ALMEDIA — Mahanoy Area’s Dave Holman had a simple objective heading into Saturday’s non-league game against Col-Mon Vo-Tech.
Get his Golden Bears back on track.
Mahanoy Area did just that from the first play of the game, scoring on its first nine possessions en route to a 54-12 thrashing of the Rams at Wen Cerra Memorial Field.
Lenny Dulsky rushed for 126 yards and two touchdowns and Mason Ryan ran for 118 yards and three scores — all in the first half — as the Golden Bears ended their three-game losing streak.
“Our No. 1 goal was just to get back on track and obviously get that fifth win,” Holman said. “We needed to regroup and put the last few weeks behind us.”
Mahanoy Area (5-4) was 4-1 after a Week 5 win over North Schuylkill, but then dropped three straight games to Blue Mountain, Jim Thorpe and Marian in which the Bears were outscored 105-10.
The Rams (4-5), who are in line to make the District 4 Class AAA playoffs as the No. 4 seed, don’t come close to matching the physicality of those Anthracite Football
League teams and struggled to tackle the Golden Bear ballcarriers.
For Mahanoy Area, however, building some confidence and momentum heading into the postseason was critical. Getting Dulsky and Ryan going was the first step in that process.
“Every single skill guy did a great job today,” Holman said. “We spread the ball around pretty well. We executed very well on the offensive side of the ball.”
Riding the strong offensive line play of Billy Lipshaw, Chris Caravella, Nolan Fegley, Mark Lawrence and John Molina, Mahanoy Area rushed 23 times for 335 yards in the first half, collecting 17 of its 20 first downs en route to a 54-0 halftime advantage.
Running the Bears’ option attack to perfection, Ryan scored on runs of 27, 25 and 25 yards. He also made a perfect pitch on Matt Yedsena’s 30-yard touchdown run off an option play.
Dulsky, the Bears’ bruising 6-foot-2, 220-pound tailback, had been held to 49, 65, 26 and 46 yards and no touchdowns in the four games since rushing for a school-record 329 yards in Week 4 against Minersville. That single-game total led all District 11 rushers this season heading into this weekend’s games.
The senior took a little while to get going Saturday, but scored on runs of 17 and 21 yards in the second quarter in which he just simply ran over CMVT defenders.
“It feels good to be back in the mix with everybody and stay strong,” said Dulsky, who now has 956 yards rushing this season. “Being down the past couple of weeks, this definitely helped. It gave us a big burst of energy.”
Holman urged his Bears to be aggressive and set the tone from the outset, and they did that. Ayden Erbe drilled returner Justin Andreas on the opening kickoff, forcing a fumble that Lawrence recovered at the CMVT 28.
Four plays later, Mike Wronski scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 5-yard run.
“We wanted the ball to start, but we’ll take that as well,” Holman said. “Ayden did a great job, made a great form tackle. We got the football and we capitalized off the turnover.”
Defensively, the Golden Bears’ first-team unit yielded just 27 total yards in one half of action, with Fegley and Yedsena picking off CMVT quarterback Trevor Welsh. Both interceptions set up scores.
Mahanoy Area is in position to earn one of the four District 11 Class A playoff berths if the Bears can beat backyard rival Shenandoah Valley next Friday.
Despite two late CMVT touchdowns against the Mahanoy Area junior varsity team, Holman was confident his team gained the confidence and momentum needed with Saturday’s win.
“Shenandoah is going to play hard and be very excited to knock us off,” Holman said. “We have to have a great week of practice and hopefully take care of what we have to take care of and get into postseason play.”
Game Summary
Mahanoy (5-4) 21 33 0 0 — 54
CMVT (4-5) 0 0 0 12 — 12
MA — Wronski 5 run (Bradley kick)
MA — Yedsena 30 run (Bradley kick)
MA — Ryan 27 run (Bradley kick)
MA — Ryan 25 run (Bradley kick)
MA — Dulsky 17 run (kick blocked)
MA — Ryan 25 run (Yedsena run)
MA — Dulsky 21 run (no attempt)
MA — Wronski 36 run (no attempt)
CMVT — Andreas 14 pass from Welsh (pass failed)
CMVT — King 39 run (run failed)
MA CMVT
First Downs 20 12
Rushes-Yards 35-382 30-90
Passes 1-2-0 7-18-2
Passing Yards 12 68
Total Yards 394 158
Fumbles-Lost 2-0 2-1
Penalties 3-25 5-43
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Mahanoy Area — Dulsky 8-126, Ryan 8-118, Wronski 4-55, Yedsena 1-30, Cavenas 3-17, Clewell 2-15, Mansell 1-13, Lewandowski 3-11, Jones 1-3, Loughlin 2-2, Yanchuck 1-(-2), Team 1-(-6). Col-Mon Vo-Tech — King 20-87, Heidler 6-24, Welsh 3-(-2), Team 1-(-19).
PASSING: Mahanoy Area — Ryan 1-2-0, 12. Col-Mon Vo-Tech — Welsh 7-18-2, 68.
RECEIVING: Mahanoy Area — Wronski 1-12. Col-Mon Vo-Tech — Heidler 2-34, King 2-14, Andreas 1-14, Binder 2-6.
INTERCEPTIONS: Mahanoy Area — N. Fegley, Yedsena