SMITH THROWS SCHOOL RECORD 6 TD PASSES TO LEAD REDBANK VALLEY PAST ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC

Redbank Valley 39, Elk County Catholic 14

Nov. 9, 2007 at Redbank Valley (D9 Class A First Round)

By Chris Rossetti

NEW BETHLEHEM – The old football adage says that when the weather gets bad, a team that relies on the pass doesn’t have as good of a chance to win as a team that runs the ball.

Someone forgot to tell the Redbank Valley Bulldogs that Friday night.

Despite a cold, steady rain and a muddy field, Redbank Valley and senior quarterback Jake Smith went airborne in a 39-14 win over Elk County Catholic, a team that loves to run the football, in the opening round of the District 9 Class A Playoffs Friday night in New Bethlehem.

Smith threw a school-record six touchdown passes while completing 14 of 19 aerials for 236 yards. In the process, he also set the school record for touchdown passes in a career with 44.

“We made some big plays tonight,” Redbank Valley head coach Ed Wasilowski said. “Our playmakers made the plays. There is an old saying that it’s not X’s and O’s, it’s Jimmy and Joes, and boy did our Jimmy and Joes come through tonight.”

Smith and the Bulldogs scored on six of their first seven possessions including all four in the first half, and they did it by converting fourth downs at will. Redbank Valley was 6-for-6 on fourth-down conversions including 5 of 5 in the first half. And three of the six were of six yards or longer.

“We didn’t step up and make plays when we needed them,” ECC head coach Keith Lecker said.

ECC hurt itself by committing 15 penalties for 125 yards, and the Crusaders, who came into the game averaging 161 yards per game on the ground, were held to 88 yards rushing including just 28 after their first drive.

“Other than that first drive and a long touchdown pass, I thought our defense played well,” Wasilowski said.

Redbank Valley grabbed an early 7-0 lead on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Smith to Jerrett Magagnotti, one of two touchdown grabs for Magagnotti who had 102 yard receiving on four catches. That touchdown pass gave Smith the Redbank Valley school record for scoring passes in a career. Smith had tied R.J. Dick’s mark of 38 last week.

ECC, though, came right back marching 60 yards in 12 plays, all runs, to cut the lead to 7-6 on a 15-yard run by Eric Mastrogiacomo.

“In my opinion, I think we have one of the best offensive lines in the AML,” Lecker said. “I laid a challenge on them all week that we were going to run the football, and that is what we did on that drive.”

Redbank Valley answered right back thanks to its proficiency on fourth down to expand its lead to 14-6 on a 2-yard scoring pass from Smith to Nash Rupp early in the second quarter. The scoring pass came on a fourth-and-goal play and marked the third time on the drive the Bulldogs converted a fourth-down try.

“That’s our game,” Wasilowski said. “We take what they are giving us. We try to put our kids in the best position to make plays, and they did. It’s hard to cover our four receivers they way Jake throws the ball.”

Redbank Valley expanded the lead to 20-6 a couple of minutes later when Smith hit Kasey Haines with a 30-yard touchdown pass on, what else, a fourth-and-10 play.

The Crusaders looked to be in a world of trouble when a penalty on the ensuing kickoff pushed them back to their 10-yard line, and Mastrogiacomo lost a yard on first down setting up second-and-11 from the ECC 9.

But Kyle Garner’s first pass of the game found Nick Brennen around midfield, and Brennen broke a Redbank Valley tackle and raced the rest of the way to the end zone for a 91-yard scoring pass.

Redbank Valley came right back going 47 yards for a touchdown after three straight ECC kickoff attempts following the Brennen score went out of bounds giving the Bulldogs great field position.

Magagnotti scored the touchdown on a 16-yard pass from Smith with 1:28 left before halftime giving Redbank Valley a 26-14 halftime lead.

“It was very important that we get a stop there after the long touchdown pass,” Lecker said. “We needed a three-and-out to keep the momentum. But I’m proud of my boys tonight. They played hard. This was a great group of seniors.”

ECC started the second half with a long drive deep into Redbank Valley territory, but the Crusaders were denied a touchdown when Garner’s fourth-down scramble on the 13^th play of the drive left him short of the first down at the Redbank Valley 8-yard line.

 “That was huge when we stiffened down there after they had the nice drive at the start of the second half,” Wasilowski said.

A highlight reel 9-yard touchdown catch by Haines early in the fourth quarter put the game away. Smith threw a fade pass to the back-corner of the end zone, and Haines made a diving catch while somehow getting one foot inbounds for the touchdown.

“We work on dotting the ‘I’,” Wasilowski said. “Kasey dotted the ‘I’. Hopefully, we have it on film because that is something we will play 20 times in film session Monday night.”

Smith then finished out the scoring when he found Craig Hibell with an 11-yard touchdown pass.

NOTES – Mastrogiacomo, who entered the game with 1,088 yards rushing, was held to 46 yard on the night including just 10 yards after picking up 36 on the opening drive of the game … Garner was 12 of 21 passing for a season-high 184 yards. He did throw three interceptions giving him 10 for the year … Brennen had four catches for 119 yards and was 1-for-1 passing for 16 yards … R.J. Dick held Redbank Valley’s single-game touchdown passing record throwing five in a game twice during the 1996 season … Redbank Valley will face the winner of Saturday’s Keystone at Cameron County game next Saturday at Redbank Valley. It is the second straight year the Bulldogs have advanced to the Class A semifinals … The game had only two punts, one by each team … ECC won the time of possession 27:54 to 20:06 … It was a surprisingly small crowd at Redbank Valley with neither the home nor visitor bleachers close to being full.

REDBANK VALLEY 39, ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 14

Score by Quarters

Elk Co. Catholic 6 8 0 0 – 14

Redbank Valley 7 19 0 13 – 39

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

RV – Jerrett Magagnotti 24 pass from Jake Smith (Doug Bish kick), 9:08

ECC – Eric Mastrogiacomo 15 run (Kick failed), 2:44

Second Quarter

RV – Nash Rupp 2 pass from Smith (Bish kick), 9:05

RV – Kasey Haines 30 pass from Smith (Pass failed), 5:44

ECC – Nick Brennen 91 pass from Kyle Garner (Tom Jovenitti pass from Garner), 4:38

RV – Magagnotti 16 pass from Smith (Pass failed), 1:28

Fourth Quarter

RV – Haines 9 pass from Smith (Bish kick), 8:50

RV – Craig Hibell 11 pass from Smith (Kick failed), 4:42

       ECC    RV

First Downs            13        16

Rushes-Yards         33-88   32-86

Passing Yards         200      236

Passing: Comp-Att-Int       13-22-3            14-19-0

Total Yardage        288      322

Fumbles-Lost         4-1       1-0

Penalties-Yards      15-125 5-55

Punts-Avg. 1-33     1-44

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – ECC: Eric Mastrogiacomo 19-46, Josh Catalano 7-27, Tom Jovenitti 1-5, Kyle Garner 6-10. Redbank Valley: Jake Smith 15-48, Alex Bladel 15-36, Jerrett Magagnotti 1-4, Team 1-negative 2.

Passing – ECC: Kyle Garner 12-for-21, 184 yards, 1 touchdown, 3 interceptions. Nick Brennen 1-for-1, 16 yards. Redbank Valley: Jake Smith 14-for-19, 236 yards, 6 touchdowns.

Receiving – ECC: Nick Brennen5-119, Tom Jovenitti 4-44, Matt Bauer 2-31, Eric Mastrogiacomo 2-6. Redbank Valley: Jerrett Magagnotti 4-102, Kasey Haines 3-48, Craig Hibell 4-45, Nash Rupp 3-41.

Interceptions: Redbank Valley 3 (Kasey Haines, Tony Bish, Craig Hibell).