Published: November 15, 2008 12:18 am      

Johnstown falls in AAA

ALTOONA — For the first half of their District 6 Class AAA championship game at Mansion Park Friday night, the Greater Johnstown Trojans played heavily favored Hollidaysburg even.

But the Golden Tigers roared in the second half, scoring 25 unanswered points for a 39-14 victory.

“It was the tale of two games,” said Johnstown coach Kevin Marabito, whose program was denied its 600th win. “You can’t fault the kids. They came out and played hard. Give the credit to Hollidaysburg. They took it to us on offense. We couldn’t stop them defensively. They got us into positions we didn’t want to be in. They had a great game plan and executed it well.”

The Trojans (8-4) struck first, scoring on their second possession, an eight-play drive capped by a Quadir Christian 5-yard run for a 6-0 lead at the 4:26 mark.

Hollidaysburg (11-1) answered with a 13-play drive that ended with a 7-yard dash by quarterback Brandyn Ott.

Jason Boland’s extra point put the Tigers ahead 7-6.

Johnstown’s response came in the form of a time-consuming drive that covered 80 yards, as Christian and Johnstown quarterback John Siciliano ran the ball down the field. An interference penalty against the Tigers helped move the ball to the 20.

Five plays later, Christian scored from the 2. Siciliano connected with LaQuinn Stephens-Howling for the conversion to put the Trojans ahead 14-7 with 3:34 left before the half.

“I thought we were able to control the ball in the first half,” Marabito said. “We kept the ball out of their hands.”

It was Johnstown’s last lead, as the Tigers, starting from their own 30, covered the 70 yards in 2:34, scoring on a Jason Gildea 23-yard dash. Boland’s kick evened the game.

“We made a couple of adjustments,” Tigers coach John Barton said. “We needed to do a couple things different defensively than we did in the first half. It takes us a little bit of time to figure things out. We wanted to structure the defense to where Christian was going. We felt if we could do that, we could fill the gaps and shut them down.”

The Tigers’ strategy worked as Johnstown managed just 29 yards of total offense in the second half with Christian gaining just 3 yards on three carries.

In the second half, Ott scored touchdowns from 9 and 2 yards out and threw for another 5-yard score to Jake Bickley. Gildea added the other touchdown on a 1-yard run.

Ott finished with 133 yards on 20 carries while Gildea had eight runs for 70 yards and six receptions for 67.

“I was really proud of our kids offensively,” Barton said. “We’ve really gotten into a rhythm that sooner of later we can figure out what people are doing, and the other thing is our offensive line. We have a lot skill kids that make great plays, but our offensive line has stepped up.”

Siciliano had 85 yards on 17 carries and Christian tallied 66 yards on 15 carries.

“I told the group of kids as we were watching the presentation of the awards to remember the feeling,” Marabito said. “We want to get back here next year. We have a lot of work to do in the offseason, but we have a great group of kids coming back. I’m really proud of my seniors.”