Tigers deny Wildcats, 42-21, for D-6 crown
ALTOONA, PA – The Central Mountain football team did some things really well Friday night, but not enough to deny the Hollidaysburg Golden Tigers the District 6 Class 5A title. Hollidaysburg would trail early but put together three touchdowns over a six minute span midway through the game, then held off a Wildcat rally to secure a 42-21 win.
The loss ended Central Mountain’s season at 6-5 while the Tigers moved to 6-4 with their fourth win in a row, but it did not come easily.
Central Mountain dominated early and led 12-7 nearing the end of the first half, but one bad football hop into a ‘Cat defender off a Tiger punt swung the momentum: a Hollidaysburg punt with less than two minutes remaining in the half bounced into a ‘Cat special teams player and was recovered by the punting team. Less than a minute later Hollidaysburg quarterback Jake McGinnis hit wideout Caden DeLattre for a 30- yard score and the extra point gave his team a 14-12 half time lead. McGinnis would have a hand in every Tiger touchdown.
Hollidaysburg then took the second half kickoff and went 63 yards, McGinnis with a 53-yard run for the score. After Central Mountain was forced to punt, the Golden Tigers again went 63 yards, the score coming on a fourth and six play from the Wildcat 24 yardline, McGinnis bursting up the middle for the 24-yard touchdown. The extra point put the Tigers up 28-12 midway through period three.
Central Mountain would answer with two scores to get back in the game: a Brett Gerlach to Connor Foltz 37-yard pass and a Tyler Weaver 32-yard field goal to make the score 28-21 early in the fourth period.
But Hollidaysburg would respond with 14 unanswered points to pull away, McGinnis accounting for both scores, a 12-yard run and a late 23-yard pass to Avery Sloan.
The Wildcats scored twice in the first half, including a game-opening 80 yard drive capped by a Ryan Pentz 19-yard run. Hollidaysburg responded with a McGinnis to Sloan 70-yard pass on broken coverage by the Wildcat secondary. But Central Mountain re-took the lead on a Gerlach-to-Foltz 8-yard pass.
Afterwards Wildcat Coach Shanon Manning said, “We are proud of our boys…we were here to play…we used all the bullets in our holster…we absolutely never quit.” He lamented that Central Mountain “left 14 points on the board in the first half.” These included a negated Foltz 95-yard touchdown run late in the second period, called back due to a penalty.
Gerlach had an outstanding night throwing the ball in his final game. He completed 24 of 34 passes for 274 yards. Foltz caught eight of them for 126 yards and Tyler Weaver added nine receptions for 59 yards. But Gerlach, slowed by injuries during the latter stages of the season, was unable to run with the success he had earlier in the year. But he and his teammates battled for as long as they could. The senior Pentz finished with 50 yards rushing on 15 carries in a physical but cleanly played game.
Before leaving the Mansion Park turf, first year coach Manning said his players will take some time off and then get back to work, following their collective goal of getting faster, stronger, selfless and resilient.
CM 6 6 6 3 = 21
H 7 7 14 14 = 42
