Senecas trample Tigers

Ground game chews up 443 yards, 10 per carry

By Pat Magers
NORTH BALTIMORE — Calvert’s challenge was pretty simple: Do your job, and the good results were inevitable.

The 55-22 Seneca advantage when the final gun sounded indicated it was a job well done.

“What we gained from this is what we worked on all week,” coach Keenan Leichty said after his club evened its record at 2-2 overall while opening the Midland Athletic League in resounding fashion.

“We wanted to be focused from the start; we wanted to execute; and we wanted to get up on them early,” he said. “That’s what we did.”

Big time.

Calvert piled up 351 yards rushing in the first half alone and scored touchdowns on seven-of-eight possessions during that span.

Not much of what the Senecas did constituted a drive, but that’s mostly because they were ripping off huge chunks of yardage. They had three touchdown runs of 46 or more yards, including a 65-yard burst by Vinny Pardi to open the scoring a little more than two minutes into the game.

Pardi took a pitch left, raced down the sideline, and when Spencer Kerr added his first of seven successful PAT kicks, Calvert had a 7-0 lead.

The margin grew exponentially by the half’s completion, which was no small feat.

Quarterback Aaron Gassner played a big part in two more first-quarter tallies. First, he ran 46 yards on an option keep to the right.

Then, he zipped a pass to Bill Mullen for 18 yards and a score to make it 21-0.

“Calvert’s got a real nice team,” North Baltimore coach Chip Hollenback said. “When we saw them against Norwalk St. Paul, in the first half especially, we thought Calvert was the better team. The only difference was the two kick returns that changed the momentum to St. Paul.

“And you saw again tonight what kind of team they have,” he said. “They just dominated us on both sides of the ball.”

Two quick scores in the second period put it out of reach. Pardi ran 8 yards for the first, and then on the first snap following a Tiger punt, Gassner sprinted 61 yards to the end zone.

A lost fumble stalled Calvert on its next turn, but the Senecas gave North Baltimore a heavy dose of Dillon Kwiat on the way to two more first-half scores.

Kwiat carried five-straight times for 50 yards, including a 6-yard TD on the first possession. Then, after Brandin Bursa picked off an Andrew Williams pass at the Calvert 21, Kwiat carried five more times, including a 3-yard scoring play.

Not only did the Senecas lead 49-0 at intermission, they were averaging 14 yards per carry in the process.

“We talked to our linemen about being to able to do just that,” Leichty said. “We told them that we really need to them get off the ball, and they did.

“Our kids played hard, and we executed. We had a mistake here and there, execution-wise, but for the most part, we played pretty well.”

So well, in fact, the officials took notice.

“The officials asked me at the half if we wanted to cut the quarters, but I said, ‘No, we’re here to play,’” Hollenback said. “If we had guys breaking legs out there, it would have been different. I’m not going to put our players at physical risk.

“But our kids were hanging in there, so I said let’s keep on.”

Regardless, a mercy rule of sorts came about as Leichty stuck with his junior varsity squad the rest of the game.

North Baltimore (1-3, 0-1) scored a pair of TDs in the third period on Gage Stewart’s 10-yard run and a 2-yarder by Williams.

Calvert countered with a 55-yard scoring drive. Tom Tran carried all four plays, including a 42-yard set-up run and an 8-yard touchdown.

The Tigers closed the scoring with a 58-yard drive capped by Randy Marine’s 11-yard run.

Calvert had 478 yards in total offense and averaged 10.3 yards on 43 rushing attempts.

“It is what it is, I guess,” Leichty said. “They have a good ball club; they’re just young and don’t have a lot of numbers. We’ve got some things to clean up, but for the most part, we did what we set out to do.”

And the result was inevitable.