Delone Catholic High appeared to experience just one hiccup Saturday against York County Tech.

Senior Lance Reneker nearly rushed for a lengthy touchdown on the Squires' first offensive play. He was instead tackled at the York Tech 1-yard line and had to settle for a 37-yard gain.

"I slowed down, then realized I wasn't in," he said. "First run, I'm always a little out of it."

No worries, though. The Squires scored on their next play, one of seven touchdowns in an easy 49-6 football win Saturday morning against York Tech at Spry.

Squires coach Steve Wiles thought the victory came at a good point in the season. His team was coming off a tough season-opening loss to Trinity and is going into a stretch of five games -- beginning Friday against Littlestown -- that could go a long way toward determining the YAIAA Division III champion.

"Last week was a tough loss for us," Wiles said. "I think you start to doubt yourself a little, question yourself. As a coach, I'm thinking, 'Are we doing the right things?' This was a good confidence-builder for us as we get ready for Littlestown."

The biggest challenge for the Squires on Saturday was stopping York Tech's duo of Dalmar Dickson and Calvin Savary, who rushed for 343 yards last week against Pequea Valley. They had just 193 against the Squires.

The strong performance, though, was a challenge.

"It's tough to simulate that in practice," Wiles said. "I think it caught

Advertisement
us off guard a little bit. I don't know if they were blocking it different than we thought they might."

The Squires didn't have much trouble on offense, Reneker's faux pas notwithstanding. Hayden Bell followed Reneker's big gain with a 1-yard touchdown for a 7-0 lead.

The Spartans responded by forcing their way downfield, collecting first down after first down, until Dickson rushed for a 4-yard touchdown. A failed two-point conversation kept the deficit at 7-6 with 2:52 left in the first quarter.

Everything went right for the Squires from there.

They built a 14-6 lead when quarterback Brett Smith connected with sophomore tight end Justin Gobrecht on a 24-yard touchdown with 31 seconds left in the first quarter. The Squires added three more touchdowns in the second quarter and another two in the third.

They finished with 330 yards of offense, rushing for 215 and receiving a 3-of-5 morning with 115 yards from Smith. Still, Reneker believes there is room for improvement.

"Discipline things," he said. "Knowing where to go, knowing your position play by play and your assignments. There were some missed assignments on blocks."

Including a late 54-yard run by Savary, the Squires allowed just 222 yards.

"After they got that drive and the score, we pretty much took care of them," Wiles said. "Other than the long run at the end that was against our second team, our third team, I was pretty happy with the defense."

dpaulling@eveningsun.com; 717-637-3736, ext. 139. Twitter: @DanielPaulling.
  

Delone Catholic  14  21  14    0 -- 49
York Tech    6    0    0    0 --   6

First Quarter
   DC --Hayden Bell 1 run (Dalton Strickland kick), 9:22
   YCT -- Dalmar Dickson 4 run (run failed), 2:52
   DC -- Justin Gobrecht 24 pass from Brett Smith (Strickland kick), 0:31
Second Quarter
   DC -- Zach Small 5 run (Strickland kick), 3:53
   DC -- Lance Reneker 56 punt return (Strickland kick), 2:13
   DC -- Austin Noel 60 pass from Smith (Strickland kick), 0:12
Third Quarter
   DC -- Small 10 run (Strickland kick), 9:21
   DC -- Cody Kuhn 2 run (Strickland kick), 3:05

-- DC -- YCT
First downs -- 15 -- 13
Rushes-yards -- 36-215 -- 59-222
Passing -- 3-5-1 -- 0-1-0
Passing yards -- 115 -- 0
Total yards -- 330 -- 222
Punts -- 1-39.0 -- 2-26.0
Fumbles-lost -- 1-1 -- 6-4
Penalties-yards -- 4-21 -- 4-16

 
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
   Rushing -- Delone Catholic, Reneker 4-55, Nate Miller 3-40, Bell 6-33, Jake Kadis 3-29, Small 3-22, Matt Giuffreda 4-21, Lucas Shull 3-7, Kuhn 2-4, Eric Boyle 1-3, Logan Hartlaub 2-2, Brody Strausbaugh 1-2, Alex Little 1-0, Nick Boddiford 1-(-3); York County Tech, Calvin Savary 38-181, Dickson 15-12, Judonn Mitchell 1-12, Nashied Bones 2-9, Justin Delgado 3-8.
   Passing -- Delone Catholic, Smith 3-5-1-115; York County Tech, Dickson 0-1-0-0.
   Receiving -- Delone Catholic, Austin Noel 2-91, Gobrecht 1-24; York County Tech, none.