Undefeated for six years. Say that one more time. Undefeated for six years. The Titusville girls were taking their region win streak into Oil City to face a very tough Oiler team led by Corabel Shiley. Both squads wanted the win because the region title was also at stake. A lot of pressure was put on Titusville’s number one runner Anna Mehlenbacher to secure a second place finish. Shiley smashed the course record with a 19:55 run a full minute ten seconds ahead of Mehlenbacher who was 15 seconds ahead of Oil City’s Addison Wyant who came in the number three spot. It was then key for the next four Titusville runners to finish strong. Eight and 11 seconds after Wyant finished, Titusville’s Sophia Sampson and Mackenzie Covell crossed the line. Madeline Johnson took the number seven spot by edging out Olivia Vorse and Emma Wright was just five seconds later getting the important number nine spot as Titusville’s fifth scorer ahead former course record holder Kennedy Liederbach. “We knew they had a strong top (group of runners) and we had to stick at least one runner in there,” coach Joe Covell said. “And that was Anna, that was her job and then everyone else had to do their job.” The way scoring works in team cross country is the the top five runners from each team score and the place they finish becomes their score Soa runner who finishes first gets one-point, a runner who finishes sixth gets six-points. Low score wins. Titusville won 27-28. That’s how close this win was. “It took everybody today, not just one person,” Covell said. “It’s neat to see such and individualized sport come down to - it takes all seven on one day to win a race.” The Titusville girls will be competing in the Rocky Grove Invitational which has become a premier local race over the years attracting over 40 or 50 schools. They are defending champs in the event. After that are districts and they are hoping to break a streak they’re not as happy about. They haven’t had a state qualifier in over three years. “D10 is so difficult, you need to be state-caliber to come out of D10.” In the history of girls cross country the girls have been state champs twice in 1977 and 1994. The young boys haven’t fared as well going 0-3 in the region this year. Covell said the Oil City team even without the top runner, who is injured, is looking to go to states as a team. Rocket’s Bryan Johnson was the only runner to crack into Oil City’s top five taking fifth-place. Andrew Bryan, Josiah White, Even Slocum and Cash Lavery finished seven through ten. Oil City won 16-39. “You can say we have a rivalry, but it’s a friendly one,” Covell said. “All their kids know our kids and coaches all talk to each other so it’s a neat thing we have going on.” Covell has talked all year about his team being young and there is a learning curve to team running. “Our guys ran well today. The 0-3 record doesn’t show the caliber of runners we have. We’re just not there yet, we’re young, we have no seniors. Three of our top five are freshmen and we’re looking good. They ran exceptionally well today even though it doesn’t show that on the scoreboard.” Covell looks to the future with the boys team as they build and learn. “They’re starting to believe in themselves when it becomes race time,” he added. “I’m very proud of both the girls and the guys.” |
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See more photos at https://www.zenfolio.com/sayerrich/e/f700082825 For the second week in a row, the Rockets’ football squad put up over 50 points in its 55-13 blowout over backyard neighbor Maplewood Tigers.
The week before they dismantled Conneaut 56-12. The win puts the Titusville at 4-3 for the season. The Rockets started right off the bat pounding the ball down the Tigers' throats with runs including a couple heads-up quick snap quarterback keepers for first downs. After a touchdown was called back for a helmet-to-helmet personal foul put them back to a first and 25, they pounded it right back down on fourth and goal. Jaxon Covell punched it in at 6:23 in the first quarter. Maplewood wasn’t able to muster much and Titusville came back, capping it off with a 27-yard touchdown by Covell to go up 13-0 with 3:44 left in the quarter. Titusville’s O-line was moving the Tigers back at will, giving their runners plenty of room. They scored again as the time ran out on the quarter with a nifty short pass to Landon Wolfkiel, who took the pass diagonally across the field for an official 12-yard score that spanned about 40 yards. The two-point conversion put them up 21-0 at the end of the opening stanza. At 8:20 in the second on a first and 25, Mason Titus took the ball 59 yards for their fourth touchdown of the night. Maplewood finally got on the board with a 60-yard pass from Kyle Jordan to Dominick Kinney. It didn’t take Titusville long to come right back down to score their fifth TD. This time it was a quick over-the-middle pass from Ian McDonald to JJ Miller. The Rockets were up 35-7. They got the ball back quickly. A Tiger punt that was run back to the Wood 15. Titusville scored immediately after on a touchdown pass from McDonald to Covell. The Rockets had some difficulties with penalties on the night, on the last drive before the half there were 45 yards on penalties alone. But they were able to keep Maplewood from scoring going into the locker room with a 42-7 lead. Titusville came right out and scored on a 54-yard scamper by Covell who amassed 159 yards rushing and 180 total on the night, including three touchdowns. They went up 49-7 with only seconds off the clock in the second half. The running clock was on as the fog rolled in. Titusville and Maplewood would each score one more time. Titusville went up 55-7 when Ian McDonald took an interception around the 34-yard line and ran it back 66 yards. Maplewood scored their final points on a 23-yard pass from Jordan to Kinney again with just over five minutes to go. On the night, McDonald threw for 95 yards and ran for an additional 47. His pick-six gave him over 200 yards of productivity on the night. Titusville was just shy of 400 yards of total offense. Coach Mike Reynolds' Rockets have a chance to go 5-3 when they face the 0-7 Warren Dragon Friday night for homecoming. Titusville’s Paige McQuiston took a corner kick and absolutely drilled it off the top crossbar of the goal. Like banging a gong, the sound sent reverberations across Carter field that was quickly drowned out by the cheering of the team and fans when the ball dropped directly down just inside the line for a goal. There was a bit of confusion at first because the ball had a lot of backspin on it and came bounding rapidly back into the field of play causing a scramble by both teams to control the ball. But the referee’s hand was up and the first goal of the Franklin vs. Titusville game was finally scored at the 32 and a half minute point. “I’m not going to lie to you, I literally looked at it - didn’t even know what was happening and kicked it,” said McQuiston. “I just kicked it and was like ‘Oh - that just went in.’ I look at Wheels and I’m like, "I don't know how I just did that.”
To view more photographs from this game and other games this season please visit: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p619684767 Rockets get another big win on Thursday On Thursday the Rockets handled a very tough Conneaut squad winning the region showdown 3-2. This puts the Rockets at an impressive 7-2-2 on the season heading into some more tough matchups hosting Corry on Monday and North East on Wednesday. They lost to North East and tied Corry in their first matchups. On Thursday against CASH, Graci Sampson had the first goal, Addison Burleigh the second, and Marley Griffin scored what ended up being the game winner. “That was a big win for us, considering the fact that we did not play very well and we struggled with defending the formation CASH uses,” said Rocket head coach Kim Wheeling. “CASH is a very good team and they move off the ball very well, which caused problems for us.” Wheeling knows her team is still young overall, but really playing hard as a unit.
“I am very proud of the way the girls continued to play hard for the whole game and not give up. Each game is still a learning experience for us, so we use that to work on things in practice the next day to help us improve even more.” Coming around the tree line at the Ed Myer Complex, cross country runners can see the finish line - though it is still more than a couple hundred yards away. So when Titusville’s young freshman runners Cash Lavery and Andrew Bryan broke into the clear without a red Franklin jersey in front of them they could taste their fourth and fifth place finishes. But they and coach Joe Covell then witnessed something that would become an important coachable moment. Franklin’s state caliber duo of Caleb and Jay Prettyman had already come in first and second meaning Titusville needed good shows in the next few spots if they wanted to beat the Knights. The Rocket’s top runner Bryan Johnson cruised into third by crushing a personal best time of 17:49. Franklin’s Kyle Phipps was on the tail of Lavery and Bryan and as they approached the flag lined finish line shoot he had a little something extra in his tank to overcome both Titusville runners finishing a full second in front of Lavery for fourth place.
After Titusville’s first win on opening week, the ball boy for the Rockets predicted the team would go 7-3 on the season. Four games in and the team had already maxed out the youngster’s loss column prediction, but that didn’t diminish the lad’s conviction. “By the way, I think the rest of the way we can win them all,” said Noah Reynolds, Titusville head coach Mike Reynolds’ son. He was walking outside the chain-link fence at Carter Field during a boys soccer game. He was aware that the football team was about to embark on a stretch of four games against opponents who are struggling. The younger Reynolds knows his stuff. On Friday they headed up Route 8 to take on a Seneca team that had only scored 50 points while giving up 163. Head coach, Mike Reynolds, Noah’s dad, wasn’t taking the Bobcats lightly though. “Nolan Seabury is a good quarterback. I’m not sure it couldn’t argued he’s top three in the district,” Reynolds said about the Bobcats' signal caller. “They (Seneca) have an offense designed to help him move the ball.” Titusville was prepared and up for the challenge of stopping the Bobcats on their homecoming night. They prevented them from adding to their scoring total by blanking them 35-0 Reynolds praised the defensive effort. “We were backed up sometimes. Kam (Kameron Mong) and, Schmitty (Brett Schmidt). Those kids were really working up field and getting into the backfield,” Schmidt had 11 tackles to lead the Rockets and also had solid tackling production from Nate Stears with 8, Jaxson Covell with 7 and a host of Rockets with five stops. Offensively Titusville scored 14 first half points en route to their blowout win that included two long runs over 70 yards in the second half from Kameron Mong (73) and Jaxson Covell (72). Covell ended with 152 and Mong 150 of the Rockets 321 ground yards. Ian McDonald tossed for an additional 40 yards on two completions to Covell. “Hats off to our kids, they work super hard to keep their heads up at this point in the season (with three straight losses,)” Reynolds said. “They just keep growing and learning. It just makes this group such a great group to work with. I’m so proud of the progress they’ve made.” Next week the 2-3 brown and gold head to Linesville to take on the Conneaut Eagles who will be looking to bounce back after getting blanked by Meadville 57-0. The Eagles are 2-3 with wins over Seneca and Warren so far. The following week they go out Route 408 to take on Maplewood who is 2-3 after beating Reynolds 27-6 at home on Friday. The Rocket’s finally return home for homecoming on October 13 against the currently winless Warren Dragons. If Noah’s prediction runs true, they will have a winning record when they host tough Oil City with Ethen Knox, who will likely be District 10’s all-time leading rusher by then. They finish the season against currently 1-3 Corry. Coach Reynolds has vowed, if they go undefeated the rest of the season, that the team will carry Noah off the field on their shoulders. Just one more Innovative chain gang in Seneca. I need to find this father and son's contact so I can send them this link..
See even more photos from Rocket boys and girls soccer here: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p619684767
This story was written for the Titusville News-Journal.
If they continue playing as they have and eliminate some of the mistakes. Beating a healthy Oil City will be a mighty big ask for the Rockets, but maybe with some momentum and the confidence of a win streak, who knows.
They will close out the season against another struggling team that has yet to win, Corry. Though Titusville is only 1-3 at this point they really were not far off being 2-2 or even 3-1 and if they play continue to play well a winning season is not out the realm of possibility. “Tomorrow is a refocus day We just want to focus on those fundamentals,” Reynolds said. “It’s real important they continue getting better regardless of who we’re playing. You see who is on our schedule for the end of the season. If we improve every week through the end of the season it’s going to be a good time.”
Football is fun to play, but it is not without risk and that is just the reality of it all. Equipment is better than ever and more protocols are in place to minimize the risk, but it is still scary seeing a player not get up after a play. That said, there was a football game in Titusville with the X's and O's. Below is a version of the story that appeared on the Titusville News Journal website Saturday morning. Down 22-7 at the half the Titusville Rockets knew they had to get the ball in the second-half and score. They also knew they had to stop Fort LeBoeuf from piling on any more points if they wanted to come back to win. They were able to accomplish the latter. Titusville's defense held the Bison from scoring, but they couldn't stop them from getting first downs and eating up the clock.
As they entered the fourth quarter they found themselves in a fourth and long. A fake punt attempt looked as though it had potential with a McDonald completed pass that ended just a few yards short of the first down marker. The Bison took over and just ate up clock again driving the ball down into the red zone. An attempt to drive a final nail in the coffin was thwarted when McDonald went airborne to pull down an interception and fell into the end-zone. Unfortunately the fortunate turnover left them at the one-yard line according to the official's spot.They were pinned down when they could've really used a break. They needed some breathing room. A play later, the Bison D clamped down for a stop. Titusville was given enough forward momentum so what appeared to be a safety was spotted at the "width of the football" line. A rugby style scrum on the next play gave them about six yards. McDonald on the next play looked to air it out but found himself facing a stampede instead. After a sack they found themselves again at the 1 facing a fourth and long. Despite the waning minutes of the game and down two-plus scores, the Rockets punted to hopefully regroup, get a stop and get the ball back in better field position. The Bison, like before, controlled the ball and left the Rockets with not enough time to mount any comeback. “You know (LeBoeuf) is a championship level team,” coach Mike Reynolds said. “This loss is completely on us as a coaching staff. We need to get these kids in a better position to play these types of teams.” The first half was where all the scoring action was. Titusville marched down the field methodically on the first drive to score. Then, on defense, the Rockets had a couple key penalties and turnovers that stymied drives. Jaxon Covell, who had over 400 total yards last week, was held to under 100 this week by the tough Bison defense. Kameron Mong only had just over 100 yards total. And McDonald was also kept in check. The strategy the Rockets employed in their first game of the season win over Franklin was used on them Friday by LeBoeuf. Keep the other offense off the field. “In the second quarter we were being pretty aggressive, we went for it in not so great of field position and ended up not getting a play when we probably should have punted and forced them to drive down the field. Again, that’s on us (the coaches). That would’ve put us in a one-score game as opposed to a two score game. You know those sorts of things can change the complexion of the game.” The final was LeBoeuf 22 and Titusville 7. The Rockets drop to 1-2 but they are competing each week. “We challenged them last week to improve after giving up 71 points (against Hickory). We had to make some corrections,” Reynolds said. “(And they did) a phenomenal job. It got really difficult for Fort LeBoeuf to score. We saw sacks, pressure on the quarterback - things we just haven’t been able to do before. "I very much appreciate the kids' effort and their ability to play till the end of the game.” The road doesn’t get any easier for Titusville. They will host the potent Meadville team Thursday. The Bulldogs downed Fairview 55-17 Friday. Rockets vs. Bison: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p327683446 Rocket's vs. Knights: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p707511010
Saturday, the Rocket Marching Band was first up in the annual Music in Oil Country festival at Oil City High School. We were a little late to the event. After we found a parking spot over behind the stadium and as we were getting our gear out of the trunk Titusville started playing the Ace Freely part of their Royal Flush of songs. So we missed photographing them. We did however make several photographs the night before at the Rocket home game. We intended to share this over the weekend, but as with many things time got away from us. To see more photos of the band click on the two links below. Photos from week one in Franklin and week three at home. Rockets vs. Bison: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p327683446 Rocket's vs. Knights: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p707511010 As low as $25. Email 8and322@gmail.com to learn more. Rockets vs. Bison: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p327683446
Rocket's vs. Knights: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p707511010
Next week they play Wilmington at home on Monday and Corry away on Thursday. They are currently 3-1 overall.
Some of this story was written for the Titusville News Journal, we updated here to reflect the Sharon game. To see even more photos visit: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p619684767 |
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March 2024
CategoriesAuthorEight & 27 focuses on stories centered around Titusville, PA. With the sad end of The Titusville Herald, we're hoping to pick up the slack. |