The Battle for Coal Bucket

In a high school series that dates back to 1893 when Grover Cleveland was president, Shamokin and Mount Carmel will strap on the helmets one more time on Friday night. In recent years, this game has not  produced surprising results only some surprising scores.  This rivalry tilted in Mount Carmel's favor over the years and the Red Tornadoes look to win 18 in a row in 2013.


This year Shamokin Area looks to avoid their first winless season since 1983's squad went 0-11.  Back in 1983, Shamokin hired Jack Murdock to take over the Indian's fortunes who were 1-10 the previous year under the direction of Bob Chesney who's only win was over a 1-10 Lourdes Regional squad.  30 years later the Indians have come full circle.  They have a new coach on the verge of going 0-10 after the squad finished 1-9 the previous year under a different head coach. For the record, Shamokin's three-year mark was 5 wins against 28 losses.  After yet another coaching change a few years later, the Indians were in the state semifinals in 1991. 


As far as head football coaches at Shamokin, Sam Schiccatano was the only one to win in his first year.  The Indians defeated Mount Carmel at Kemp Memorial 42-8 in Dave "Whitey" Williams debut for Mount Carmel.  Late in that game, a young freshman returned a kick off for Mount Carmel for a touchdown.  That player named Brett Veach went on to a great college career at Delaware and now works for Andy Reid's undefeated Kansas City Chiefs.


Is Shamokin on the verge of winning again?  Their is some hope at the junior high level who posted an 8-1 record this season.  Although it is a better gauge than freshman football was years ago (Shamokin went 10 years without losing a freshman game), I will wait until the class of 2018 walks down the aisle.


Last week Mount Carmel honored their 1973 Eastern Conference Championship team.  They were the last one to play Shamokin Area on Thanksgiving Day 40 years ago this November.  The Red Tornadoes needed a late score to win that game 20-15.

Mount Carmel - Lewisburg Round 1

In a week where the Susquehanna Valley was revisiting June of 1972, there was one football game played in Central Pennsylvania.  Lewisburg hosted Mount Carmel at Christy Mathewson Stadium at Bucknell University.  The Red Tornadoes scored 27 unanswered points for a 27-16 win over last years District IV AA Champions.  The Green Dragons were attempting to beat Mount Carmel 3 games in a row.

You can read the coverage of the game here and here.

Some observations from the sidelines:

Merle Moscarello is the best player in the Heartland Conference.  Runs like Ricco Rosini alum of Southern Columbia.  Moscarello has that rare combination of power and speed.

Mount Carmel although highly touted at this time still has a long way to improve.  Right now, too many fumbles and turnovers on offense very sloppy tackling on defense for a Red Tornado team.

The Mount Carmel O-line was very good in pass protection and very good in the second half.

Lewisburg is very quick on turf and maybe more athletic in week 2 than Mount Carmel.

Mount Carmel should scrap the old option play with Varano trying to read the defensive end.

In team spirit, it was great to see the team rally around Zach Wasilewski especially without Shustack and Lamb in the backfield.

This is a rematch worth seeing sometime in November.


As far as the decision to play football last night.  It was totally up to Lewisburg.  They have to look in the mirror today and wonder if it was worth playing with university students being evacuated and part of the town being flooded a few blocks away.

For the players, it was still hard to gauge, how the weather affected each squad.  I guess we will have to hold judgement until November.

 

Battle for the Coal Bucket

For the first time in nearly 30 years, this annual battle returns to the final spot on the season schedule.  From 1934 to 1973, it was played on Thanksgiving Day as part of many Turkey Day games.  Shamokin's last win in the series came in a 14-0 win at Kemp Memorial Stadium.  Mount Carmel will be looking for 15 in a row come Friday night.  Both schools have gone are on their third head coach since that game including one that has shared time at both schools during the last 15 years.

Trust me. When Shamokin sent Carmen DeFrancesco into exile after the 2006 season, Defrancesco never thought he would be part of a Coal Bucket game as a coach again.  Only a football purgatory called Upper Dauphin came calling in 2007.

"Not getting the job last year when it was open was heartbreaking," said DeFrancesco.  "I was getting prepared to spend the rest of my time coach at Upper Dauphin and we had a nice thing going there."

History for Shamokin Area is not on their side.  Beside Mount Carmel winning from 1972 through 1984, the Red Tornadoes have won the last 14.  Since Shamokin High's merger with Coal Township, Shamokin Area have on in 1988, 1990 and 1992 at the Silver Bowl.

In recent years, Shamokin has been plagued by someone stepping up from the Red Tornadoes.  In 2004, Ryan Kogut's 98-yard quarterback sneak was the difference in a 13-11 game.  In 2005, Dave Pellowski came out of nowhere to rush for close to 100 yards and a touchdown out of the fullback slot.  Trailing, 12-7 at the half in 2006, Jonas Pachuski's 6 receptions for 166 yards and 4 touchdowns came out of nowhere.  His 4 TD receptions in a game are still a Red Tornado record. Justin Pellowski had 5 receptions for 162 yards and two TD's in a 41-14 win in 2007.

The last two years have been 47-7 and 33-6 blowouts in favor of Mount Carmel.

Shamokin has been a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde team in all of 2010.  They have played really well at home, but not on the road.  When they play bad, it's really bad.  Pass coverage has been dismal.  Over the years, no matter the record or one-sided, Shamokin Area has played MCA tough with the exception of the last two seasons. 

The Indians have to stop the running of Myerick Lamb before doing anything at all and to put pressure on Rob Varano who will be making his first start at quarterback for the injured Eddie Stewart. Varano has been a starting quarterback on most of the football teams he has been a player.  Friday, only the stage gets a little bigger.

With the game somewhat returning to it's roots on the schedule, will the outcome be any different?????

Friday Football is Finally Here

If you believe in any of my polls, according to the audience Southern, Shamokin and Selinsgrove will be the favorites to open up the weekend with the a win. I was a little surprised nearly 75 percent of the responders picked the Seals over Mount Carmel.

Polls are one thing, but that's why they play them on the field.

Last night, Shamokin Area held a community night to meet the team and introduce the players.  The turnout was very good but they need an emcee for next year.

Here is wishing Carm DeFrancesco good luck as the Red Tornadoes travel to Selinsgrove.  Carm has waited and persevered close to three decades to be where he will be tonight.

If your not going to attend the Mount Carmel or Shamokin game this evening, a game of interest will be Danville at Shikellamy.  Shik hasn't had this high of hope since the 80's and it's been a decade for Danville.

If your really bored and want to listen to me tonight at Shamokin or tomorrow at Line Mountain on Saturday click here at BILL95FM.

DeFrancesco Returns After 17 Year Exile

Carm DeFrancesco has become just the 5th coach for the storied Mount Carmel Red Tornado football team since 1962. He succeeds Bob Chesney after going 7-5 in one season.

For the record, only three men applied for the position including current assistant Rob Varano, and former assistant and Danville head coach Jeremy Winn.

DeFrancesco who will be making his 5th head coaching stop after stints at Cardinal Brennan, Danville, Shamokin and Upper Dauphin, finally comes to his alma mater nearly two decades after being the front man to succeed Joe "Jazz" Diminick.

The previous four stops were reclamation projects while Mount Carmel will be asking their native son to return them to statewide prominence.

If you ask his previous 4 stops if they would like to see Carm back, 3 out of the 4 would probably agree with one now being closed in Cardinal Brennan. When Carm left Cardinal Brennan, they were beginning to show signs of a numbers problem which would eventually close the school. Carm left Danville because of Shamokin working with him professionally for teacher certification and a position.

The most acrimonious end came at Shamokin in 2006. Problems began to brew for DeFrancesco back in 2005. That year the Indian's opened up facing Southern Columbia for the first time since 1900 and came away with a 19-16 win at Southern in overtime ending Southerns longest win streak in school history at 27. The Tigers went on to lose just one more game in capturing the state title that year while Shamokin stumbled to .500.

Hit hard by graduating in 2006, incidents of "hazing" and a new administration that had some run-ins with DeFrancesco in the past, DeFrancesco was sent packing. Whether you agree with his firing at Shamokin or not, Carm gave it his all while there. He had detractors who said he "threw" the MCA game on purpose every year and after going 0-7 against his alma mater that also proved to be an albatross.

In his tenure at Shamokin, DeFrancesco probably spent more time worrying about keeping kids eligible through academics and discipline than being overcome with injuries.

DeFrancesco was sent to high school purgatory in 2007 at Upper Dauphin. In a conversation with Carm back then, he indicated that "the fastest guy on the team was the head coach." He didn't complain about the hand he was dealt in 2007 and said these are kids I could work with to get better.

Success came in 2009 with the outright championship of the Twin Valley Conference and District III runner-up.

It is hard to say what is in store at MCA. He does have to build a coaching staff since his assistants will be staying at UDA. For one, DeFrancesco has one of the firmest foundations to build upon. Being a consistent players in the state playoffs will be hard.

Since 2002 and MCA's last state title, the dynamic has changed. It now takes 3 wins for a district title and two more wins to get into week 16. There was only week 15 back in 2002. Also, you add District 12 which does it's fair share of "recruiting" students (see West Catholic). MCA has only won district title since the 8-team format with that coming in 2008.

You can see he already has big detractors.

What does the future hold? It is hard to say. The Coal Region is dying. Paper Magic and Pace Arrow are gone. Catawissa Lumber is on life support. Does it affect Mount Carmel? Carm is now 57, just a few seasons away from the age when Diminick was ousted. On the other hand, Carm is a better head coach now than when he would have gotten the job back in 1993. He has seen and experienced everything on and off the field you can imagine.

At the end of the day, you ask yourself this about you head football coach. Would you want your son to play for him? I would want my son to play for Carm as with for the previous head coach. I don't know if that will be enough.