COAL TOWNSHIP - The Coal Bucket will remain in Mount Carmel Area's trophy case for at least another year, but for the first time in awhile, there was some doubt.
After a scoreless first half, Mount Carmel's offensive line asserted itself in the second half, when the Red Tornadoes ran for 192 of their 281 net yards and three touchdowns, but they couldn't seal the deal until Meyrick Lamb's 34-yard touchdown run with 40.9 seconds remaining clinched a 20-7 win over the Indians.
Mount Carmel (9-1) also staked the top seed for the District 4-AA playoffs, thanks to Lewisburg's win over Mifflinburg. Mount Carmel will host the No. 8 seeded team next week. Shamokin (3-7) will travel to Shikellamy for the District 4-AAA playoffs.
Shamokin, although it could never get much offense going, played strong defense, which gave the Indians a chance. Trailing just 14-7 after Tucker Yost's 45-yard touchdown pass to Jarrod Shurock with 6:50 remaining, the Indians' Josh Dunn recovered the ensuing pooch kickoff at Mount Carmel's 30. But the Red Tornadoes stuffed two runs and the Indians just missed connecting on a pass on third down, leading to a sack of Yost by Eric Joraskie.
Mount Carmel then drove 65 yards in 10 plays, with Lamb, who carried 32 times for 191 yards, scoring the insurance touchdown.
"We didn't want to be the class to give up the bucket," said Lamb. "We were frustrated (at halftime)."
"Shamokin played an inspired football game," said Mount Carmel Coach Carmen DeFrancesco. "It's why this is such a great game to be a part of. We're just fortunate to be on the winning side of it again."
Shamokin's defense played inspired enough to somehow keep
the game scoreless despite the Indians spending almost the whole first quarter in the shadow of their own goalposts after a 56-yard punt by Rob Varano pinned them back to their own two. The Indians, who had just seven net yards rushing, could never get any running game going, and Mount Carmel, after a short punt, soon was down at the goal line.
But Zach Wasilewski was sacked and lost a fumble to the Indians' Andrew Hasuga.
The Indians again couldn't move the ball and gave the Tornadoes good field position two more times before the quarter ended but came up with two more defensive stops.
Shamokin finally got into Mount Carmel territory with a 23-yard pass from Tucker Yost to Robert Bainbridge but on the next play, Dunn, trying for extra yardage, lost a fumble.
It was Shamokin's turn to pin Mount Carmel back with the wind in the second quarter. Jon Vanaskie boomed a 67-yard punt to the 10, and Shamokin forced another punt.
Yost connected with Shurock for a 35-yard pass to Mount Carmel's 12, but Dunn lost another fumble, recovered by Cody Shustack.
"That killed us," said Shamokin Coach Dan Foor, who blamed himself for the call. "Something clicked with some of these guys last week, and we had people playing tonight like we've expected all season. Coach (Mike) Gurski had a great game plan for his defense, and they gave us a chance to win this game. But we just didn't make some plays when we had to. We have some young'uns on offense, and there were a couple of plays where we just didn't make the right reads on pass plays."
"We made some adjustments at halftime and decided to let our line come up to the ball a little bit," DeFrancesco said.
Shustack intercepted a pass at midfield to set up the first touchdown on an eight-play, 50-yard drive. But even on that, the Tornadoes had to convert a fourth-and-9, a 12-yard pass from Wasilewski to Shustack, to set up Shustack's 13-yard run on the next play.
Mount Carmel then took off on a 16-play, 72-yard drive, with Lamb scoring on a one-yard run with 9:00 remaining in the game, that looked like it would be enough.
But the Indians picked up two first downs to set up a beautiful scoring pass from Yost to Shurock.
But by this time, the no-gains and one-yard runs the Indians were forcing earlier started to become eight and 10-yard gains as the defense began to wear down.