SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — Bloomsburg’s defense didn’t appear to be surprised by what Schuylkill Haven’s offense intended to do Friday night.
At times, the Panthers stuffed all 11 defensive players into the box.
Bloomsburg could have put even more players in the box, and it wouldn’t have mattered to the Hurricanes.
Schuylkill Haven was going to continue doing what it does best — pound the football.
The Hurricanes rushed 65 times for 449 yards and rolled to the seventh Eastern Conference championship in program history, pummeling Bloomsburg 35-7 for the Class A title at Rotary Field.
“We just kept pounding, using the ground to our advantage like a Haven team is supposed to do,” running back Nick Kerschner said.
Kerschner and quarterback Danny Lozada combined for 282 yards and three touchdowns behind the offensive line of Dave Kane, Remy Reager, Jeff Bensinger, Max Motko, Boston Cook and Austin Yoder.
“That’s our offense,” Schuylkill Haven coach Mike Farr said. “Up front, we did a
tremendous job. I don’t know how else to say it. Up front, we did a great job.”
Indeed, Schuylkill Haven (6-5) controlled the line of scrimmage — on both sides of the ball — and dominated time of possession, holding the ball for 34 minutes, 33 seconds of action and running 69 offensive plays to the Panthers’ 30.
“That’s what we call a good, old-fashioned Hurricane drive,” Lozada said. “Control the clock. Move the ball. It played a key role and just helped us out a lot.”
The Hurricanes opened the game with a five-play, 55-yard march capped by Lozada’s 37-run run around the left end on a read-option play.
After Bloomsburg (5-7) missed a 23-yard field goal attempt, the Hurricanes marched 80 yards in seven plays and Lozada scored on a 2-yard run.
“Our line, they were absolutely demolishing them up front in the box,” Lozada said. “Nick, he was just hitting the holes. We were all running hard. We wanted it.”
Schuylkill Haven got nearly all of its backs involved as Tyler Browne finished with 72 yards on nine carries, Jake Luckenbill added 45 yards on nine totes and Preston Gehring carried seven times for 41 yards. The Hurricanes were dropped for losses only three times all night.
“When we are running the full complement of our offense, we’re using multiple offensive looks and we’re getting multiple guys the ball in different seems and using different styles of motion,” Farr said. “That’s what our offense is — getting numbers to holes. We were able to do that tonight because up front we controlled the box.”
Defensively, Schuylkill Haven shut down a potentially dangerous Bloomsburg offense.
Brandon Koch picked off a pass at the 2-yard line to stop a potential Panther scoring drive.
Bloomsburg’s only touchdown of the night came after a pair of illegal procedure penalties for kickoffs out of bounds and a personal foul penalty set the Panthers up at Haven’s 35 to start a drive after Kerschner’s 5-yard TD run made it 21-0 early in the second quarter.
Freshman running back Darius Green sprinted 35 yards untouched off the right side to pull Bloomsburg within 21-7.
Other than that quick strike, Haven limited the Panthers to just 199 total yards — 100 rushing and 99 through the air.
“They’re a multiple style offense. I thought (Steve) Spolski and (Frank) Gaffney did a really nice job of setting everything up,” Farr said of his assistants. “They did make some minor adjustments. I thought we did a great job overall.
“We buckled down. We got some turnovers. Brandon Koch made a nice play on the interception, getting beat early. We fly to the football, we use our speed and we play tough. That’s just what we do.”
Schuylkill Haven iced the title away in the second half, finishing an eight-play, 56-yard march with Gehring’s 5-yard touchdown and capping an 11-play, 73-yard march on Browne’s 11-yard touchdown run with 10:56 left in the game.
On previous occasions, an Eastern Conference championship has led to even greater accomplishments in the future.
The extra two weeks of preparation have been invaluable for the underclassmen in the program.
“You can’t replace it. The next three years for us here is going to be special,” Farr said. “This starts the cycle. If you just look at our history, this starts the cycle. We’ve just got to keep building this momentum, give them a couple weeks off and then we go back at it.
“We just have to continue to improve every week. We have a lot of good football players coming up through this program. This just raises the bar. It gives our underclassmen the opportunity to see what it feels like to play in Week 11 and 12. ... It’s always good.”
Game Summary
Eastern Conf. Class A Championship
Bloom (5-7) 0 7 0 0 — 7
Haven (6-5) 14 7 7 7 — 35
SH — Lozada 37 run (Evitts kick)
SH — Lozada 2 run (Evitts kick)
SH — Kerschner 5 run (Evitts kick)
B — Green 35 run (Harmon kick)
SH — Gehring 5 run (Evitts kick)
SH — Browne 11 run (Evitts kick)
Bloom Haven
First Downs 9 27
Rushes-Yards 24-100 65-449
Passes 6-11-1 2-4-0
Passing Yards 99 41
Total Yards 199 490
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties 1-15 8-55
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Bloomsburg — Green 12-68, Kashner 5-14, Lee 2-14, Harrison 3-9, Malatesta 2-(-5). Schuylkill Haven — Kerschner 22-149, Lozada 12-133, Browne 9-72, Luckenbill 9-45, Gehring 7-41, Kalyan 1-8, Mataka 2-3, Koch 1-2, Clauser 1-(-1), Davis 1-(-3).
PASSING: Bloomsburg — Malatesta 6-11-1, 99. Schuylkill Haven — Lozada 2-4-0, 41.
RECEIVING: Bloomsburg — Foust 3-68, Bond 1-18, Kashner 1-7, Harrison 1-6. Schuylkill Haven — Browne 1-35, Mills 1-6.
INTERCEPTIONS: Schuylkill Haven — Koch.