Rams start fast, cruise past Vikings

Junior RB Meckler runs wild in the first quarter

Four touchdowns and 245 rushing yards on nine carries looks like a stat line from an entire game.

For Pine-Richland junior running back Luke Meckler, that was just the first quarter.

Meckler rushed for 280 yards total, adding an interception in the third quarter Friday night in Pine-Richland’s 42-21 win against Central Catholic.

“I’ve never done that,” Meckler said. “It was great. But it’s not me, it’s mostly the linemen blocking for me … the holes were huge. I just hit the holes right and I worked on it all week.”

Three of Meckler’s scores came on runs of 50-plus yards.

“Luke Meckler, we know he’s a dangerous kid with the ball in his hands,” PineRichland coach Eric Kapserowicz said. “The line did a great job, obviously, with those couple long runs he had, they gave him a little crease and he took it to the house. He’s someone where, when he breaks open, he can finish it.”

The win keeps Pine-Richland (5-1, 4-0) undefeated in the WPIAL Class 6A Quad County Conference, while Central Catholic moves to 4-2 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

Two muffed kicks and three fumbles for Central Catholic in the first quarter kept Pine-Richland’s offense on the field. The Vikings had seven turnovers total, with junior quarterback Dom Pieto later throwing two interceptions. Pieto completed 4 of 13 passes for 77 yards.

Pine-Richland struck first when senior running back Anthony Cerminara ran in a touchdown from 2 yards, and Meckler made it 14-0 when he weaved through Vikings defenders for an 82-yard touchdown run.

Meckler added a 6-yard touchdown run before Central Catholic got some points on the board when senior John O’Rouke capitalized off Pine-Richland’s on-side kick attempt, scooping up the ball and returning it 53 yards for a touchdown.

With 3:58 to play in the first quarter, Meckler broke free for another long one, this time an 81-yard touchdown run, adding a 54-yard touchdown dash to close out the first.

A pick-6 by Central Catholic senior linebacker Brian Dallas, who jumped a pass near Pine-Richland’s 35 line and returned it for a touchdown, marked the only score in the second quarter, quiet, by comparison, to the first.

In the third quarter, Rams senior linebacker Merrick Miller picked off Pieto, which set up a 14-yard touchdown run by Pine-Richland sophomore quarterback Cole Spencer, making it 42-14 with about nine minutes to play in the third quarter.

Spencer rushed for 90 yards on 22 carries and completed 11 of 23 passes for 78 yards, with two interceptions.

Sophomore running back Edward Tillman led the Vikings with 91 rushing yards on 16 carries, adding a 3-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

“Not a very clean game,” said Kasperowicz, whose Rams were held to seven points in the second half. “We’ll look at the tape, we have to see what we need to do, but it just seemed like when we would get going there a little bit, we’d have a penalty that would kind of stall out a drive, or we’d take a negative play or a sack, or whatever it is … It’s not going to get any easier. We’ve got some good games coming up, so we’re going to take it one game at a time, we’re going to get better. But I’m extremely proud of the way these guys played, and hats off to Central. That’s a great football team. Tough, physical kids. That was Western P.A. football.”

Next week, Pine-Richland plays at Canon-McMillan and Central Catholic plays Norwin at Carnegie Mellon.