Seniors Wallace, Colecchi lead Kiski Area past Shaler in Northern Conference opener

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, September 1, 2018 | 12:00 AM

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With Kiski Area facing a third-and-long midway through the fourth quarter, the play call “Work Jack” came in from the sidelines, a deep go-route designed to go to Jack Colecchi.

It certainly worked.

Cavaliers quarterback Ryne Wallace launched a bomb, and it came down in the hands of Colecchi in stride for a 42-yard touchdown that capped off a strong performance for the senior duo.

Colecchi finished with three total touchdowns and Wallace passed for 245 yards to help Kiski Area top Shaler, 31-14, in the Class 5A Northern Conference opener Friday night at Dick Dilts Stadium.

“Jack told me to throw it deep, and he’ll catch it,” Wallace said. “We had struggled early in the game connecting on deep balls, but I knew it was bound to happen. When it did it was big, and it helped put the game away.”

Kiski Area (2-0, 1-0) has already doubled its win total from last season.

Colecchi scored on 55-yard screen pass in the third quarter where he sidestepped a defender and raced down the middle of the field untouched. He had a 4-yard run for a score in the second quarter when he took a direct snap with Kiski Area in its confusion formation, where linemen were spread out all over the line of scrimmage.

“Jack is a mismatch, and so are all of our receivers, for anyone we play,” Kiski Area coach Sam Albert said. “He did a good job (on the screen pass) of turning a 5-yarder in to a score.

“What I’m most proud of with Ryne is he stood in there for us all night and made the throws. He didn’t back away at all.”

Kiski Area built a 17-0 lead midway through the second quarter on a Drew Dinunzio-Biss ’ 1-yard run (after Troy Kuhn strip-sacked Shaler quarterback Daren Mizgorski on the previous play), Colecchi’s TD run and a 25-yard field goal by Nick Smith.

Shaler, which snapped a 24-game losing streak last week with a win at New Castle, got on the board with a 54-yard connection from Mizgorski to Brennan Fugh.

The rest of the first half however was full of missed opportunities for the Titans (1-1, 0-1).

Mizgorski was sacked on a third down midway through the first and lost 13 yards back to the 27, forcing a longer field goal of 44 yards that Brandon Berdick pushed wide left.

The Titans dropped two interceptions inside their 10-yard line, and the Cavaliers ended up scoring 10 points. They had a touchdown wiped off the board in the final minute on an illegal formation penalty and a desperation heave on the final play of the half by Mizgorski to Fugh was caught, but Fugh was stopped 2 yards short of the end zone.

Despite all of that, the Titans kept within shouting distance for the majority of the second half, staying within 10 points until the final four minutes.

“I thought our guys did a really good job responding,” Shaler coach Jim Ryan said. “I’ve been a part of teams where when bad things happen, people don’t respond in a positive manner. Our kids didn’t do that. Kiski just made a couple more plays than we did.”

Mizgorski finished with 251 yards passing, and Fugh had 10 receptions for 204 yards.

Albert credited his players for their work in the summer toward changing the culture of the program, and the players are starting to see the results bear out.

“Coach A said let me lead you guys and you follow, and everything will work out,” Wallace said. “Last year, we had a rough year, but we’re in a new conference, and we have a lot more confidence since we’re a year older.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer.

Tags: Kiski School, Shaler