88 • TRIB TOTAL MEDIA
CORY BROWN
Coach: Tim McCutcheon
2019 record: 2-8, 1-6 in
Class 2A Midwestern Athletic
Conference
All-time record: 356-464-40
SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Time
9.11 at Ellwood City* 7
9.17 at Neshannock* 7
9.25 New Brighton* 7
10.2 at Riverside* 7
10.9 Beaver Falls* 7
10.16 at Laurel* 7
10.23 Freedom* 7
*CONFERENCE GAME
STATISTICAL LEADERS
Passing Marc Conti
25-88, 193 yards
Receiving Cory Brown
10-107 yards, TD
Rushing Brian Cline
111-560 yards, 3TDs
FAST FACTS
• How could a team that went
2-8 last year carry momentum
into the offseason? If it won
its last two games. Mohawk
knocked off Ellwood City and
Summit Academy in its final
two games last season.
• Mohawk rushed for 1,380
yards last season. Only 59 of
those yards were gained by
seniors.
• While Mohawk has almost
all of its skill position players
back this season, the Warriors
will have to replace firstteam
all-conference offensive
lineman Nick Beam in the
trenches. Beam is playing his
college ball at Westminster.
• Coach Tim McCutcheon
found some irony in the fact
that he had 52 players come
out for offseason workouts,
giving him one of his largest
rosters in his six years as Mohawk
coach despite workouts
being conducted in the middle
of a pandemic.
MOHAWK LOOKING TO
TAKE 2 STEPS FORWARD
The Mohawk football team has
made the climb from the bottom of
the standings to playoff contender
once in the past few seasons.
Now it’ll just have to do it again.
After winning a total of one
game in his first two seasons on
the Mohawk sidelines, coach Tim
McCutcheon led the Warriors to
back-to-back playoff appearances
in 2017-18, including a postseason
win two years ago.
With inexperienced players in
key spots last year, the Warriors
slipped back to a 2-8 record.
McCutcheon said the ultimate
goal is to eliminate those peaks
and valleys, but at the Class 2A
level, it’s an extraordinarily difficult
task.
“When you look at kids in grades
from 12th down to kindergarten,
it seems like every other year, you
have a nice group of athletes. Very
rarely do you have back-to-back
years,” McCutcheon said. “It’s
tough.
“Even if you have a really good
sophomore group, for example, a
good sophomore is nothing to a
good senior, not on Friday nights
on a football field.”
The underclassmen who learned
some hard lessons last season have
returned with a few more pounds
on their frames. With returning
starters all over the lineup, there
is cause for optimism in Warriors
camp.
Take the backfield for example.
The senior trio of Brian Cline,
Vincent Argiro and Cory Brown
combined for 1,193 yards and 10
touchdowns on the ground last
season. They’re all back this year.
Brown was a versatile performer,
rushing for 300 yards, catching
10 passes on offense and intercepting
five passes on defense.
Junior Marc Conti also was a
two-way starter.
Another potential playmaker,
senior Jordan Mollenkopf, is back.
After catching three touchdown
passes and returning two kicks for
scores as a sophomore, he missed
most of last season with an injury.
There’s less experience in the
trenches, but Ethan McAnlis and
Vincent Innocenzi are returning
starters and Charlie Schillingburg
is an emerging lineman.
McCutcheon expects the development
of young players on offense
will help out the team’s defense in
the long run.
“My defense was on the field
three-quarters of the game last
year,” he said. “Once our conference
found out we couldn’t pass
the ball last year, we had a nice
Cover Zero with nine in the box
every play. It was tough for us to
move the ball.”
McCutcheon expects the defense
to be fast and hard-hitting, making
up for a lack of size. With the proliferation
of spread offenses, being
smaller on defense isn’t generally
a major problem in modern high
school football.
In the Midwestern Athletic Conference,
however, McCutcheon
isn’t so sure.
“If you look at our conference,
we have double tight teams. We
have Wing-T teams. We have one
or two Power-I teams. It’s throwback
back here,” he said. “There’s
a little bit of spread here, but not
much, so you better buckle up both
chinstraps tight and be ready to
play some old-school football. It’s
1982 here.”
by JONATHAN BOMBULIE
BODEN LESLIE MAC • MOHAWK