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September 30, 2012

High school football notebook: Lewisburg unveils new formation

By The Daily Item The Daily Item

Lewisburg introduced a new formation in Friday night’s 35-14 victory over Shamokin. The Green Dragons lined up in a spread formation with four wideouts and quarterback Nick Costagliola in a pistol set with fullback Brandon Smith lined up behind him.

Smith would go in motion and Costagliola would throw a swing pass to Smith. The first time the play worked for an 84-yard TD on a third-and-10 for the Green Dragons. The second time it led to a 6-yard gain.

The third time the Green Dragons ran the play came in the fourth quarter near the goal line. Except for one mistake — Smith forgot to go in motion — it led to an 8-yard TD run instead of a short pass.

“It’s something we’ve had in all season, we just hadn’t used it much yet,” Smith said. “I don’t what happened the last time, I just forgot to go in motion. It worked out, though.”



UNLIKELY HERO: Until Berwick scored on a 10-yard Matt Cashman run with seven seconds left Friday night at Harold L. Bolig Memorial Field, it looked like the hero of this much-anticipated non-league contest between Selinsgrove and the once-beaten Bulldogs would be the only female member of coach George Curry’s football team.

When Selinsgrove’s defense forced Berwick to attempt a 27-yard field goal in a 7-7 game in the second quarter, freshman kicker Olivia (that’s not a typo) Seely, booted the ball through for a 10-7 lead that stood until the final moments of the game.

Not bad for a player who arrived on the Berwick sideline carrying her equipment just before kickoff. Her tardiness was excusable. Seely, daughter of longtime Berwick assistant coach Keith Seely, had to get a ride from her previous engagement, an afternoon soccer game.

Seely was perfect on two PATs to go with the first field goal of her young career.



THEY GOT ME: Veteran Berwick coach George Curry, after discussing his team’s win, couldn’t help thinking about the one that got away, a loss to rival Wyoming Valley West the previous week. After Curry left Berwick the first time he coached at Valley West, and the Spartans had some incentive to beat Curry.

“We played one bad game and, dang it, we were too cocky after beating teams by 50 and 38 points. I used to coach there and they got all fired up for the old man,” he said. “That happens.”



BOOM: Selinsgrove senior quarterback/safety Tyler Krebs showed another dimension to his game. He punted four times, the shortest being a 33-yarder which he kicked from his own end zone. The others: 55, 51 and 68 yards.



MOVE THE CHAINS: Central Columbia successfully converted 8 of 11 third downs in the first half of Friday’s 21-7 win over Danville.

What’s more, the Blue Jays needed 10 or more yards on four of those successful conversions.

“That was the most frustrating thing,” said Danville coach Jim Keiser. “We have a defense called and we have guys in position, and we miss it by a fingertip or we don’t break on the ball. We just weren’t getting there.”

The Jays finished 10-of-17 on third downs in the game, 10-of-16 if you discount a kneel down on final series.

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