Karns City Grads Salerno, Conto Help Grove City Football to Win at CMU

| September 30, 2018


PITTSBURGH – The Grove City College football team amassed 308 rushing yards and a 14-minute edge in time of possession Saturday afternoon as the Wolverines rolled past host Carnegie Mellon, 31-21, in Presidents’ Athletic Conference action at Gesling Stadium.

(Photo of Grove City’s Ethan Conto, a Karns City graduate. Photo courtesy of Grove City Athletics)

It is Grove City’s first win at CMU since 2005.

Junior running back Wesley Schools (Port Jervis, N.Y./Port Jervis) charged through the CMU defense for 223 yards on a career-high 43 carries. Freshman quarterback Josh Ehst (Douglassville, Pa./Daniel Boone) added 71 yards nine carries. The Wolverines did not have a negative yardage play in the game.

Ehst also completed 6 of 12 passes for 112 yards and three touchdowns. Sophomore wide receiver Cody Gustafson (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg) tied Grove City’s single-game record with three touchdown catches and finished the game with five catches for 105 yards.

Defensively, senior safety Daniel Jackson (Brookfield, Conn./Brookfield) and senior linebacker Sam Henson (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley) both intercepted passes in the fourth quarter for Grove City. Henson’s interception in the end zone with 42 seconds left sealed the victory.

Grove City never trailed in Saturday’s game as the Wolverines opened the game with a 14-play, 65-yard drive that consumed exactly eight minutes. Schools capped the drive with a two-yard touchdown run. Freshman kicker Nick Morrow (Moon Township, Pa./Moon) added the first of his four extra points.

The Wolverines pushed the lead to 14-0 on the first play of the second quarter when Ehst fired a 45-yard touchdown strike to Gustafson. That concluded a 10-play, 81-yard drive.

CMU rallied to tie the game, however. Alex Cline tossed a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jamie Greenwell midway through the second quarter to cut Grove City’s lead in half. Luke Bikulege’s one-yard run with 24 seconds left in the first half knotted the game at 14.

The Wolverines reclaimed the lead with 2:06 left in the third quarter when Gustafson hauled in a five-yard touchdown pass from Ehst. CMU tied the game at 21-21 with 13 minutes remaining on Chris Haas’s one-yard touchdown run.

Morrow put Grove City ahead to stay with 8:46 left as he drilled a 46-yard field goal. Following a Grove City defensive stop, the Wolverines pushed the lead to 31-21 when Ehst threw a 19-yard touchdown strike to Gustafson on a post pattern.

Grove City went 11 of 16 on third downs in the game and held a 36:53-23:07 time of possession advantage. The Wolverines had 23 first downs while CMU had 22 first downs. Grove City outgained the Tartans, 420-345.

Jackson, sophomore safety Patrick Mark (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla./Wellington), junior linebacker Luke Salerno (Cowansville, Pa./Karns City) and freshman linebacker Parker Kilgore (Glenshaw, Pa./Shaler) all had seven tackles each. Senior linebacker Ethan Conto (Bruin, Pa./Karns City) and freshman defensive end Ryan Appleby (Louisville, Ohio/Thomas Aquinas) combined for a sack.

Haas led CMU with 55 rushing yards. Quarterback Alex Cline completed 21 of 35 passes for 228 yards and a touchdown.

Grove City (2-3, 1-3 PAC) will host conference rival Westminster next Saturday at 2 p.m. in the annual Homecoming game at Robert E. Thorn Field.


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