Wildcats head to Danville to play Warrior Run Saturday

By John Lipez

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – You read the headline correctly. This weekend Central Mountain is facing a new opponent on an unusual date at something of a neutral field. The Wildcat game is set for Danville Saturday at 7 p.m. and the foe will be Warrior Run High School. The Defenders are getting a new facility built in Turbotville so home games this season are at Danville (a site last visited by the former Lock Haven High School more than 50 years ago).

And if you look at the records of the Wildcats (4-1) and the Defenders (0-4), you probably should feel good about Central Mountain’s chances for success. The Wildcats are off to the best start in program history, even though every game in the first half of the season has been a challenge, including last Friday’s 29-20 victory over previously undefeated Milton.

Warrior Run meanwhile has struggled. The Defenders last game was last Saturday against what had been a winless Hughesville team. But the Spartans drubbed the Defenders by a 46-7 score. Central Mountain and Warrior Run have one common opponent so far. That would be the Milton team the Wildcats just downed last Friday; those Black Panthers scorched Warrior Run by a 48-14 score in their season opener.

The Defenders have not been able to generate a ground game, averaging 60 yards or so on the ground. Most of their yards have come from sophomore quarterback Ryan Newton (6-3, 165). Through three games he had completed 46-of-81 passes for 520 yards, tossing five touchdowns but intercepted eight times.

Meanwhile last week Central Mountain moved to 4-1 on the season while Milton fell to 4-1 with its first loss. First-year Wildcat coach Shanon Manning acknowledged the win “was not pretty” but his ‘Cats “found a way to get through another game” with a win.

This time senior running back Ryan Pentz came up huge, rushing for a season-high 161 yards on 16 carries, scoring three of the Wildcats’ four touchdowns. Coach Manning said it was part of the game plan to get Pentz the ball more often this week, a player he called a very capable running back. By giving Pentz the ball more, Manning indicated, it would take some of the pressure off senior quarterback Brett Gerlach who had logged the most carries in the previous four CM games.

Gerlach again provided his share of the offense, completing 10 of 20 passes for 94 yards, including seven for 41 yards to Tyler Weaver, the senior split end who saw more duty coming off a shoulder injury earlier in the season. Several of those completions came on third-down second half passes to sustain Wildcat drives. Gerlach also rushed nine times for 58 yards and Weaver contributed a 22-yard field goal.

Central Mountain dominated early offensively, scoring on its first four possessions to open a 22-6 lead midway through the second period. But Milton did not back down, using a 13-yard run from talented freshman Chris Doyle to make the score 22-12 at the half.

The Wildcats would score their only second half points on a Pentz 53-yad run midway through period three, only to see Milton score and add a 2-point conversion to make it 29-20 late in period three. As it turned out, that would be it for the scoring, although Milton did mount a five and a half minute final period drive before turning the ball over on downs at the Wildcat 21 with less than two minutes remaining. Milton’s Doyle finished with 73 yards on 13 carries.

Micah Walizer had Central Mountain’s other touchdown on 3-yard run in the second period. He finished with 27 yards on four carries.

After this Saturday’s road game with Warrior Run the Wildcats will return to Malinak Stadium on Friday, Oct. 8 to host Selinsgrove.

The Wildcat-Defender game will be audio streamed on therecord-online with John Lipez and Mike Flanagan.