Strong Second Half by Hollidaysburg Ends Oil City’s Season

| November 10, 2018


FRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) – Brady Walters accounted for 182 yards of total offense and had a hand in all five Hollidaysburg touchdowns as Oil City saw its dream season come to a close, 33-22, Friday night at Franklin High School in a PIAA Class 5A subregional contest.

(Photo: Christian Cole ran for 220 yards on the night for the Oilers. Photo by Andy Close)

Game highlights. Video by Bruce Lux.

“Even with the lose it is still a great season,” said Oil City head coach Dan York. “The kids played hard all year. The farther you go in the playoffs the harder the teams are going to be.”

Nate Fischer’s 1-yard touchdown run on the opening possession of the second half gave Hollidaysburg the lead for good as the Golden Tiger defense pitched a second-half shutout.

Oiler’s standout running back Christian Cole had a monster first half that saw him rush for 160 yards on 21 carriers. The final two quarters were a different story as he was held to just 60 yards on 14 attempts giving the 3,000-yard rusher 220 yards for the game.

“They just put more people toward the line of scrimmage, because they realized we can’t throw the ball very well,” said York. “That’s just the way that it goes.”

Oil City was playing without Mario Fontanazza along the offensive line, and in the second half had a number lineman go in-and-out with injuries.

“Oh no doubt the injuries played a factor,” said York. “Coming into the game we had people hurt. Then we had people going down it was just going to be hard to try and fight back.”

Both offenses came out with the guns blazing as the first five possessions of the game resulted in touchdowns.

“We moved the ball on offense to stay in it with them early,” said Hollidaysburg head coach Homer DeLattre. “We needed to weather the early storm, to stay in the game. We knew eventually we would be able to wear them down, and that’s what we did.”

Cole scored on runs of seven and four yards for the Oilers. While Hollidaysburg’s Walters found paydirt from five and 13 yards, Oil City led 16-14 after a quarter.

Oil City scored its final touchdown of the game on Cole’s 5-yard run at the 7:25 mark of the second quarter to make it 22-14.

Hollidaysburg pulled to within a point at halftime as Walters picked up a snap and rolled to his right finding Jacob Sensenig for a 9-yard touchdown making the halftime score 22-21.

“We finally started getting stops defensively, and that flipped the field for us,” DeLattre said. “Brady made a really nice play there to get the ball to Sensenig. In the second half, I believe it was just us starting to tackle better and play better. That was all it came down to for us.”

The Golden Tigers flipped the script in the second half as they held Oil City to just one third-quarter first down. While only allowing the Oilers inside the red zone once.

“Our game plan in the second half was to be more aggressive at the line of scrimmage when taking on blocks,” said DeLattre. “We needed to be more physical and just tackle better. That was what we talked about all week. We didn’t do that in the first half.”

Down 33-22, Oil City stuffed Walters for no gain on a 4th-and-1 from the Golden Tigers 41-yard line.

The Oilers then penetrated the red zone but were facing a 4th-and-9 from the 14-yard line.

Coach York went to his bag of tricks with Cole throwing a halfback-option pass. Unfortunately for the Oilers, the completion to only went for two yards, and Oil City didn’t threaten to score again.

Alongside Fischer’s touchdown to give Hollidaysburg the lead the Golden Tigers also scored on Walters 9-yard run in the third quarter.

Walters threw for 96 yards on 8-of-10 passing while also rushing for 86 yards on 15 attempts.

Hollidaysburg had two 100-yard rushers in the game in Fischer and Hunter Barr who went off for 103 and 101 respectively.

For Oil City, the Oiler close their great season at 10-2 with their first District 10 championship in 20 years. Cole finished the night with 220 yards on 35 carriers with three touchdowns.

“Christian has meant everything to this program,” said York. “He’s a kid that showed everybody if you work your butt off, then good things will happen for you.”

Hollidaysburg improves to 8-4 on the season and will meet the winner of Saturday’s East Stroudsburg South-Wallenpaupack game.

“This our second straight sub-regional championship after beating Grove City last year,” said DeLattre. “It feels great for our seniors, we’ve had a very difficult schedule this year. All the teams we’ve lost to are still playing this weekend. I believe we’ve established ourselves in the 5A field in Western Pennsylvania.”

Hollidaysburg 33 Oil City 22

Score by Quarters

Hollidaysburg – 14 7 12 0 – 33
Oil City – 16 6 0 0 – 22

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

OC – Christian Cole 7 yd run (Brayden Crocker from Holden Stahl), 8:15
H – Brady Walters 5 yd run (Ethan Pinter pat), 7:26
OC – Cole 4 yd run (Cole rush), 3:34
H – Walters 13 yd run (Pinter pat), 0:20

Second Quarter

OC – Cole 5 yd run (rush failed), 7:25
H – Jacob Sensenig 9 yd pass from Walters (Pinter pat), 1:01

Third Quarter
H – Nate Fischer 1 yd run (kick blocked), 10:29
H – Walters 9 yd run (pass failed), 5:07
Individual Stats

Rushing: Hollidaysburg – Nate Fischer 14-103, Brady Walters 15-86, Hunter Barr 13-101. Oil City – Christian Cole 35-220, Holden Stahl 9-37, Noah Petro 9-25, Cam Russell 2-12.

Passing: Hollidaysburg – Walters 8-for-10, 96 yards, 1 touchdown. Oil City – Stahl 2-for7, 12 yards, 1 interception, Cole 1-for-1, 2 yards.

Receiving: Hollidaysburg – Bryce Nartellacci 1-15, Barr 1-9, Ben Drass 2-21, Sensenig 2-17, Guss Dellinger 1-10, Austin Weakland 1-24. Oil City – Petro 2-12, Brayden Crocker 1-2.
Interceptions: Hollidaysburg – Sensenig.


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