Wildcats head to Williamsport Friday night
By John Lipez
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – Fresh off a best-ever 3-0 start, Central Mountain will move up a notch in classifications when the PIAA 5A Wildcats travel to 6A Williamsport Friday night. The two teams did not meet a year ago when COVID forced schedule revisions for both teams, so the meeting will be the first since 2019 when the Millionaires came away with a 28-0 win.
The Millionaires come into Friday’s game with a 2-1 mark, most recently downing 0-3 Mifflin County by a 24-2 score. Williamsport is led by senior quarterback Frankie Marrone (5-11, 190) who passed for 156 yards and two touchdowns and an interception on a 14-for-25 night in the game against the Huskies.
Williamsport, a District 4 school, is positioned this season with District 6A foes for the post-season; they are State College, Altoona and Mifflin County. The Millionaires’ lone loss came in week two to Altoona by a 31-24 score. Coach Charles Crews’ team opened with a 33-13 win over Crestwood.
Meanwhile back in Bald Eagle Township last Friday, by late in the fourth quarter the Central Mountain football team was going pretty much on heart and fumes, holding on and then holding off visiting Bloomsburg for a gutty 21-16 win. The Friday Senior Night win put the Wildcats at 3-0 and the visiting Panthers at 0-3, but it was about an even a football game as you’ll see.
‘Cat head coach Shanon Manning said the win, as the previous two victories, was not easy, his team had to “dig, scratch and claw” to come away with the win. The Wildcats lost two senior team leaders during the course of the game in two-way standouts Anton Stratts and Tyler Weaver, Stratts out in the first half, Weaver done in the second. Their status for the game at Williamsport was to be determined.
For the second week in a row the Wildcat staff had to turn to reserves to step up and they did. As Manning noted, “Sophomores were all over the field; they were not assignment perfect, but were effort perfect.”
Among the sophomores who made key plays was Connor Foltz. He made a key 19-yard reception on a pass from quarterback Brett Gerlach in Central Mountain’s final scoring drive, then scored the touchdown on the same drive off a 20-yard counter trap play.
Foltz also contributed a key bit of trickery when Central Mountain had the ball at the 50-yard and faced a fourth-and-one to keep the ball with 1:11 remaining and the 21-16 lead. The coaching staff put Foltz in motion and when he approached the quarterback, he made a juke move which pulled a Bloomsburg defender off sides, gave the Wildcats the first down and allowed them to run out the clock for the hard-earned win. The coaching staff said if Foltz had not drawn the penalty, a time out would have been called.
Another key play from a tenth grader came moments earlier, midway through the final period when Bloomsburg, down 21-16 at the time, advanced to CM’s 30 yard line where the Panthers faced a four and five situation. Quarterback Liam Zentner attempted to pass for a first down, but it was deflected at the line of scrimmage by ‘Cat safety Rocco Serafini. That gave the ball back to the Wildcats and set up the game’s final 3:57 which the Wildcats used up on their final possession to end the game.
The senior Gerlach again made the big plays when needed and finished with 74 yards rushing on 13 plays, including a 25-yard touchdown run with 17.6 seconds to go in the first half and 9-of-15 passing for 93 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown pass to Micah Walizer for a first quarter score. Coach Manning again praised Gerlach’s performance, calling him selfless and “just gutsy…find a way to grind it out.” The CM quarterback has now passed for a touchdown and run for a touchdown in each Wildcat game so far.
Friday’s game will be live audio streamed on therecord-online.com with John Lipez and Steve Turchetta with the call. After their visit to Williamsport this Friday the Wildcats will return home to host 3-0 Milton on Friday, Sept. 24
