BROCKWAY — You might not bet a paycheck on it, but you’d get pretty good odds that tonight’s District 9 Class A championship football game won’t be a shootout.
Why not?
Because when Ridgway (9-2) and Elk County Catholic (8-3) met three weeks ago in the regular-season finale at St. Marys, if you weren’t there for the Elkers’ opening drive, you missed all of the scoring.
The Elkers scored on their first possession when a young ECC linebacker missed an assignment, and that was all Ridgway needed en route to a 7-0 victory.
Coming into that game the two Allegheny Mountain League South teams had bloated scoring averages fashioned by each going 4-0 to start the season against the weaker AML North.
ECC won those games by a combined 169-16, Ridgway’s margin was 163-0.
And even after four South foes, the Crusaders were still averaging 32 points in eight AML games, the Elkers 30.
But, against each other, it was nothing but defense.
Since Ridgway’s win, it has beaten Union/AC Valley, 35-10, and Curwensville, 33-0, while ECC has downed Redbank Valley, 21-14, and Clarion-Limestone, 39-8, to each make the finals.
The only time the Elker and Crusader offenses have been stopped was when they played each other. And ECC coach Tony Gerg expects more of the same tonight.
“They’re the same as us, we’re physical … that’s how we win football games,” he said. “It’s going to be a hard-hitting battle again.”
Ridgway’s Mark Heindl agreed.
“We’re very similar in style,” he conceded. “Control the ball, run effectively, play good defense.
“That’s exactly what happened the first time we played. What I think is neat is that it’s two (Big 30) schools playing for the right to move on to states. And you have Kane (in Class AA) also playing for a district title.”
Gerg pointed out that Ridgway and ECC emerged from a AML South group that included powers Curwensville and Brockway, “It shows you how competitive we are in our league.”
After losing to Ridgway on ECC’s home field, Gerg is hoping for a bit of a different approach tonight on neutral turf.
“We’ll be a lot better off if our kids come out the way they did against Clarion-Limestone,” he said. “There was a lot of emotion before the game … tears almost. We were fired up and for the first time this year we played four (good) quarters of football.
“It’s kind of a tribute to our kids and our lack of size (ECC finished last season with 16 players)… we only have so many (28 this year) but we’re so competitive, year-in and year-out.”
Ridgway, thanks to its program merger with Johnsonburg, started the season with 48 players, but it has the same game philosophy as ECC.
“We play good, sound fundamental defense … and Mark is cut from the same cloth I am,” Gerg said. “Bend but don’t break, don’t give up the big play.”
Tonight’s game has historical significance for both teams. Ridgway hasn’t made a D-9 final since 1993 under Benny Benasutti (33-6 loss to Clarion-Limestone) and Elk Catholic since ‘95 when Joe Schlimm was coaching the Crusaders (9-8 loss to Smethport).
