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NEW WILMINGTON — Make the dozen-mile drive from the Shenango Valley to Amish Country bordering Mercer and Lawrence counties.
You’ll see farmland, which in part is fueled by cornfields. Cornfields mean corn-fed kids. And corn-fed kids grow up to be Greyhounds gridders.
“ ... They dominated the line of scrimmage and were just more physical than us tonight ...” explained Hickory High head coach Bill Brest.
Tyler Donati dented Hickory for a game- and career-high 28-carry, 205-yard, 2-touchdown rushing performance as Wilmington won the District 10 Region 3-AA rivalry, 35-28.
Led by Donati, the Greyhounds’ ground game garnered 369 yards and was the best friend of the Hounds Hammer defense as it limited Hickory’s DeShawn Coleman to only a handful of 2nd-half touches.
“This is just a major win. They’re our biggest rivals, ever since last year. There’s nothing greater for us than beating Hickory,” admitted Donati, who suffered cramping owing to his workload. “They’re a great team, and everybody needs to step up when we play them, and that’s what we did tonight,” Donati added.
Donati, during last year’s 28-27 Wilmington win, recovered a fumble in the end zone and blocked the potential game-tying PAT. He had help in the Hounds’ backfield Friday night from Alex Patton and Jake Sotter. Patton produced 110 yards on 20 totes and Sotter secured another 62.
“Alex Patton and Jake Sotter ... they blew my mind with how well they ran the ball, and I couldn’t be any more proud for them,” the humble Donati related.
“Tyler’s a great running back. He’s tough to stop. I mean, he has some speed, but he’s a bull,” praised Hounds’ headmaster Terry Verrelli.
Collectively, Wilmington wore down Hickory with 73 offensive plays. In Greyhounds’ goal-line situations 6-foot-1, 295-pound Jeremy Miller — normally the right tackle — was inserted into the backfield to pave paths that included Donati’s 3- and 2-yard runs in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
In Wilmington’s wing-T or full-house backfield formations Miller was joined along the line by 265-pound tackle Keith Fulkman, 255-pound center Zack McCluskey, and 235-pound guard Jon Yohman, along with guard Josh Wrightson and tight end Donnie Watson.
Hickory (1-1, 2-1) had an opportunity to tie with 6:07 remaining.
Donati ran for 6 yards on a 3rd-and-8 but fumbled, and Coleman collected the ball in stride, sprinting 41 yards to the end zone. Jordan Wombacker’s 4th consecutive PAT drew the Hornets within 35-28.
However Hickory never had its hands on the ball again.
Patton’s 38-yard ensuing kickoff return gave the Greyhounds great field position. Then when Donati exited with 4-plus minutes to play, Patton pushed for a drive-sustaining yard on 4th-and-1 at Hickory’s 47. While the Hornets had to use their 3 times-out, Patton and a rejuvenated Donati alternated carries to consume the clock to expiration.
Coleman could get only 8 carries — his 1st of the game, a fumble, recovered by Donati after a strip by Xavier Coulter — set up the Hounds’ initial score, Patton’s 33-yarder off the right side.
Nonetheless, Coleman concluded with a trio of TDs in a variety of fashions, though only 68 yards rushing.
“They really shut the perimeter down, and their size and strength in the middle shut down the inside,” Brest admitted. “So we had to revert to the passing game, and it was working, but we just ran out of time. ... Unfortunately, we just didn’t get the ball back at the end.
“The third-and-nine play when they picked up eight was the back-breaker,” Brest lamented.
Hickory senior signal-caller Michael Nardone, in his first action since sustaining a high-ankle sprain in the initial scrimmage, turned in an 8-for-19, 152-yard passing performance that included a 63-yard screen pass to Coleman and a game-tying 27-yard strike to Davon Tindall at the outset of the 2nd half. However he had a pair of passes picked off by Watson and Jimmy Pitzulo and was sacked once.
Hickory had 3 turnovers, which limited the Hornets to only 32 offensive plays, 5 first downs and 217 total yards.
Coleman collected TDs on the swing pass from Nardone and a 56-yard 2nd-stanza scoring sprint. But Wilmington (1-1, 2-1) went from twice trailing in the 1st quarter to twice tallying en route to a 21-14 margin at intermission.
Donati culminated a 12-play, 64-yard, 6-minute, 31-second drive with a 3-yard burst that included his sticks-moving 4-yard run on 4th-and-1 from the Hounds’ 45-yard line late in the 1st frame.
The Hounds’ go-ahead score was produced by Patton’s 7-yard run with 26.2 ticks to play in the half, capping a 10-play, 82-yard, 3è-minute series.
Hickory had a 7-play, 70-yard, 2nd half-opening series culminated by Nardone’s TD toss to Tindall with 8:36 left in the 3rd quarter.
But Wilmington went for a pair of 8-play, 3è-minute scoring drives capped by quarterback Cody Llewellyn’s 3rd-and-goal 1-yard plunge and Donati’s 2-yarder. After Slavi Pontius punched in the last of his 5 PATs, the 3rd quarter closed with Wilmington leading 35-21.
“I think the difference between here and Grove City (a 19-7 loss last week) was we had the ball more, and we moved it more,” Verrelli assessed. “We moved it against Grove City; we just didn’t have it enough.
“But this was just a great effort. It was one of the best games I’ve seen out of these kids in all the years I’ve coached,” praised the 34th-year Hounds’ headmaster (265-110-3), who has a commonwealth crown (2008) to his credit.
“Congratulations to them. Our job is to come back and regroup and get ready for next week,” Brest said. “We can’t make mistakes and we’ve got to react to adversity a little bit better.
“I think the better team probably won tonight,” Brest continued. “We have to get back to good, old-fashioned record of zero-and-zero and we want to be one-and-oh this Friday night against an outstanding Grove City football team.”
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HICKORY 14 0 7 7 28
WILMINGTON 7 14 14 0 35
Scoring plays
H — Coleman, 63 pass from Nardone (Wombacker kick)
W — Patton, 33 run (Pontius kick)
H — Coleman, 56 run (Wombacker kick)
W — Donati, 3 run (Pontius kick)
W — Patton, 7 run (Pontius kick)
H — Tindall, 27 pass from Nardone (Wombacker kick)
W — Donati, 2 run (Pontius kick)
H — Coleman, 41 fumble return (Wombacker kick)
Team stats
HICKORY WILMINGTON
5 First downs 19
63 Rushing yards 369
152 Passing yards 18
19-8-2 Att-comp-int 5-1-0
217 Total yards 387
2-1 Fumbles-lost 5-1
2-10 Penalties-yards lost 4-16è
Individual stats
Rushing: HICKORY — Coleman 8-68, Nardone 3-5, Palumbo 2-1; WILMINGTON — Donati 28-205, Patton 20-110, Sotter 14-62, Lutz 1-0.
Passing: HICKORY — Nardone 19-8-2, 154; WILMINGTON — Llewellyn 5-1-0, 18.
Receiving: HICKORY — Pope 4-46, Coleman 3-79, Tindall 1-27; WILMINGTON — Stoecker 1-18.
Sports
Related Photos
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Wilmington's Jake Sotter looks to get past Hickory's Davon Tindall during Friday's Region 3 clash in New Wilmington.
Hounds edge Hickory, 35-28
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