By Ed Farrell

Herald Assistant Sports Editor



GROVE CITY — The 2008 season started distinctly dissimilar for the Grove City and Thiel college football teams. While the Wolverines won 4 of their first 6, the Tomcats were taken to task 5 consecutive times before beating Bethany in quadruple-overtime.

But after both dropped 2 of their last 3 entering the silver anniversary of the Mercer County Cup contest at Robert E. Thorn Field Saturday afternoon, Thiel taskmaster Jack Leipheimer and his coaching counterpart Chris Smith cast caution to the wind — as well as the rain that increased in intensity as the contest continued.

So it was only appropos with the Wolverines leading 20-14 in the waning seconds, the game ended at Grove City’s 16-yard line with Thiel attempting to take back the cup. Sans times-out, when Willie Bova attempted to spike the ball to stop the clock with 2 ticks to play, instead he was whistled for a fumble, garnering the Grovers the game.

By virtue of the victory Grove City (3-3 Presidents’ Athletic Conference, 6-4 overall) copped the cup for the 16th time since its 1984 inception.

“It’s great! It’s a special cup, special game, a rivalry to both teams ... maybe a little moreso to me because I started the cup,” admitted a smiling Smith, GCC’s all-time winningest coach who just completed his 25th campaign.

“I love it!” echoed Leipheimer, who like Smith played in the game while a Thiel student-athlete. “When you have something like the Mercer County Cup to play for, regardless of what the teams’ records are each year this game’s going to be a battle, it’s going to be one in which both teams come to play, and I think that’s what you look for.”

GCC sophomore Craig Bicehouse (Slippery Rock High) booted a pair of field goals, including an insurance 29-yarder with 1:35 remaining, giving the Grovers that 20-14 lead. Thiel (1-5, 2-8) subsequently drove 45 yards in 9 plays before Bova bobbled the snap at the buzzer.

“There was, I guess, a bobbled snap, or whatever, and it was a live ball, and so he didn’t have time to pick it up and spike it. ... It was a good call, and I don’t have any problem with that,” Leipheimer allowed.

Thiel’s twosome of Bova and Brendan Taylor twice torched the Wolverines’ secondary, including a 51-yard scoring strike less than 3 minutes into the 2nd half, a touchdown that narrowed the Tomcats’ deficit to 17-14. And it was indicative of how both Leipheimer and Smith chose to eschew the close-to-the-vest play-calling that sometimes has characterized the series.

To illustrate, the Tomcats commenced the contest with Bova bombing a 52-yard pass to Taylor on the game’s initial play from scrimmage. A 5-play drive culminated in Brice Mertiff’s 3-yard 4th-down plunge and the first of a pair of John Madeline PATs.

“When you’re two-and-seven going into it, you’ve gotta do whatever you got to do to win, and we played to win; we didn’t play not to lose ... so we just went out and attacked,” Leipheimer related.

And not to be outdone, Smith responded in kind with a little of his own tactical trickery.

Andrew DiDonato — GCC’s all-time yards passing leader — caught a 3-yard touchdown toss from Stephen Mercer on a 4th-down flea-flicker, capping a 16-play, 60-yard, 7-minute, 27-second series. Coupled with a Bicehouse conversion kick, that knotted the count at 7 entering the 2nd stanza.

“That’s not an unusual play for us ... but it wasn’t supposed to be thrown to Andrew, it was supposed to be thrown to the tight end (Chris Rich),” Smith explained. “The tight end was covered, and in practice Andrew’s always, ‘I’m wide open, I’m wide open!’, so Steve just said, ‘Okay, well he’s probably back there somewhere,’ so he unloaded it to the back corner of the end zone, and lo and behold that was, at that time, a welcome touchdown ’cause that brought us back to 7’s.”

Ironically, Stephen Mercer — who hauled in 14 receptions for 171 yards and ended 3rd (114) in all-time GCC receiving annals (3rd, also, with 67 catches this season) — quarterbacked the Grovers during his freshman season. And with the Wolverines winning the time-of-possession sub-plot, it shortened the game and limited Thiel’s opportunities (8 possessions). Ultimately, Grove City gobbled a 38:03 to 21:57 clock-consuming key.

With 7:07 remaining to intermission DiDonato drilled a 19-yard TD toss to Stephen Mercer, snapping a 7-all stalemate and culminating a massive 12-play, 97-yard march as Grove City gained a 14-7 edge. Then Bicehouse booted a 42-yard field goal from the right hashmark at the horn, giving the Grovers a 17-7 margin at intermission as GCC covered 57 yards in only 7 plays and 48 seconds, rather than have DiDonato take a kneel-down.

“That’s been a big thing for us all year, and we’ve really dominated time-of-possession,” Stephen Mercer acknowledged. “And it really helped (Satur)day. It keeps their offense off the field and really gives us the chance to do what we do.”

Bicehouse bricked a 3rd-quarter 30-yarder from the left hash, but rebounded to boot the insurance 29-yarder.

“I give him a lot of credit for making that last one because it would’ve been easy to have the miss haunt you,” Smith emphasized. “It was raining and there was a thousand excuses and it would’ve been very legitimate, but he kicked it well. At that point I wasn’t so sure he was going to kick a field goal and I asked him, ‘Can you make it?’ and he said, ‘Yeah!’ and I said, ‘Okay, well, go kick it then.’ And he ended up on his butt, I think, after he kicked the ball, but it went through, and that’s what matters.”

The deceptive DiDonato dodged Thiel tacklers for 32 yards rushing and completed a career-high 278 yards on a 24-for-31 passing performance, the 2nd straight week he attained the 300-total yard plateau. The junior has passed for 5,043 yards and 31 TDs — the latter is just one off the school standard.

Notes: Grove City leads the all-time series 56-34-6. ... A dozen GCC seniors concluded their collegiate careers, including Stephen Mercer, Brian Mercer (team-high 700 yards rushing, 13 TDs) and defensive stalwarts Zach Fulmer and Adam Eichler, who came into the contest pacing the PAC in tackles and interceptions, respectively. ... GCC has won 9 of its last 10 Senior Day farewell games. ... Thiel senior Matt Turek, a Grove City High product, was injured in an automobile accident earlier this week. Initially, his condition was so severe he had to be air-lifted from UPMC-Greenville campus to St. Elizabeth’s in Youngstown; however, he returned to Thorn Field to join his Tomcat teammates Saturday on the sideline. ... Despite a plethora of injuries, Leipheimer allowed, “I’m so proud of these guys, it’s ridiculous. Great, great character, individually. I’d take ’em any time. We didn’t get some breaks this year and we didn’t make some plays this year, but I love the kids. We got great effort and they’ve got great character. I love ’em.”

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25th Mercer County Cup

THIEL 7 0 7 0 14

GROVE CITY 7 10 0 3 20

Scoring plays

T — Mertiff, 3 run (Madeline kick)

G — DiDonato, 3 pass from S. Mercer (Bicehouse kick)

G — S. Mercer, 19 pass from DiDonato (Bicehouse kick)

G — Bicehouse 42 FG

T — Taylor, 51 pass from Bova (Madeline kick)

G — Bicehouse 29 FG

Team stats

THIEL GROVE CITY

15 First downs 26

75 Rushing yards 99

235 Passing yards 281

31-21-0 Att-comp-int 33-25-0

310 Total yards 380

1-0 Fumbles-lost 3-1

7-70 Penalties-yards lost 6-54

Individual stats

Rushing: THIEL — Bova 11-32, Mertiff 9-19, Van Horn 1-16, Wagner 4-8; GROVE CITY — B. Mercer 24-70, DiDonato 16-32, team 1-(-1), Hall 3-(-2).

Passing: THIEL — Bova 31-21-0-235; GROVE CITY — DiDonato 31-24-0-278, S. Mercer 1-1-0-3, team 1-0-0-0.

Receiving: THIEL — Taylor 7-135, Amano 5-31, Van Horn 5-30, Smith 1-19, Wagner 2-15, Mackall 1-5; GROVE CITY — S. Mercer 14-171, O’Hara 3-40, Summy 3-34, Hall 1-16, Tapper 1-11, Reith 1-9, DiDonato 1-3, B. Mercer 1-(-3).