Freeport corrals Shoaf, drops Yough

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, September 28, 2018 | 10:45 PM

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Freeport players jumped up and down Friday while yelling with delight in the postgame huddle when they heard they had held Yough’s Dustin Shoaf, the WPIAL’s leading rusher, to less than 100 yards rushing.

It was an accomplishment a defense hasn’t had the opportunity to claim all season and one worthy of celebration considering Shoaf is the defending WPIAL rushing champion and has gone over the century mark 19 times in his career.

From the first possession on, the defense made life tough for Shoaf and the offense put together a couple nice drives in the second half to pull away for a 20-0 win in a Big East Conference game at Freeport Area Athletic Stadium.

Conor Selinger and Austin Romanchak had rushing touchdowns for Freeport (2-3, 2-3) on back to back possessions to start the third quarter.

The Yellowjackets held Shoaf to 89 yards on 23 carries, and the longest run he had was 10 yards on two occasions. They held him to 2 yards or less on eight separate carries. It was the first time he failed to surpass 100 yards rushing since Week 6 of last year at Elizabeth Forward, when he had 79 yards.

“Dustin is a great player, and you have to respect him, so our goal was to come in here and ultimately play good defense as a whole,” Romanchak said. “We just came out to played together well. We had a chip on our shoulder, and it was a huge accomplishment for us to come out and do that.”

After a scoreless first half, Freeport took the opening possession and grinded down the field using 13 plays to travel 65 yards, chewing up more than five minutes of clock. The drive ended on a Selinger 8-yard touchdown run.

Following a Yough three-and-out, Freeport struck again when Romanchak weaved his way around several defenders, scoring on a 17-yard run to make it 13-0.

Freeport kept its pressure up for the duration, holding Yough (3-3, 2-3) to three first downs in the second half.

“Our boys played their hearts out like they always do,” Freeport coach John Gaillot said. “I’m proud of their effort. We’ve had a lot of adversity this year, and I think we turned the corner right now.”

Shoaf needed 44 yards to surpass Belle Vernon’s Nick Kalcevic for fourth on the Westmoreland County all-time rushing list and hit the mark with a 7-yard run in the second quarter. He took over at quarterback for the final few possessions in the fourth quarter after Jake Sever was sacked on a third down and left the game.

Yough coach Scott Wood said that Sever was held out for precautionary reasons and because the Cougars were down three scores.

Wood credited Freeport’s scheme and line with causing havoc in the running game.

“They blitzed well, and we missed a lot of blocks,” Wood said. “Whenever our guys missed their blocks, that really hurt us. If we would’ve been able to keep (Shoaf) at running back (the last two series), who knows what he could’ve done.”

Romanchak hit Garret Schaffhauser with a 5-yard touchdown midway through the fourth to close the scoring. He finished 7 of 14 for 95 yards passing, and Selinger had 82 yards rushing before leaving the game late with a foot issue. Gaillot said it was for precautionary reasons, and Selinger could have kept going if the game was still in doubt.

Yough plays Aliquippa next week then moves into the meat of conference play: three consecutive games against teams ahead of it in the standings, starting with Derry. Freeport plays at rival Deer Lakes and needs to keep winning to keep its postseason hopes alive.

“We have to win out, but we have to look at next week and nothing else,” Gaillot said. “We have to take it one at a time.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer.

Tags: Freeport, Yough