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It’s the midway point of the 2012 season, and teams are still talking about their identity — whether finding it or attempting to establish it.
But this much was learned following Friday night’s Region 1-A Shenango Valley showdown: Sharpsville High’s football team is returning to the postseason.
“ ... We’re still five-and-oh, we’re undefeated in the league, so we’re in the playoffs and that’s a big factor for us. That was our number one goal, to get back in the playoffs,” summarized Sharpsville skipper Paul Piccirilli following his Blue Devils’ 35-13 defeat of Farrell.
At Anthony J. Paulekas Stadium, the Blue Devils’ beautifully balanced run game accounted for 276 of its 335 total yards. Center P.J. Campoli, guards Zach Stafford and Cody Hughes and tackles Adam Grimm and Jacob Llewellyn and tackle/tight end Kaleb Robertson paved paths for Derrick Odem (14 carries, 108 yards), Ross Llewellyn (18-87) and Joey Pagliaroli (11-82).
Sharpsville (4-0, 5-0) secured a 15-7 margin at intermission on a pair of Bryan Stafford 1-yard plunges, but the Blue Devils dominated the 2nd half. Pagliaroli traded touchdowns with Farrell’s Derrick Burns in the 3rd period, but Odem and Pagliaroli produced 11- and 14-yard 4th-frame scoring sprints.
Last season Sharpsville surged to the Class A Final Four before commonwealth kingpin Clairton defeated the Blue Devils in the western regional title tilt. Entering Friday night’s contest a pair of statewide polls had Sharpsville situated at 4th.
“We’ve talked about this many times with these guys and told them, ‘You’ve gotta find your own identity,’ ” Piccirilli replied to the notion of pressure placed on this year’s edition, based on last year’s success. “People don’t realize: we lost seven or eight horses last year (to graduation) that were just mean. These kids don’t have that yet. But it’s just different personalities, and they’re doing a great job.
“Anytime you’re five-and-oh at this point, you’re doing something right,” Piccirilli reasoned. “But to play with the (opponents) coming up, we’re gotta execute a lot better.”
Execution short-circuited the Steelers’ success. Farrell’s 14 penalties (7 majors) and 4 fumbles — respectively, 11 and 3 of which occurred after intermission — made sustaining any offensive continuity difficult. However, Steelers’ skipper Jarrett Samuels said,
“We made some mistakes, some self-inflicted ... but my team played hard (Friday) night. I’m proud of my guys, extremely proud. We came together, we grew (Friday) night.
“We get into the playoffs, we see these guys (Sharpsville) again, it’s gonna be a different outcome. But (Friday) night, they got us on our homeoming. ... But we fought hard, we fought through a lot of adversity, we fought through a lot of negatives going against us. We’re gonna grow from this.”
Regarding the Steelers’ somewhat uneven season — 1-2 in Region 1-A, 3-2 overall — Samuels assessed,
“(Friday) night, I believe we found ourselves. We found our identity, what we’re gonna do. We got some things going well (Burns’ game-high 15-carry, 142-yard rushing performance, and a 1st-quarter 10-play, 72-yard, 4-minute, 57-second scoring drive capped by Joe Goudy’s 4th-and-7 10-yard TD toss to Jalen Scott). But,” Samuels admitted, “it’s hard playing ‘uphill,’ We kept playing ‘uphill,’ playing ‘uphill.’ So we’ve gotta clean some things up.
“But most important is, my guys fought for forty-eight straight minutes, and I’ll hang my hat on that, goin’ forward. We’ll get better, and we’ll be back,” Samuels’ insisted.
Piccirilli pokes holes in polls, choosing instead to use the eye test in evaluating his team.
“It’s funny this year. I don’t know what we’re missing, but we’re missing something. I don’t know if it’s the injuries and that we’re trying to fill in with kids that need time yet. But we’re trying to find people and put them in the right place to get us better, and this part of our schedule (at West Middlesex and home games with Wilmington and Lakeview during the next 3 weeks) it’s going to be very difficult to do.”
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SHARPSVILLE 0 15 7 13 35
FARRELL 7 0 6 0 13
Scoring plays
F — Scott, 10 pass from Goudy (Pickens kick)
S — B.Stafford, 1 run (Pagliaroli kick)
S — B.Stafford, 1 run (R.Llewellyn run)
S — Pagliaroli, 4 run (Pagliaroli kick)
F — Burns, 14 run (run failed)
S — Odem, 11 run (run failed)
S — Pagliaroli, 14 run (Pagliaroli kick)
Team stats
SHARPSVILLE FARRELL
21 First downs 12
276 Rushing yards 187
69 Passing yards 13
9-5-0 Att-comp-int 10--5-0
335 Total yards 200
2-1 Fumbles-lost 4-0
7-53 Penalties-yards lost 14-118è
Individual stats
Rushing: SHARPSVILLE — Odem 14-108, R.Llewellyn 18-87, Pagliaroli 11-82, B.Stafford 6-(-1); FARRELL — Burns 15-142, Scott 5-22, Goudy 8-16, Graham 1-8, Johnson 2-7, Pinkins 3-3, Jackson 1-4, Team 2-(-15).
Passing: SHARPSVILLE — B.Stafford 8-4-0, 33; Odem 1-1-0, 36; FARRELL — Goudy 10-5-0, 13.
Receiving: SHARPSVILLE — Luchey 5-69; FARRELL — Burns 2-(-8), Scott 1-10, Graham 1-6, Hyman 1-5.
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Sharpsville's Tyler Luchey bursts through the line during Friday's Region 1-A clash against the Steelers at Farrell.
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