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Clutch red zone defense lifts Shamokin past Jersey Shore

By MARC MALKOSKIE 6 min read

COAL TOWNSHIP -- Shamokin Area’s defense conceded the notion that it was going to stop an athletic, all-state quarterback like Nolen Pauling in his tracks.

But if the Indians could limit the Jersey Shore quarterback and the rest of his high-tempo, explosive offense when it mattered most, they figured they’d be in a good spot.

So that’s exactly what the back-to-back District 4 Class 4A champions did.

Pauling passed for 270 yards, mostly from drawn-out scrambles, but Shamokin’s defense stepped up with three goal-line stands, as well as two additional stops still pinned fairly deep on the home side of the field, en route to a convincing 35-14 victory on homecoming night inside Kemp Memorial Stadium.

It marked the Indians’ fifth straight win in the renewed rivalry series between a pair of top-five squads in the Class AAAA state rankings.

“I just like how we performed in those goal-line situations, coming away with turnovers. You can’t ask for a better defensive performance than that really,” said senior captain and linebacker Liam Montgomery. “When they’re that close to the end zone and we come away with the ball and give our offense a chance, I’m really proud of my guys for that.

“We really don’t like teams thinking they can move the ball on us. Saying you want the ball right away, right in front of our faces, we didn’t like that feeling very much, so we knew we had to come up with a stop on the first drive of the game, and we did and went from there.”

The first key hold came near the end of the first half, with senior cornerback Ryan Bickert making a diving, toe-tap interception at the 1-yard line to preserve the Indians’ 21-7 halftime advantage.

After the break, the Bulldogs (3-1) were stopped at the 2-yard line on fourth-and-goal for a turnover on downs, and later fumbled inside the 1-yard line, allowing Shamokin’s Cooper Rossnock to pounce on the loose ball and deny any potential late-game comeback attempt.

“When we go into Jersey Shore week, we know it’s going to be a battle,” Montgomery said. “We watched more film (for this game) than any game in the regular season, and being able to pick up on their hints was really big for us. There were a couple plays where what we saw on tape was exactly what we did, and we flew to the ball. I’m really proud of my guys for that. That’s all because of preparation.”

By the time the contest finally ended after nearly three hours, Shamokin (4-0) had outgained Shore, 422 yards to 366. Despite the Bulldogs running an astonishing 71 plays in Tom Gravish’s well-oiled, no-huddle offense, the Indians countered with grit, keeping pressure on Pauling and routinely making him flee the pocket to make his plays.

“That was our goal for tonight -- Even if we don’t get him, don’t let him scramble, and if he can still throw, make it be due to us forcing him to get the ball out of his hand,” Montgomery said. “Making him uncomfortable was our goal from the start, and we did, and that gave us a pretty darn good chance of winning the football game.”

Shamokin head coach Marc Persing added: “We feel great about our front seven and we feel even better about our back half. When you’re blessed like I am to coach some very special athletes, it’s fun because you can do some different things that you may not be able to do with any other team. It’s been fun the last four years and I’m hoping to ride this thing out as long as we can.”

Aside from a pair of long touchdowns over the middle from Pauling’s arm into the hands of Connor Winters, the Indians did a commendable job containing the junior gunslinger.

“Nolen Pauling is a very special football player. He doesn’t wow you with any of his physical features, but man, he is a football player, and that’s the ultimate compliment,” Persing said. “It wouldn’t matter if he was a running back or quarterback, I’m sure he’d be an exceptional wide receiver if that’s where they played him. We can’t expect our D-linemen to chase him around for four quarters, so there’s different stunts that we do up front and different calls where we’re just trying to keep him bottled up, and he made some plays with his arm. But that’s what great football players do, and he’s a great football player.”

Offensively for Shamokin, Wake Forest pledge Logan Steele once again showed why he’s on track to become his program’s first-ever three-time all-state selection by year’s end, playing some role in all five Indians’ touchdowns.

Within a four-minute span in the first quarter, he capped Shamokin’s opening 14-play drive with a 5-yard keeper, then found Bickert open downfield on the second straight running of an identical route, connecting for a 35-yard score.

Later in the first half, Steele was on the receiving end of a 31-yard touchdown from Barrett Walsh, before breaking off 54- and 51-yard touchdown sprints in the second half to complete his hat trick on the ground and finish with exactly 200 rushing yards and 305 all-purpose.

“It’s definitely a great win for us,” Steele said. “It shows we’re a great team and we’re definitely getting better, but we still have a lot to improve on.

“I think it’s just who wants it more, and we have the guys up front (defensively), from Nate Kaleta to Xavier Paul to Noah (Ringes) to Liam (Montgomery), and they want it more. They were coming in guns blazing.”

Noah Ringes chipped in an additional 101 yards on 18 carries, eclipsing the century mark for a third straight week, though appeared to exit with an injury in the third quarter.

In all, the Indians averaged 7.4 yards per carry, embracing their power-run identity while also finding some welcomed success through the air.

“We ran the ball probably as well as we have in two years. I feel like we did what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it,” Persing said. “But it’s a game of attrition, and unfortunately guys get banged up in this type of rivalry game. There’s a lot of emotions and a lot of extra effort exerted among the players, and unfortunately, some guys got banged up, but they dealt with that too, and so did Shik, so did Williamsport. It’s just part of the game. We’ll be ready to play next Friday.”

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