FOUNTAIN SPRINGS
Late in the second quarter Friday night against Mount Carmel, North Schuylkill’s John Rupinski was feeling frustrated.
Up to that point, the senior running back had carried the football 11 times for 19 yards, and the Spartans were clinging to a 14-7 lead despite totally dominating Mount Carmel defensively.
On carry No. 12, Rupinski vented those frustrations in impressive fashion.
Bouncing off a pile of linemen, Rupinski found a seam on the right side and exploded down the sideline for a 66-yard touchdown run. Earlier in the game, Rupinski set up a touchdown plunge by quarterback Bobby Grigas with a 59-yard gain on a screen pass. Later in the game, he had a 91-yard touchdown run that looked an awful lot like the 66-yarder, and effectively killed any chance of a Red Tornado comeback by giving the Spartans a 47-21 lead with 9:22 to play.
Rupinski also had a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown called back on a holding penalty. As it was, the senior carried the ball 17 times for 184 yards, caught the 59-yard pass and had three kick returns for 72 yards.
That’s 315 all-purpose yards, basically another day at the office for Rupinski and the unbeaten Spartans (7-0).
Rupinski has been the leader of North Schuylkill’s potent ground game as the Spartans enter tonight’s battle of unbeaten Anthracite Football League squads with Jim Thorpe (7-0) at Ghosh Orthodontics Field at Spartan Stadium.
He’s the area’s leading rusher with 1,025 yards and 12 touchdowns on 123 carries. In a key win against Marian in Week 4, Rupinski ran for 305 yards and five touchdowns, including runs of 65, 34 and 36 yards. A week later, against Mahanoy Area, he picked up 206 more yards, including a 90-yard touchdown run.
“We switched it up this year,” Rupinski said. “We changed our formations, put some new formations in, and they’ve worked out great. We have a lot of motion, and the cutbacks are always there. It works out nice.”
But Rupinski, as good as he is, is just one cog in what is a very good all-around offensive group.
Quarterback Bobby Grigas is among area’s leaders in passing yardage (945 yards, 11 touchdowns) and has also run for 302 yards and four scores. Wide receivers Tevin Murray (24 catches, 501 yards, 6 TDs) and Richie Zahodnick (12-306, 4 TDs) give Grigas two strong targets, and when you add in slot threat Pat Gownley, a pile-driving blocker in fullback Major Jordan, and a big, dominating front line, it’s easy to see how the Spartans have racked up 1,909 yards rushing (272.7 per game) and 2,854 total
yards (407.7 per game) in seven contests.
“We use everybody,” Rupinski said. “If people overplay the run or me, Bobby will get the ball to Zahodnick or Murray, or Major will just pound the ball up the middle.”
Mount Carmel actually did a good job of shutting down Rupinski for close to a half. But to do it, the Red Tornadoes committed six players up front most of the time, and against a team as varied as North Schuylkill, that was a case of picking a poison and hoping not to get sick. In fact, the 59-yard screen pass came on North Schuylkill’s third play, a third-and-12.
“That was big,” Rupinski said. “They were bringing six, seven guys all the time. We thought maybe switch it up and throw a screen pass. It worked out very nicely and set the tone for the team.”
But it wasn’t until Rupinski broke loose on his 66-yard touchdown that he felt entirely comfortable.
“I was getting frustrated. When there wasn’t a hole, I was getting bottled up at the line. I hit it (the hole on his 66-yard run) as hard as I could and broke through. There weren’t any defenders there.”
Rupinski is a classic mix of power and speed. He’s not big at 5-foot-9, but is a solid 185 pounds. He churns his legs and carries tacklers, but when he gets in the open, can outrun most defenders. He plays with passion, as evident by his emotional outbursts on the field when the offense does well and on the sideline when the defense does not.
As a junior in 2013, he showed signs of what he’s doing now, with 23 carries for 163 yards and two touchdowns, and four pass receptions for 137 yards and two TDs. But he was bothered by a hip injury suffered in the Spartans’ fourth game against Schuylkill Haven and never got to really blossom. He missed five games, returning for the playoffs as North Schuylkill reached the Eastern Conference Class AA championship game.
His play so far this season has filled the Spartans’ big question mark entering the season, as North Schuylkill had to replace the loss of tailback Auston Hummel (160-890, 9 TDs) and fullback Matt Smarkanic (76-397, 11 TDs) to graduation.
After the injury last season, Rupinski worked hard on the weights to make his legs stronger. The results have showed week to week on the football field.
“I think that’s been a big thing,” he said. “I’m fresher this year. That plus we have so many weapons. We’re all really excited.
“This (Mount Carmel) was a big win for us. We know we have a chance to get into districts. But we don’t want to think too far ahead. We still have some tough games.”
(Republican-Herald sports editor Leroy Boyer contributed to this story)