The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Scagliozzo’s 4 TDs fuel Comets win
It took a bit of time, but when Amherst junior Khennedy Scagliozzo got going, there was no stopping him.
Scagliozzo rushed for 183 yards on 22 carries with four rushing touchdowns to give coach Mike Passerrello his first win at his new position with a 41-6 nonconference, season-opening win over Clearview on Aug. 25.
“It’s huge because all offseason we preached how important the offseason program was and our summer conditioning program was,” Passerrello said. “After a while you wonder, but I’m just thrilled to see the players be able to reap the rewards from all their hard work.”
For the first quarter and a half, the Comets’ defense was the story, stopping three Clippers’ drives deep in Amherst territory. The last one was thwarted when Clippers quarterback Anthony Terry fumbled with Amherst’s Greg Rhodes jumping on it at the 10-yard line.
Then, Amherst junior running back Scagliozzo took center stage.
The 5-foot-9, 170-pound running back ripped off a 37-yard run to get Amherst out of the shadow of its goal post. Two plays later, he took the hand-off right. He cut back to his left, got past a Clippers’ defender and capped off the electrifying run by diving and hitting the pylon for the touchdown.
Another defensive stand set up Amherst with good field position just before the end of the first half. Instead of using the ground game, the Comets took to the air with Matt Fairchild hitting Evan Shawver from 39 yards out to give them a 14-0 lead at the half.
Taking the second half kickoff and behind Jacob Frankowski, Jacob Lezon, Matt Lee, Russell Hellinger and Connor O’Doherty, the Comets methodically moved down the field. Taking almost six minutes off the clock, Scagliozzo plunged in from a yard out.
Later in the third quarter, Scagliozzo scored his third touchdown of the game — a four-yard run — to give Amherst a 27-0 lead. Early in the fourth quarter, he scored his fourth and final touchdown — this time from two yards out.
“We started off slow,” Scagliozzo said. “The Oline blocked fantastically in the second half. They opened all the holes for me and I ran through them.”