Current Conditions
30°F - CLEAR
Quarterback Ted Spinelli scored on touchdown runs of 10 and 14 yards and running back Christian Kuntz ripped off a 35-yard scoring run to lead the Shamrocks to a 20-0 nonleague win.
The shutout loss was the Crusaders' first since the 2004 District Three Class AA championship when they fell to Littlestown, 14-0, and the first time they've been held scoreless in the regular season since a 48-0 loss to Columbia in 2003.
"We got embarrassed," Lancaster Catholic coach Bruce Harbach said. "Trinity's a good team, but I don't know if this is an indicator of how good they are or how bad we are."
The Crusaders committed four turnovers and were victimized by seven fumbles, two of which killed potential scoring drives.
"Turnovers killed us," Harbach said. "Twice we get inside the 5-yard line and can't score?"
The center-quarterback exchange proved particularly troublesome, going awry often on this rain-slick night when the Crusaders were in their shotgun formation.
"We couldn't snap the ball back (from center) and it all starts with the center snap," Harbach said. "We got a little bit of a running game going (in the second half) and we turned it over."
Trinity, in contrast, did not. Instead, the Shamrocks took advantage of Catholic's turnovers, beginning with linebacker Jack Miller's pilfering of a Kyle Smith pass and 50-yard return to the Crusaders' 14-yard line.Four plays later, Spinelli (12 carries, 88 yards) scored on a keeper from 14 yards out to give Trinity a 7-0 lead with 8:01 left in the half.
"I've never been much of a running quarterback," he said. "I worked hard this summer, worked on my speed, worked with my strength and I think it's paid off for me personally."
Trinity increased its lead to 14-0 on the final play of the first half. Kuntz, who gave Penn State a verbal commitment last July, swept right and scored from 35 yards out.
"Our team, its strength has always been running the ball, so when it started raining played right into what we wanted to do," Spinelli said.
"Actually what we were going to try to do is come out and try to throw all over them, to be perfectly honest. But that never happened with the rain."
"It was a great call by our offensive coordinator," Trinity coach Jeff Boger said. "We figured they're going to be playing off, using that two-deep (coverage), and we figured if we could get (Christian) some space, and let him do something, he's got some speed that he's probably going to outrun the majority of the teams."
Catholic looked to respond on its first series of the second half. Smith (10-for-16, 123 yards, 1 Int.) and Quinn Houser (12-78 rushing) helped drive the Crusaders to Trinity's 3. But a Catholic fumble was scooped up by linebacker Colt Kostelac.
"Our defense played really well tonight," Boger said. "I felt our linebackers played well, our secondary played well. Everybody contributed to what we were doing."
(1513) (899) (789) (382) (58) (57) (10)The turnover set up Trinity's final score, a 10-yard sprint by Spinelli.
Catholic threatened once more in the fourth, but another loose ball was covered by defensive end Billy Phillippy.
So where do the Crusaders go from here?
"We've got to go back and start from scratch in every facet of the game," Harbach said. "It's like we haven't practiced for three weeks. Nothing went our way."
E-mail: egruver@lnpnews.com
