COAL TOWNSHIP - Matt Gass had three goals and two assists, and Ryan Rompolski and Theo Deptula each scored a goal and assist as Shamokin Area cruised to an 8-1 Pennsylvania Heartland Athletic Conference Division II win over Mount Carmel Monday, but the big story came late in the game, when a scuffle broke out among the teams which resulted in four ejections, one from Shamokin and three from Mount Carmel.
With about five minutes left in the game, Shamokin's Corey Houser and several Mount Carmel players got involved in a physical scrum in front of the Mount Carmel goal. Houser took down a Mount Carmel player and was immediately ejected, but Mount Carmel players Seth Stablewski,
Jordan Hudick and Nick Troutman also eventually received red cards and were ejected.
That will leave both teams considerably short-handed for their next games, Shamokin at Monotoursville and Mount Carmel at Jersey Shore, both on Wednesday since all those players automatically have to sit out the next game.
Earlier, two fans had been ejected.
As for the game itself, the Indians, who think they have a shot at the postseason after going 3-14-1 last year, were obviously the better team, especially offensively. With Ryan Rompolski playing in the middle and feeding the ball to the wings, the Indians scored four first-half goals in a span of 18 minutes to take control. Gass, a district track champion in the 400 and 800 meters, had a hand in all of Shamokin's first five goals as the Indians improved to 2-1 overall, 1-1 Division II, including two unassisted goals.
"I think Warrior Run (which beat Shamokin on the weekend) is clearly the best team in our division, but I think we're right about there with three or four other teams for second," said Shamokin head coach Joel Hockenbroch. "We have some skilled players and some speed. If we can get Matt Gass open in space, we can do some things because there aren't a lot of people that can keep up with him."
On the down side, the Indians are fairly young on defense, and fairly young overall.
"We start four freshmen and three sophomores," Hockenbroch said, and the defensive side is where most of those guys are playing. But Hockenbroch isn't too concerned, for a couple of reasons.
"We have a (veteran) goalie like Jon Deitrick back there, so that makes me feel better," Hockenbroch said. "And those four freshmen and three sophomores all know what they're doing. Our junior high program is starting to pay off with those guys."
Three of the younger players, Max Morrison, Brady Haupt and Tevin Gonzalez, scored goals, the last one coming on the second of two penalty kicks the Indians tried.
Mount Carmel's Nate Wagner scored in the 60th minute. The Red Tornadoes (0-4) have a good-sized roster but will need time to coalesce.
MCA (0-4) 0 1 - 1
Shamokin (2-1) 4 4 - 8
S - Matt Gass (Theo Deptula), 14:07
S - Ryan Rompolski (Gass), 15:49
S - Deptula (Gass), 26:59
S - Gass, 31:11
S - Gass, 41:44
S - Max Morrison, 46:03
MC - Nate Wagner, 60:44
S - Brady Haupt (Rompolski), 65:42
S - Tevin Gonzalez, penalty kick, 71:22
Shots on goal: Mount Carmel 7, Shamokin 23. Corner kicks: Mount Carmel 4, Shamokin 8. Saves: Mount Carmel (Mike Bonner) 13, Shamokin (Jon Deitrick) 4.