” he said. “As juniors, we felt we let that senior class down. We felt wehad something special here. That rising senior class was determined to take the next step and become the best in the state.”
Connor’s commitment
Just before practice was set to start, Connor Faust, expected to be one of the area’s top linebackers, suffered a torn ACLat a camp at Princeton.
While Faust couldn’t help CCHSphysically, he helped them by setting a standard of commitment. He attended every practice, every meeting, every film session and did everything every other player had to do and more, and [he] was a supportive fixture on the sidelines.
“When Connor got hurt, I remember going to his house and talking to him and his mom and dad, and we shed a few tears,”
Fairclough said. “He started helping Coach [John] Cupples with the linebackers. We gave him a whistle and made him an honorary coach, and he did an awesome job while he was going through his rehab.”
As a tribute to his perseverance, CCHS allowed Faust, who went on to play baseball at Lehigh, dress for the state final and tried to get him on the field to close it out after the game was decided.
“But the last 10 seconds of the game was chaos and wewere just trying to line up properly,” Fairclough said. “I really don’t know if we got Connor out there out there or not for the last kneeldown, but I remember seeing Connor celebrating with the rest of the guys. That was awesome to see.”
Prep preparation
In the final tuneup for the start of the season, Central participated in a quad-scrimmage with Philadelphia Catholic League powers La Salle College, Archbishop Carroll and St. Joseph’s Prep.
“That was crazy,” Fairclough said. “It was probably the best scrimmage I’ve ever been a part of. That’s where wekind of knew we belonged.
“St. Joe’s was bringing so much pressure, and I was like ‘OK, it’s a scrimmage, but if you want to do this, let’s go.’ We turned it up
a notch, they turned it up a notch, and the fact we were able to hold really built our confidence. The same [was true] when we went against La Salle.”
The Vikings also began the regular season with a major challenge, traveling to Downingtown East. In a harbinger of big nights to come, quarterback Brendan Nosovitch ran for three touchdowns and passed for one plus a two-point conversion in a 30-21 win.
“I remember that it was an electric crowd down at Downingtown with their crowd and all the students from our school that went down there,” Nosovitch said. “We played well against a good team. Did we know that night we were going to have the special season we had? No, but we knew we had a good team.
“It probably wasn’t until the Nazareth game that we knew we had a real special team.”
On schedule
The 39-36 win at Nazareth on Oct. 1 proved to be Central’s closest call until the last game.
Nazareth, which featured senior Chuck Dibilio whoscored 32 touchdowns, finished 9-3. The Blue Eagles lost to Whitehall in the district playoffs and the Zephyrs also played CCHStough in a 21-14 outcome. The 21 points represented Central’s lowest output of the season although it still had 447 yards on offense.
In districts, CCHS breezed past Blue Mountain and Southern Lehigh and rolled to a 40-0 halftime lead over Abington Heights in a PIAA first-round game at Scranton. Kevin Gulyas caught four TD passes from Nosovitch and added an 85-yard kickoff return in a 54-14 rout of the District 2 champs.
Next up was a trip back to Shamokin, where the previous season ended. This time, the opponent was Clearfield and not Selinsgrove, and the outcome was also different: a 55-20 win.
“If you told me before the season that we were going to play on the same field in the same round as we did in 2009 and blow out a team like we did, I would have told you you were crazy,” Sandherr said. “When that happened, I was like, ‘Whoa, we’ve got to stay healthy and keep our minds right.’
“We had it going and were playing good football.”
Archbishop Wood
After not having much trouble in four previous postseason games, the Vikings were challenged against Philly Catholic League power Archbishop Wood.
For one of the few times all season, the Vikings trailed late in the first half 21-14 but scored the next 35 points in a 49-27 victory at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium.
Nosovitch was unstoppable with 183 yards rushing and 418 passing. He had a hand in all seven CCHS touchdowns.
As good as he was, Nosovitch credited the defense.
“They won that game by how they played in the second half,” he said. “It was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from a defense. Archbishop Woodhad a lot of Division I talent.
“Shane McNeely went down early in that game, and we knew he was done for the year. It was emotional for us. Everyone really rallied behind that and we had some guys moving around, and we played lights-out defense.”
Sweet Hershey
Nosovitch didn’t have the same kind of night in the title game win over Bishop McDevitt as he had a week earlier, but thanks to a special play that bailed the team out of a late jam and a stout defensive effort, the Vikings wouldn’t be denied.
“There was a lot of excitement in the community for that one,” Nosovitch said. “We had a lot of fans there, and with McDevitt having a lot of Division I players, we knew it would be close. It came down to a special play call and a great defensive stop.”
McNeely attempted to play but couldn’t, weakening the CCHS defense.
McNeely said the team’s ability to overcome injuries and dig deep against Wood and McDevitt showed it had heart and resiliency to go with tremendous talent.
No one cheered more when Sandherr, one of McNeely’s best friends, pulled off the 70-yard completion on a tackle-eligible play that turned the game around when it could have been McNeely in the same spot.
“I still kid Jack to this day that I would have scored a touchdown,” McNeely said, laughing. “He always got tackled in the red zone that season, and I remind him of that.”
Whenit ended, the celebration stretched from the Hersheypark Stadium turf all the way back to Allentown and Rockne Hall, where no one wanted to leave as night turned into morning.
“It was surreal — wewere 16-0 [and] we were state champs,” McNeely said. “To do it with my brother Tad made it extra special.”
Postscript
McNeely went on to a successful career at New Hampshire, where he played on FCS playoff teams, and is now working in medical sales and living with his wife in Philadelphia.
Nosovitch’s amazing junior year got national Division I attention. He finished the 2010 season with a school single-season record 3,111 yards passing and a District 11-record 43 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,647 yards and 25 touchdowns.
In 2011, Central went 9-6, won the District 11 title and had a memorable 61-54 victory over Valley View in the first round of states in a game that nearly featured 1,200 yards of offense — 487 yards passing by Nosovitch.
But the rematch against Archbishop Wood in the semifinals resulted in a 70-14 loss.
Nosovitch ended his career as Pennsylvania’s career recordholder in total offense with 12,877 yards and second all time in the state in passing yards (9,249) and touchdown passes (106). He won the Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year award after his sophomore year and the state’s Maxwell Club Award as a senior.
He was recruited by Steve Spurrier to South Carolina and was converted into a tight end. He had a post-graduate season at Boston College and is now in his second year as a financial adviser for CAPTRUST, which has an office in downtown Allentown.
Fairclough left Central in February 2012 after going 49-27 in six seasons with the Vikings. He spent three seasons as an assistant at Whitehall and one at Moravian before being hired as Emmaus’ head coach in January 2016.