OLSH defeats Springdale for program’s 1st playoff victory

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, November 3, 2017 | 11:36 PM

Down by eight points in the second quarter, Springdale thought it was ready to get some momentum after a sack by Scott Landis put Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in punt formation.

But on fourth-and-15, Chargers punter Andrew Schnarre faked and went 16 yards for a first down.

OLSH took off from there and won the first WPIAL playoff game in school history with a 52-26 victory over Springdale in a Class A opening-round game at Moon High School.

The Chargers scored two plays after the fake punt to take a 22-6 lead and were on their way.

Junior quarterback Tyler Bradley threw for 271 yards and five touchdowns to pace OLSH.

Schnarre also caught five passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns, and Jack Graff ran for 102 yards and a pair of scores.

OLSH (9-2) will take on the winner of Saturday's game between Imani Christian and Sto-Rox in next week's semifinals.

“This feels great,” Chargers coach Dan Bradley said about the school's initial playoff win. “Springdale is a perennial playoff team and for us to build on last year's first playoff experience, I thought we did a good job.”

Springdale ended 5-6 under first-year coach Seth Napierkowski, who also viewed the fake punt as a key to the game.

“We were setting up for a return, and we had everybody holding their guys up,” Napierkowski said. “They called the right play against what we were trying to do. They pinned our guy to the edge and were able to get to our sideline.”

The Dynamos got the ball to start the third quarter, but on the second play from scrimmage, Chargers defensive back Sig Saftner returned an interception 37 yards to put OLSH ahead 28-6.

Two more Chargers' touchdowns followed after a bad snap over the Springdale punter's head and an interception by Richard Banks.

“I thought we played pretty well for the most part tonight,” coach Bradley said. “We had some breakdowns in protection, we muffed a punt there in the first half, but our guys played really well.”

On the ensuing drive after OLSH drove 60 yards in six plays after the opening kickoff, Springdale was in punt formation. But Dynamos freshman Demitri Fritch picked up a muffed punt at the OLSH 3 and Springdale scored two plays later to make it 6-6.

On the opening play of the second quarter, Banks hauled in a 46-yard pass from Bradley as the Chargers took the lead for good.

“That's a good team over there,” Napierkowski said of OLSH. “We just didn't make enough plays. I thought we had a pretty good game plan against them. There were a couple of deep passes we didn't make a play on, we had a fumble at their 9, then the pick-six took the wind out of our sails.”

Junior quarterback Josh Jones threw two scoring passes in the fourth quarter for Springdale. One was a 29-yarder to Dylan Hargenrader and a 58-yard aerial to Josh Harmon to give him 106 yards on the night.

Harmon also rushed for 100 yards in his final Dynamos appearance. Bradley has to 2,482 passing yards on the season, remaining among the WPIAL's leaders.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

Tags: Springdale