SHENANDOAH - North Schuylkill coach Wally Hall tells his kids that special teams can be a momentum boost.
The coach wasn't lying as his Spartans recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff and rode that momentum boost for a huge first quarter and a 34-7 win Friday against Shenandoah Valley at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
"We preach to our kids every day that special teams can be a changer and it was tonight as we went and scored off it," Hall said.
North Schuylkill converted the opening fumble into points when Glenn Weist rushed 22 yards for a touchdown.
After a three-and-out for the Blue Devils, North Schuylkill quarterback Matt Smarkanic - who started for an injured Bobby Grigas - kept it on an option play and raced 53 yards to put the Spartans up 14-0.
The next series was the same with a Blue Devil three-and-out, and the Spartans special teams came up big again.
Shenandoah Valley punted from its own 33-yard line. The punt took a Shenandoah bounce all the way back to the Spartan 6-yard line. Weist picked up the ball and followed a convoy of blockers down the sideline and returned it 72 yards to the Blue Devils 22-yard line.
Five plays later, John Rupinski took an option pitch and ran 23 yards for the Spartans' third score of the quarter.
The first-quarter stats were staggering for the Spartans. They scored three touchdowns on just 11 plays and totaled 124 yards. Most of that came on the triple option that they ran perfectly.
"That's the triple option," Hall said. "What the defense gives us and how they react to it is the key. We missed some reads, but that is expected early on. When they get in the flow of it, it will go even better."
While the Spartans' offense was clicking, the Spartans' defense was the real star of the show. The unit kept pressure on the Blue Devils in the first quarter and allowed only 13 total yards for the opening frame and 29 total yards for the half.
"Our defense has been great the last couple scrimmages," Hall said. "We see a lot of good things and have a lot of good athletes that we can run in there and they did an outstanding job tonight."
After being down 21-0, the Shenandoah defense and special teams began to show some signs of life at the end of the first quarter that carried to halftime. It started when Angelo Maskornick took a kickoff and returned it 82 yards for the Blue Devils' first and only touchdown.
"You can't spot a team like North Schuylkill 21 points," Shenandoah Valley head coach Randy Maksimik said. "The kids came back and returned the kickoff, which was a positive, but offensively we couldn't get clicking."
The Blue Devil defense was night and day in the first two quarters. After giving up big plays in the first, they made the adjustment and limited the Spartans to just nine yards in the second quarter.
"Early on it was assignment football and our pitch guy wasn't getting there," Maksimik said. "We switched some things up and made an adjustment and it ended up working out for us the rest of the game."
After leading 21-7 at the half, the Spartans scored two more times to put the game away. In the third quarter, Austin Hummel scored from 7 yards out. In the fourth, Richie Zahodnick also scored from seven yards out.
In Coach Hall's offense, he likes to spread the ball around. It was no different Friday. Five different players scored touchdowns and 11 different players carried the ball.
"We have athletes and want to try and distribute the ball and get it in a lot of people's hands," Hall said.
The win was not all smiles for the Spartans. Grigas didn't play with a leg injury and starting linebacker Tom Gallagher left the game with a labrum injury. Their statuses are unknown next week when the Spartans play Minersville.