What started out as a promising day on "The Mountain" quickly turned into a disaster for the Sheffield Wolverines as the visiting Brockway Rovers stormed to a 44-6 victory Saturday at Sheffield Area High School.
For a short time, it appeared that this would be a special day for the Wolverines.
Sheffield's Hector Collazo took the opening kickoff at his own 5-yard line and raced through the Brockway defense, stopping 95 yards later with a touchdown that gave Sheffield a 6-0 lead.
Article Photos
Times Observer photo by Tyson Himes
No daylight
Sheffield’s George Lopez looks for running room against a tough Brockway defense during a high school football game Saturday at Sheffield Area High School. Sheffield was held to -4 yards rushing and the Rovers defeated the Wolverines, 44-6.
The defense kept the momentum in Sheffield's favor on Brockway's first possession as the Wolverines forced a punt and got the ball back in their offense's hands.
That was about all that went right for Sheffield on this day.
Brockway would play rude hosts, scoring the next 44 points of the game consecutively to hand Sheffield an 0-1 start to the 2011 season.
Fact Box
Brockway-Sheffield Stats
Brockway149147-44
Sheffield6000-6
First Quarter
S - Hector Collazo 95 kickoff return, 11:41, 2-point conversion no good
B - Tom Vervoort 10 run, 5:15, kick good
B - Jacob Heigel 42 fumble return, 4:05, kick good
Second Quarter
B - Tom Vervoort 1 run, 11:18, kick good
B - Safety 0:27
Third Quarter
B - Kyle Braun 85 kickoff return, 11:47, kick good
B - Kyle Braun 5 run, 7:31, kick good
Fourth Quarter
B - Levi Miller 13 run, 10:13, kick good
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BS
Offensive Plays4839
First downs106
Rushes-yards39-23019-(-4)
Passing32108
Total Yards262104
Comp-Att-Int5-9-07-20-3
Fumbles-Lost1-15-1
Penalties-Yards6-556-35
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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-B-Kyle Braun 12 carries for 109 yards, 1 TD, Tom Vervoort 13 carries for 79 yards, 2 TD, Levi Miller 5 carries for 18 yards, 1 TD, Luke Bish 3 carries for 12 yards, Chad Melillo 6 carries for 12 yards; S-Kalil Slaughter 2 carries for 11 yards, Brandon Johnston 1 carry for 4 yards; Shequan Wright 11 for -9; Jared Kuhn 1 for -7, George Lopez 4 for -3
PASSING-B-Kyle Braun 4 of 8 for 29 yards, Steve Sette 1 of 1 for 3 yards; S-Shequan Wright 4 of 15 for 78 yards, 3 INT, Ike Nearing 3 of 5 for 30 yards
RECEIVING-B-Brandon Morris 1 for 15, Ryan States 2 for 14, Chad Melillo 1 for 3; S-Evan Jamison 3 for 50, Dylan Reynolds 2 for 44, Shequan Wright 1 for 8, Kalil Slaughter 1 for 6.
Tom Vervoort started the Brockway scoring with a 10-yard touchdown run with 5:15 remaining in the first quarter. Just 70 seconds later, the Brockway defense got in on the act, scooping up a Sheffield fumble and racing 42 yards to a 14-6 lead that held until the first quarter was over.
Vervoort scored his second touchdown of the day just under a minute into the second quarter and Brockway's defense scored points for the second time with the half winding down. Wolverines quarterback Ike Nearing was tackled in his own endzone with 27 ticks left in the half and Brockway led 23-6 at the break.
The Wolverines (0-1) tried to regroup at halftime, but it took just 13 seconds to see that Brockway wasn't going to cooperate.
Just as the hosts had done in the first half, the Rovers took the half's opening kickoff back for a touchdown that made it 30-6. Kyle Braun was responsible for the score, following his blockers 85 yards for a touchdown. Braun also added a rushing touchdown later in the third quarter to put Brockway up 37-6.
The visitors scored for the final time with 10:13 left in the contest as Levi Miller rumbled into the endzone with a 13-yard score.
Brockway finished with 262 total yards of offense to Sheffield's 104. The Wolverines had an especially hard time running the ball, finishing with 19 total carries for negative four yards.
Shequan Wright and Nearing combined to complete seven of 20 passes for 108 yards, but Brockway recorded three interceptions of Wright. All told, Sheffield turned the ball over four times in the loss.
Evan Jamison and Dylan Reynolds were a pair of bright spots for the Wolverines on offense. Jamison caught three passes for 50 yards and Reynolds two balls for 44 yards in defeat.
Sheffield will look to win for the first time this season Friday when it visits Curwensville. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.