Some Monday Night Football at Malinak Stadium (Live Video Stream)
Resurgent Tigers Visit for Homecoming
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP — There will be a lot going on beginning at 6 o’clock tonight when Central Mountain hosts District 6 foe Hollidaysburg in the Wildcats’ homecoming contest.
This year’s queen and king will be crowned at halftime and the night is also the program’s annual “Pink Out Night,” the senior class project for Miranda Courter as part of the fight against breast cancer.
The contest, postponed from Friday, is important from a couple perspectives. Under the new PIAA playoff classification system, Central Mountain and the Golden Tigers are the only “5A” teams in the district. With the Golden Tigers checking in at 4-4 and the Wildcats at 3-5, it is not totally inconceivable tonight’s game could be a preview of a possible district title game the first weekend in November.
But that would be a tall order for the Wildcats who would have to win tonight and down rival Jersey Shore (5-3) this Friday to finish at .500 and qualify for the playoffs. If coach Jim Renninger’s team could pull that off, the postseason would await them.
Hollidaysburg is on a roll of late. After starting the season 1-3, the Tigers have gone 3-1 to get to .500 this year, their first outside the WPIAL where the program struggled in recent years. Coach Homer DeLattre’s team is coming off perhaps its best win of the season, a 34-13 romp over usually strong Tyrone (4-4).
The Tigers feature a balanced pass-run game, led by senior quarterback Jarrett Cavalet (6-0, 159). He has thrown 104 times, completing 47 for 670 yards, throwing for five touchdowns and intercepted twice. Cavalet has also run 76 times for 230 yards and three scores.
Two running backs have carried the load for the Blair County school: senior Cory Storm (5-10, 170) and junior Patrick Young (5-6, 168); Young leads the way with 465 yards, averaging 8.2 yards per carry with five scores, Storm with 420 yards, a 5.5 yard per carry clip, with three touchdowns.
Hollidaysburg has some impressive size, including two-way lineman Hunter Gill (sr, 6-1, 323), the Tigers’ heavyweight wrestler for the past three seasons.
Central Mountain’s improved midseason play took a hit their last time out; Selinsgrove (7-2) and standout junior quarterback Logan Leiby dicing the Wildcats for a 52-7 win.
The game went into the mercy rule category late in the third period. By that time Leiby was 23-of-32 passing for 296 yards and three touchdowns, hitting eight different receivers. It had to appear to the Wildcat secondary there were eight different receivers on the field at one time, that’s how good Leiby was. He found open man after open man all night long. By the time the night was over Selinsgrove had piled up 446 yards of total offense, holding Central Mountain to 134 yards.
The Wildcats could get on the board only on a spectacular 95-yard kickoff return from senior Justin Neff, his eleventh touchdown by kickoff or punt return in his four year career. Otherwise CM had little success on either side of the ball. Turnovers didn’t help; Central Mountain had four passes intercepted in all, from three different quarterbacks.
A Wildcat ground game which had shown improvement in recent weeks was held to 100 yards on 32 rushes, paced by Neff’s 53 yards on 14 carries. He also led the defense with 10 tackles.
The record-online will offer live audio/video stream of the game and will also broadcast audio on WBPZ AM 1230 with John Lipez and Tom Elling offering up the call to bring you all the action. The stream will go live approximately 15 minutes before kickoff which is scheduled for 6 p.m.
