ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 35, SMETHPORT 28

Sept. 24, 2005

ST. MARYS – Elk County Catholic scored 15 points in a span of a minute late in the fourth quarter to knock off visiting Smethport 35-28 Saturday night in St. Marys.

Trailing 28-21, ECC’s Eric Mastrogiacomo scored to cut the lead to 28-27 with 1:41 left in the game. The Crusaders then decided to go for the lead instead of the tie, but Kyle Mahoney’s 2-point conversion pass was incomplete.

ECC (3-1) then executed the on-side kick perfectly with Kevin Genevro recovering the ball at the Smethport 30.

From there, ECC drove to the eventual winning touchdown scoring on a 27-yard pass from Mahoney to Genevro with Genevro sliding out of the corner of the end zone after catching the scoring strike. This time, the 2-point conversion pass was good making it 35-28 with 1:46 to play.

Smethport (1-3) had one last chance to tie or win the game driving to the ECC 17-yard line, but the clock ran out before the Hubbers could get a final play off.

Smethport had taken a 28-21 lead with 5:29 to play when Josh Switzer scored on a 2-yard run and Vince Kinniburgh added the 2-point conversion run.

The final 5:30 basically summed up the game, as the lead changed hands seven times with one tie.

Smethport led 6-0 at the end of the first quarter thanks to a 30-yard Switzer run. The 2-point conversion try failed.

ECC then went ahead 7-6 five seconds into the second quarter on a 3-yard run by Derek McCullough.

Smethport answered back midway through the quarter on a 3-yard run by Kinniburgh and a 2-point run by Switzer to make it 14-7 before ECC tie the game at 14 on a 64-yard pass from Mahoney to Genevro.

The Hubbers answered the long pass with a 3-yard Tom Cooney run to go up 20-14 with 2:51 left in the first half, but ECC took a 21-20 halftime lead on a 3-yard Mahoney run with just 22 seconds left in the quarter.

The game remained at 21-20 ECC until Switzer’s fourth quarter run set up a flurry of scoring late in the game.

Mahoney was 9 of 19 passing for 153 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions while also running seven times for 76 yards and a score.

Genevro caught four passes for 111 yards, while Anthony Mastrogiacomo rushed 16 times for 101 yards.

Switzer rushed 23 times for 110 yards and two touchdowns to lead Smethport, while Kinniburgh was 6 of 10 passing for 101 yards while running 15 times for 75 yards and intercepting a pass on defense.

The game was very even on the stats sheet with ECC outgaining Smethport 378 to 334 while the Hubbers had 18 first downs to the Crusaders 17.