MOUNT CARMEL - Combine a frenetic, hurry-up offense with an aggressive ballhawking defense, and you have one heck of a football team.
That's exactly what Mount Carmel head coach Carmen DeFrancesco says Southern Columbia has.
He should know. The Tigers (3-0) roared out to a 25-point lead in the first quarter, then let their defense take over the rest of the way en route to a 45-7 win over the previously unbeaten Red Tornadoes on Friday at the Silver Bowl.
Southern Columbia (3-0) limited Mount Carmel (2-1) to minus-13 yards rushing and made life tough for quarterback Zach Wasilewski all game, sacking him five times. The Tigers also blocked a punt, intercepted a pass and never let Mount Carmel get in much rhythm.
Offensively, Adam Feudale carried the ball 20 times for 132 yards and three touchdowns, Nate Hunter ran for a touchdown and caught a TD pass, and quarterback Nick Becker was 8-for-10 for 139 yards and two touchdowns.
"That's a real good football team," DeFrancesco said. "They do what they do and they do it year after year. I think they played to the level of their competition the first two games. We did feel we had a legitimate chance to win tonight, but they obviously outplayed us."
The outplaying began almost from the outset.
Ken Fegley blocked a punt on Mount Carmel's first possession, giving the Tigers the ball at Mount Carmel's 23-yard line. A 22-yard pass from Becker to Luke Rarig put the ball at the 1, from where Feudale scored on the next play.
On Mount Carmel's next series, Rarig intercepted a pass and returned
it 7 yards to the Tornadoes' 24, and Becker connected with Nate Hunter on a 24-yard pass on the next play.
The Tornadoes started the next series at the 20 and got a first down on a 17-yard pass from Wasilewski to Christian Kelly, but the Tigers held on downs. Hunter had a 20-yard punt return, Blake Marks a 20-yard run, Feudale a 15-yard run and Hunter scored on a 9-yard run to make it 19-0 with still 4:31 to play in the quarter.
"I looked on our chart and it seemed every drive we were starting on our 20 or so," DeFrancesco said. "We didn't handle that first charge well."
The Tigers put another score up before the quarter was over when Feudale scored on a 13-yard run, set up by a 36-yard pass from Becker to Marks.
After that, the defense did the rest of the work. Wasilewski found Treyvon White down the middle for a 40-yard touchdown pass on a post pattern, but that was about the only mistake the Tigers made.
"Our defense played very well," Southern Columbia head coach Jim Roth said. "For years we've played an eight-man front with a 4-4 but for this game, because of their spread offense, we went to a 4-3 with four guys in the secondary and it really worked well. We almost had to go with that because of their spread, and you still have to be ready for their quarterback to run."
Inside linebacker Robert Delbo had five solo tackles, including two sacks, and added two assists. Chase Tillett, Mitch Stanziale and Brad Noll also had sacks. Rarig, who caught four passes for 64 yards in addition to his interception, also had two tackles, an assist and a pass breakup.
"Luke Rarig really didn't get much of a chance to show what he can do in the first two games just because of the way they went, but he's as good a receiver as we've had here in some time," Roth said. "If people are going to put eight and nine guys in the box to shut down our run, it really opens things up for us along the sidelines."
Rarig took a 14-yard pass from Becker for a touchdown in the third quarter, and Southern's subs picked up a score on a 43-yard run by Billy Marzeski in the fourth quarter.
"Our kids played hard and they didn't give up," DeFrancesco said. "We made some plays early in the game that were called back for penalties but that's part of the game. We just have to learn from this and get ready to play the rest of the season."