HS FOOTBALL: Bears outlast ‘Canes in late dogfight, 31-20
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - A Mahanoy Area player is wrapped up by several Schuylkill Haven players on August 18, 2020.
MAHANOY CITY – Friday’s matchup between Mahanoy Area and Schuylkill Haven was a tale of two games within one.
The first half: a defensive battle.
The second: an offensive dogfight.
Only seven points were scored in the first half, the result of a 40-yard Ben Terry run to give the Golden Bears a 7-0 advantage with 1:25 remaining in the first quarter.
The two offenses would quintuple their points production in the second half.
The Hurricanes would take the lead early in the second half, taking the opening drive to paydirt with 8:16 remaining in the third. A successful two point conversion gave Haven an 8-7 advantage.
Thus begins the dogfight.
With 3:52 remaining in the third, Colm McGroarty rumbled 66 yards to paydirt. Coupled with a successful two point conversion by Ben Terry, Mahanoy held a 15-8 lead.
Another Ben Terry score with a two point conversion gave Mahanoy a 23-8 lead at the end of three.
Haven wasn’t going down without a fight, however.
With 9:21 to go in the ballgame, Haven punched it into the endzone. With a failed two point conversion, Mahanoy’s lead was now 9, with a 23-14 score.
An immediate response by Ben Terry in the form of a 43-yard touchdown run, coupled with a successful two point conversion, put the game largely out of reach for Haven, as Mahanoy led 31-14.
Haven would score again with 5:46 left to play, though it would create the final score, 31-20.
According to Shayne Schafer, Minersvile football historian, Mahanoy’s victory delivered Schuylkill Haven their first loss to a Schuylkill League Division 2 school since the division was laid out in 2016.
Mahanoy, now 1-1, moves on to face the Battlin’ Miners next Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium in the heart of Minersville. Minersville plays their first game of the season this Sunday in the City of Pottsville, facing the Crimson Tide for the first time since 1933.
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