Laster leads Steinert past Allentown for its first win
HAMILTON >> Following three tough losses against teams that are now a combined 9-2, you had a feeling the Steinert High football team was capable of making something good happen against Allentown.
Sure enough, the Spartans did exactly that with a solid effort on both sides of the ball for a 28-21 victory over visiting Allentown Saturday afternoon for its first win of the season.
As might be expected, the star of the Steinert show was Will Laster, who had a monster afternoon with three touchdowns and a massive 286 yards on 31 carries. He was simply too much for an Allentown squad (1-2) that lacks physicality on its defense.
It was far, however, from a one-man show. Quarterback Nick Wright was able to complete some key passes, and perhaps the most important thing of all, the offensive line played much better.
As for the Steinert defense, after getting torched right away on a 52-yard by Ramsey Ben-Flah on the Redbirds’ first series, it completely shut down Allentown until the fourth quarter.
“We wanted to mix it up on offense; I thought we did a pretty good job with that,’’ said Steinert coach Dan Caruso. “The defense also played well. We got good pressure on the quarterback.’’
After giving up the early touchdown, Steinert went to work with a 55-yard drive in the first quarter that was capped by an 19-yard touchdown pass from Wright to Yzad Elhossary.
Steinert’s next possession also went the distance as Laster really started taking it to the Allentown defense with five straight carries, including a 5-yard TD run that gave the Spartans a lead it would hold for the rest of the game.
At the half Laster had 73 yards on 13 carries, but this was just a warm-up of what was to come. Midway through the third quarter he tore through the heart of the Allentown defenses on runs of 33 and 31 yards before racing into the end zone on a 20-yard burst.
Now trailing 21-7, Allentown stayed in the game when Dan Merkel (8-for23, 157 yards) started heating up and quickly drove his team down the field before completing a 26-TD pass to Ben Flah.
Time to once again feed the ball to Laster.
Despite missing several plays on the drive with cramping issues, Laster again hammered the Allentown defense with 51 yards on four carries, the last of which resulted in an 11-yard TD run.
Allentown was able to remain alive yet again with another quick-strike drive culminated by a 4-yard TD run by Merkel, but by this point there was less than three minutes remaining in the game.
After Steinert recovered an onside kick, Allentown had one last chance when it got the ball on its own 40 with :42 remaining. It was here where Steinert’s defense again got the job done as it turned the ball over on downs when Matt Lambert broke up a fourthdown pass.
“I could feel their defense getting tired,’’ Laster said of his 213 rushing yards in the second half. “And our line did a great job opening the holes.’’
A line that often struggled during the first three games of the season.
“We are already down to our fourth center,’’ said Caruso. “We have had some other injuries up front as well and we are young along the line. But today you could see them starting to gel.’’
What Steinert also did well is shut down the Allentown running game. Merkel is usually very effective running the ball, but on this day he had just 19 yards on 22 carries if you include the sacks.
“We knew we had to contain him,’’ said Caruso. “We brought some (blitz) pressure at times and Jordan Allwood did a great job rushing the passer all day.’’
Steinert will be a big underdog at Notre Dame Friday night, but this badlyneeded win was huge because it keeps the team in contention for a .500 or better-type season.
Allentown (1-2) 7 0 0 14 - 21 Steinert (1-3) 7 7 7 7 - 28
A-Ben Flah 52 run (Kallam kick) S-Elhossary 18 pass from Wright (Mingle kick)
S-Laster 5 run (Mingle kick) S-Laster 20 run (Mingle kick) A-Ben Flah 26 pass from Merkel (Kallam kick)
S-Laster 11 run (Mingle kick) A-Merkel 4 run (Kallam kick)