Wilmington rolls past Sharon to take charge of Region 3-AA

October 04, 2008 12:43 am

— By Ed Farrell
Herald Assistant Sports Editor

NEW WILMINGTON — The communities of Sharon and New Wilmington are separated by only approximately a dozen miles, but their respective high school football teams might as well have been oceans apart Friday night.
The host Greyhounds grabbed an early 14-0 lead by turning two Tigers’ turnovers into touchdowns, and Wilmington whacked shellshocked Sharon 42-7 during the District 10 Region 3-AA showdown.
Thus far this season Wilmington had been making otherwise good teams look merely mediocre, collectively outscoring opponents 179-13 through 3 quarters. And the “Hounds Hammer” humbled Sharon Friday as the Tigers totalled only 96 yards on 43 plays. Conversely, Wilmington won the line of scrimmage as the Greyhounds garnered 310 yards rushing, led by Derrick Burns’ 17-carry, 135-yard, 3-TD performance.
“I don’t know that I would’ve expected that at all, ’cause they’re a good football team,” admitted Hounds’ headmaster Terry Verrelli regarding the Tigers (3-1, 5-1). “I respect everybody that we play, and they’ve done a great job with the five wins that they’ve had this year, and they’ve got some great athletes. No, I didn’t expect that, at all.”
Seven ticks into the tilt a Tigers’ turnover turned into a short field for the Greyhounds, with Matt Wagner recovering teammate Bryce Wilson’s pooched kickoff at Sharon’s 31-yard line. Two plays later Burns burst 3 yards for the 1st of his trio of TDs.
Wagner silenced Sharon’s 2nd series by plucking a Todd Rearick pass out of the air as though he were picking a piece of fruit from a tree, giving the Greyhounds goal-to-go from the Tigers’ 9. Burns’ 7-yard bolt buried the Tigers by 2 scores 10è minutes into the tussle.
During the 2nd stanza Jake DeMedal’s 22-yard scoring sprint culminated an 8-play, 82-yard drive, then Matt Wagner and his cousin Shane collaborated on a 32-yard TD toss. The 6-foot-6 Matt Wagner outleaped Sharon’s 5-11 Jordan Moss on a fade pattern, and the 4th of Wilson’s 7 PATs handed the Hounds a 28-0 lead.
The Greyhounds (4-0, 6-0) were headed to halftime seeking another score, but Louis Brown pilfered Shane Wagner’s 1st-down pass with 58 seconds left, returning it 72 yards to Wilmington’s 2. Flushed from the pocket on 4th-and-goal with time expiring, Rearick rifled a pass to Dustin Norcross in the corner of the end zone for Sharon’s score.
Burns burst 50 yards on the 2nd play of the final frame, then a Chad Palladino pick of Rearick’s 2nd-and-8 pass set up Luke Yohman’s 3-yarder with 3:09 remaining to conclude the scoring.
Sharon did not secure its 1st first-down rushing until approximately 1:45 remained on Cam Brown’s 25-yard burst. Coming into the contest the Tigers were tallying 27.4 points and 288.6 yards per game. Rearick’s TD-to-interception ratio was 8-to-1 in 72 attempts, but Matt Wagner, Phil Woods and Palladino picked off passes, Carson Sharbaugh and Dallas Hartman sacked Rearick and Eric King, respectively, and Sharon — sans speedster Ronnie Howard, recovering from arthroscopic surgery for a torn meniscus ligament — ended with only 56 yards rushing on 28 totes.
“Defensively, we’ve got some good people on that line, and I think that’s where it starts,” Verrelli, 224-101-3 in 30 years at the Hounds’ helm, observed. “If you don’t have a good D-line, nobody’s going to do anything but run the football on you. But they’re doing a good job, they’re learning, and they’re certainly a major part of our success.”
“It was a big game, and we wanted to play well in a big game, and we just didn’t play a first half (Friday) night — for sure,” lamented Tigers’ taskmaster Bob Fromm. “We spotted them some scores, we gave them some turnovers. But in a big game you’ve gotta be able to rise to the occassion, and we didn’t do that.
“We’ve gotta go get better. It’s one game for us, we’re 5-1. We control it from here on out, and we’ve gotta go get better,” Fromm forecasted.
Notes: Rearick recorded another interception for Sharon. ... The Wagners collaborated on a 47-yard 2nd-period pass play, but it was negated by a holding penalty. Wilmington was flagged 8 times. ... Wilmington’s Palladino (ankle), Sharbaugh (cramp) and Clint DeRosa (possible concussion) suffered slight injuries; Fromm indicated Howard should return next week.
———
SHARON 0 7 0 0 7
WILMINGTON 14 14 0 14 42
Scoring plays
W — Burns, 3 run (Wilson kick)
W — Burns, 7 run (Wilson kick)
W — DeMedal, 22 run (Wilson kick)
W — M. Wagner, 32 pass from S. Wagner (Wilson kick)
S — D. Norcross, 2 pass from Rearick (Flaugher kick)
W — Burns, 50 run (Wilson kick)
W — Yohman, 3 run (Wilson kick)
Team stats
SHARON WILMINGTON
5 First downs 17
56 Rushing yards 310
40 Passing yards 44
15-5-3 Att-comp-int 8-3-2
96 Total yards 354
3-1 Fumbles-lost 1-0
1-5 Penalties-yards lost 8-90
Individual stats
Rushing: SHARON — C. Brown 5-41, K. Brown 12-12, L. Brown 1-6, Rearick 8-2, King 2-(-5); WILMINGTON — Burns 17-135, Yohman 8-68, Whiting 7-40, S. Wagner 6-32, DeMedal 7-31, Palladino 2-4.
Passing: SHARON — Rearick 15-5-3, 40; WILMINGTON — S. Wagner 8-3-2, 44.
Receiving: SHARON — D. Norcross 3-13, Tomko 2-26; WILMINGTON — M. Wagner 3-44.

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