Kastelic, Burrell’s no-huddle offense shine in Big East Conference rout of Uniontown

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, September 15, 2018 | 12:27 AM

Burrell first-year head coach Shawn Liotta is highly regarded in football circles. He flies all over the country holding clinics and teaching his “No Huddle, No Mercy” offense.

Liotta and his Bucs put on a clinic Friday night in front of the fans at Buccaneer Stadium, and it came in the form of a relentless running attack. Senior running back Luke Kastelic rushed for a career-high 304 yards and four touchdowns to help Burrell roll to a convincing 61-6 win over Uniontown in a WPIAL Class 3A Big East Conference matchup.

“The night was epic,” said Kastelic with a wide grin afterward. “We haven’t seen that here at Burrell for quite a while, and it just feels amazing.”

The Bucs’ performance also broke the home scoring record of 55 points set in 2005 against Kittanning.

“To our kids’ credit, they had a really hard week of practice this week; our kids were in full pads Monday through Thursday,” Liotta said. “Our kids put in a ton of work this week, and it paid off here tonight and it was a dominating performance.”

Things went right for Burrell (1-3, 1-2) from the onset when the Bucs won the coin flip and elected to receive to open the game. The new Bucs’ offense went right to work and marched 70 yards in nine plays before senior quarterback Logan Phillips scored on a 1-yard dive to give Burrell the early 7-0 lead.

Uniontown (0-4, 0-3), which came in with a young, promising running back in sophomore Ky’Ron Craggette, couldn’t get going and things snowballed out of control early. After a Craggette 17-yard run that set Uniontown up at it’s own 36, the Red Raiders moved backward with two consecutive holding calls.

Red Raiders quarterback Dom Richter muffed the handoff with Craggette, which was scooped up by Kastelic, who returned it to the Red Raiders’ 15. One play later, Kastelic crossed the goal line on a 15-yard run to give Burrell an early 14-0 lead with 7 minutes, 23 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

“I saw green, that’s all I saw,” Kastelic said. “(The offensive line) stepped up this week, worked hard at practice and it showed on the field. I got to the point that I felt (when I ran the ball) that it was going to be at least a first down.”

Kastelic came up big again on the Red Raiders’ next drive when Richter fumbled at the Burrell 10 to put an end to the Uniontown threat. The Red Raiders turned the ball over five times (three fumbles, two interceptions).

“Excuse aside, we’re very, very young,” Uniontown coach Cedric Lloyd said. “Some guys have a little playing experience, but every week out I’m noticing how much less playing experience we have (compared) to the teams that we’re playing.”

Kastelic came back and punched the ball in on a 6-yard touchdown run to start the rout. Kastelic went on to score two more times on runs of 30 and 6 yards to cap his career effort.

“What can you say?” Liotta said about Kastelic’s performance. “The kid is a great kid. He’s tough as heck, runs the ball so well, has great vision and is hard to get on the ground.”

The Burrell starters scored on every offensive possession of the night. Phillips added another 10-yard touchdown run to bring the score to 27-0. Phillips came back on the next drive and connected with junior wide receiver Seth Fishbach for an 83-yard touchdown pass. Philips finished 2 of 4 for 144 yards, all to Fishbach.

Uniontown got on the board with its first possession of the second half, when Richter sprinted for a 63-yard touchdown run. Richter turned in a 163-yard passing performance. Uniontown receiver Jake Shiley finished with 114 yards on three catches.

Burrell junior running back Michael Scherer got in in the fun and added back-to-back third-quarter touchdown runs of 3 and 13 yards.

“Coming back from a couple losing seasons and winning this game … this is just an unbelievable feeling I’m having right now,” Kastelic said.

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

Tags: Burrell, Uniontown