Dragons Thankful For Another Win

It's become part of their Thanksgiving tradition. The Central Scarlet Dragons will be working up an appetite for their turkey and stuffing with a morning practice as they prepare for another PIAA football playoff game.

Last week's 35-6 victory over District 9 champion Clearfield - the second straight week the Dragons have prevailed by that score - kept Central's dreams of a state Class 3A championship alive and set up a postseason rematch with District 10 champion Grove City at the Eagles' Forker Field on Friday at 7 p.m.

Coincidentally, Central beat Grove City by a 35-6 count in a snowstorm in last year's quarterfinals.

"It feels great to still be practicing at this point," said Dragon quarterback Jeff Hoenstine, who passed for 219 yards and three touchdowns - including two of 7 and 5 yards to Eli Lingenfelter - in the first quarter of last week's win. "It's a great opportunity for us, and I know our guys are going to make the most of this opportunity to play this far into the season. We're going to go out Friday night and give it all we've got.

"I know they have a lot of guys returning from last year's team and they were pretty good last year, so they should be a challenge for us."

The Dragons and Eagles have a few things in common. Both are pass-first offenses. Both opened the year 1-2 and seem to be playing their best football as they head into their clash.

Grove City has won eight of its last nine games. The Eagles entered the District 10 playoffs as the No. 1 seed and was the only higher seed to advance through the opening round.

Last week, the Eagles overcame a 17-7 deficit midway through the second quarter to beat Slippery Rock, 42-23. Junior quarterback Hunter Homan rushed for four touchdowns and threw for 150 yards to spearhead Grove City, which also scored on a punt return and a Slippery Rock fumble.

"They have two good receivers (sophomore Nathan Greer has 47 receptions and junior Gavin Lutz has 43). Their quarterback is pretty good. They're a good passing team. They're a good offensive team," Central coach Dave Baker said. "They seem to be a little bit better than they were last year."

Homan has completed 60 percent of his passes for 1,761 yards and 17 TDs, although he has been intercepted 12 times. The Eagles also have running back Anthony Nemec, who ran for 88 yards against Slippery Rock to bring his season total to 874 yards.

Grove City's style of offense has been compared to that of Penn Cambria, with whom Central split a pair of games this year, losing by 14 in the regular season before turning it around in the D6-3A finals, 35-6.

After giving up 20 points or more in its first three games, only three opponents have reached 20 points in the last 10. The Dragons onlyhave surrendered 26 points in their playoff wins over Tyrone, Penn Cambria and Clearfield.

"Our defensive coordinator (Joe Kitt) put in some schemes to help out the younger guys to try to learn the formations and learn to compete on the varsity level. They've done that, and we're all competing on the same level now," said Dragon pass-rushing specialist Jason Clark, who has 11 sacks this year and has made three tackles for loss in each of the last two games. "I feel like if we all do our jobs, we'll be all right."

Grove City has lived on the edge a bit this season, beating Sharon by a point to advance to the District 10 championship game. Eagle opponents have scored 270 points and reached the 20-point mark in seven of the last nine games.

Last year's meeting was the only time all season Hoenstine finished with fewer than triple figures passing; that however, was heavily influenced by the elements. Parker Gregg ran for 161 yards for Central at Slippery Rock University that night, and Hoenstine got the Dragons into the end zone on two of his five completions, setting the state mark for touchdown passes in a season in the process.

Of course, Hoenstine has gone on now to break the Pennsylvania career passing mark, and he'll be looking to add to that this week, entering the contest with 3,450 yards passing and 46 touchdowns. Baker thinks the Dragon passing game might be what gives Central a leg up as it endeavors to punch its ticket into the state final four for the second year in a row.

"I don't see why it would stop working the way it's been working. I know we've been pretty successful the past two years," said Lingenfelter, who leads seven double-digit Dragon pass-catchers with 83 receptions for 1,434 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Central has run off 10 straight wins since opening 1-2. The winner will get the winner of the WPIAL final between Belle Vernon and Avonworth on Dec. 2 or 3.

"At the beginning of the year, we were very inexperienced, but our guys have gotten better. Our team has improved tremendously," Hoenstine said. "I think we're in a pretty good spot right now. I'm seeing a lot of similarities to last year's team."

This article is sponsored by Fox's Pizza Den in Roaring Spring.