American Legion Post 368 commander Frank Nottingham joined the Titusville Rocket’s out at midfield for the national anthem.

​The Rockets were honoring our area veterans and first responders throughout their game against the undefeated Grove City Eagles.
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The military theme continued into the game as general (coach) Mike Reynolds and his command staff sent their army of young men out onto the battlefield to take care of business.
And boy did they.

The Rocket offensive strikes were smashmouth and precise as they dominated right from the start in their 36-7 rain soaked and electrifying (literally) win at home. 
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The Rockets took the opening kickoff and proceeded to march 65 yards down the field, taking less than four minutes to score their first touchdown on an Ian McDonald 1-yard run and Max Chatham extra point to go up 7-0.

McDonald carried most of the weight of that drive gaining 40 yards and punching it in over the line.
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The Rockets defense was also primed to hold the line and prevent the Eagles from taking over too much territory.

After a stop, Titusville again marched right back down to the Grove City 22-yard line, poised for another strike and capture more territory when the first of two lightning delays stopped action for about an hour.
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The PIAA officials must stop games for at least 30 minutes when lightning is visible.

At 8:21 p.m.play resumed. At 8:23p.m. they were back in the end zone on a four-yard run.A fake kick had McDonald scrambling around when he saw an opening where he could dive his way in to the end-zone to put the Rockets up 15-0.
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Grove City was moving the ball at the beginning of the second quarter when Brody Sellen picked off a pass setting up Titusville’s third possession at their own 20. Covell found the end-zone two plays later with a 72 yard run.

​Chatham again split the uprights to take the Rockets to 22-0.
Grove City looked like they had some life in them when they took the kickoff and ran a reverse play to start their drive at midfield.

It shifted momentum in their favor and they again moved the ball.

​A controversial call that resulted in a Grove City catch helped them remain in possession and a few plays later they scored their first and only touchdown of the game.

WhenTitusville got the ball back on their own 25 with 5:50 remaining they would counter-strike and move the ball back down the field.

​By this time the skies opened up dumping gallon of water on the field.

The stands emptied fast. 

Not deterred, the Rockets methodically marched down the field and scored on a 17-yard Covell run with 4-seconds remaining to take the Rockets into half leading 29-7.

Lightning was back and it caused a second delay at the start of the second half.
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When play resumed, not much was mustered by either squad until lake in the game Grove City caught a break recovering a muffed punt snap deep in Titusville’s territory.

​But they failed to capitalize giving the ball back to the Rockets.
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A couple more Covell break-away runs found number 22 crossing the goal line for the fourth time on a 35-yard run  to give theRockets the 36-7 win. 

According to Titusville stat sheets Covell ran for 265 yards on 26 carries. Titusville had 346 yards in total offense and JJ Miller led the defense with 12 tackles.
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The Rockets will face Conneaut Area next Friday night at home. CASH is 2-1 like the Rockets.

​Their only loss was last night to Hickory 63-6. But they opened the year with a 61-0 win over Warren and followed that with a 33-21 victory over Iroquois.

​The game is scheduled to go off at 7 p.m.

Titusville ended their winning 2023 season with a close victory over the Corry. They ran all over the Beavers with Jaxon Covell rushing for over 200 yards himself.
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Now a year older and with many of the same weapons Titusville had reason to go into their opening round game with confidence.
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But Corry had learned a few things from last year's game and was prepared.

They jammed up the line. The Rocket runners were often stopped in the backfield and corralled for either a loss or only a short gain.
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In the end, Covell recorded only 67 yards on the ground in the 28-22 Titusville loss.

It wasn't the way coach Mike Reynolds and his Titusville Rockets wanted to begin the 2024 campaign. 

"We came in with a little bit of arrogance,” Reynolds said. “I came in feeling like 'yeah we can run the ball down their throat’ and they overloaded us in a couple ways that we didn't adjust to well early enough."
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Reynolds takes the blame for not getting his team prepared to take on a better Corry team than they faced last year. "Corry is a good ball team," he said. "It came down to us not providing answers for our kids soon enough for our kids to be successful... that's on us (coaches).”
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Titusville struggled out of the gate, going three and out gaining a net of only two yards on three carries. They held Corry but again couldn’t get anywhere on offense and ended their second possession with a punt.
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When Corry got the ball back on their own 30, they went to work putting together big plays. Nolan Carey hit Mason Savitz for a big 30 yard pass play. Then facing fourth and eight, Carey hit Blake Cook for 38 yards and the first score of the game at 7:06 in the first.
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Titusville countered, finally beginning to move the ball.

​Covell had two runs totaling 13 yards for the Rockets' first first down. McDonald hit JJ Miller for another 12 yards, but a penalty negated that play. But the Rockets were seeing how they could move the ball. After a sack, McDonald hit Covell for a big gain and another first down.

The drive was capped by a 17-yard scamper by Covell. It was the first of Covell’s three touchdowns on the night.
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The fake kick resulted in a two-point conversion to put the Rockets up 8-7.
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It looked like the Rockets had the momentum when they forced Corry to punt on the next possession. A muffed snap led to Titusville getting the ball in good field position on the Corry 28.

A couple plays later, however, the Rockets put the ball on the ground and gave it back to the Beavers.

Turnovers would plague them all night.

Corry went back to big plays and moved the ball fast down the field to score again, making it 14-8 midway through the second quarter.
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McDonald showed his scrambling ability to elude the Beavers' blitzes and find ways to get positive yardage.

Titusville again put the ball on the ground, but, were fortunate it rolled out of bounds on the six-yard line. Three plays later they punched it over the line with a one-yard touchdown by Covell.
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McDonald played escape artist on the two-point conversion to eventually find Kam Mong in the back of the end zone, putting them up 16-14 with 4:05 left in the half. It was enough time for Corry to strike again.
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It only took Carey and crew five plays in two-minutes to go 67-yards to take back the lead 21-16.
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Titusville had another chance to score, but a sack put them on their heels. A long pass attempt resulted in an interception to end their drive and the half.

Corry ate up a lot of the clock to start the second half but Titusville eventually stopped the Beavers and got the ball back.
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Again Titusville moved the ball, mostly through the air on short passes and runs.

​An apparent touchdown pass by a scrambling McDonald was called back as an illegal forward pass thrown past the line of scrimmage. On a third and 17 McDonald was intercepted in the end-zone.

Then Corry took the ball 80 yards including an untouched 35-yard run by Nicholas Lesher with 10:08 to go in the game.

In their next possession, Titusville started in good field position and managed one first down before turning it over on downs with just over six minutes remaining.

​Up two scores, Corry decided to employ clock management and eat up as much time as they could by running the ball.

​A key first down forced Titusville to start using its timeouts with three and a half minutes remaining. It worked and Corry was forced to punt, pinning Titusville back on their own 17 with 3:18 left.
Needing two scores, the Rockets went to work in a hurry.
Aided by a personal foul at the end of a long pass play to Mong, Titusville found themselves on the Corry 36 in quick fashion.
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At 2:21 remaining, Covell ran 25 yards to score off a short pass from McDonald and bring them to within six at 28-22.
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Corry got the ball back after a failed onside kick attempt and ate out the game, ending on a punt with no return.
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In the end, McDonald had 161 yards in the air and 183 total yards. Covell ran for 67 and added anther 78. Mong added 36 and Miller caught four passes for 44 yards. Miller had 11 of the teams 39 tackles on defense.

"There were a few things we needed to take advantage of and we didn't. We really just weren't patient, and that's on me," Reynolds said. "We were really trying to push the ball in the end zone when we really just needed to settle down.

​"In a game like this, if we took the time in the second quarter to put the ball in the end zone, the end of this game is totally different."

That very distinctive sound heard around the corner from Pasquale's Pizza is music to football lovers like head coach Mike Reynolds - it the crack of good shoulder pads coming together with force and determination.

​It's the echo off the historic concrete Carter Field football stadium of whistles, grunts from hard working players and the occasional up-level voice of a coach teaching passionately about the disciple and stray of being a football player on a football team.

​A lot of learning takes place between the conditioning and drills.

Again TMC couldn't get anything happening in the bottom of the eighth.

Little rules for extra innings starts the ninth off with a runner at second. A muffed bunt resulted in two runners on and they both ended in scoring position. Herman again buckled down and struck out the next two batters and the final out was recorded on a ground ball to second where Kylie Crocker, an absolute vacuum second baseman, rounded it up and tossed to Sam Bernoski at first to end the scoring threat.

Crocker basically set up an unpentratable wall between first and second all game all game. One inning recording all three outs agains Corry.

"I taught her a long time ago that the ball has strings on it and wherever that ball goes it pulls you in that direction," her dad/coach said. "I'm awful proud of her, obviously I have a little extra with that one as her dad. I'm proud of all these girls."

​In the bottom of the ninth TMC also started with a runner at second.

They got another runner on when Kylie Crocker drew a walk. Kennedy Baker laid down a decent bunt but a heads up play by the Corry pitcher recorded a force out at third. With only one out they still had two runners on.

Photographs are from Titusville District 1 finals.

The District 1 representatives in the Pennsylvania Section 1 Junior league tournament showed grit and capitalized on good fortune en route to a 5-4 win over Punxsutawney for a chance to play for a state championship.

In the seventh-inning with the score four to four, Mallory Beers was on second base when Evelyn Lesko ripped a liner to left center scoring Beers. “It was tight, but she tip-toed around (the catcher) and got in,” said head coach Jack Roberts. 

The run capped off a comeback for Ttitusville who began the tournament with a 4-1 loss to Punxsy. They rebounded with a 15-5 win over Clarion and a 9-6 victory over Corry before the rematch with Punxsy. 
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Titusville had to beat them twice.
In the first game Mallory Beers pitched a great game to keep Punxsy scoreless while Titusville strung together three runs to force the if necessary showdown.

 “First game was tight for awhile and we scored a couple runs. We started playing some small ball and they started making mistakes throwing the ball around and we were able to just close the door on that one, Roberts said.
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“I told the girls in between games, ‘hey, we got the first one, we got them rattled lets just out there and play our game and take it to them,’ and they did.”

But at the end of the third inning they found themselves down 4-1. “I just kept telling them one run at a time, one run at a time and then we just started slowly pecking away at it, inning by inning we got a run and another.

Giselle Gibbons got a big ground ball sacrifice that advanced Baleigh Greer to third base. This proved huge as the next pitch was wild allowing Greer, who is speedy, to score the tying run in the fifth inning. 
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In the sixth fortune really smiled on Titusville when the Punxsy lead-off batter clobbered on into the outfield for a stand up triple, but when the runner rounded third thinking about heading home because the throw from the outfield sailed over third base Mackenzie Yochum’s head.

​But the ball took a good bounce for Titusville and bad one for Punxsy. Coming right back into Yochum’s glove she turned and lunged for the Punxsy player who was also diving back to third.
“She caught her mid-air,” Roberts said.

​“That would’ve been a huge momentum swing, but we were able to stop that.”
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Then catcher Addison Roberts made another lunging catch on a short pop up for another out.
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That set up the dramatic walk-off extra inning.

Titusville will now travels to Wellsboro where they will face the section 4 champion in the eight team bracket at 11 a.m. Thursday. 

"When you're around other good hitters you can just relax and put you best foot forward and that's what they are doing now," Crocker said of the girls confidence.

​And they are relentless.

A Jordan Groger bunt dropped dead about 3 inches from home plate forcing a throw to first that scored a gutsy base-running Mary Herman barreling in from third.

Crocker said Groger and Zayda Lojek are doing what is asked of them and really putting the team in a good place to score.

"They are putting down good bunts each time and almost beating them out. That's huge," Crocker said. "They deserve RBI's for those bunts that put us in position."

Crocker and the coaching staff knows what they have to do to be successful moving forward.

"Don't get in their way, that's really the main thing. Just keep trusting them to do what they do,"  Crocker said.

"There is not much you can do wrong, They're all sticking and all hitting  and they have a lot of fun." 

It's really been awhile since Titusville girls basketball has seen a winning season.

​Titusville's new head girls basketball coach Sarah Weigle is hitting the hardwoods running hoping to change that with a youth training camp from July 8-11. 

The camp is for kids in the Titusville school district and is for ages from first through eighth- grade.
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There are two camps for different age groups; first through fourth-graders will learn basics from 9 to 10 a.m., while the  fifth through eighth grades going from 10:15 to 11:45 a.m. will focus on developing stronger skills to add to the fundamentals.

The camp focuses on having fun playing ball while learning how hard work and knowledge of the fundamentals increases the fun through basketball success.

Those interested should send coach Weigle their name, grade,, shirt size,school name, parent's phone number and address. You can download the entry form by clicking the flyer in this post.

There is a $25 cost and checks can be made out to Titusville Roundball Booster Club.

Mail information to \;
Titusville Area High School,
Attn: Sarah Weigle,
330 East Spruce Street,
​Titusville Pa. 16354. 

You can also click here to download the file.

Huddled under a shelter as tornado sirens blew last year, this team knew what it meant to dig deep.
The Titusville 9 and 10 year old softball team was scared that day, but they rallied to win the tournament.
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"We have a lot of returning girls with championship experience," coach Shawn Beers said. "I know they are 10 year olds but they play 50 plus games a year. They know where to go (on the field) and most of them have had older sisters who have played, they're smart, they're heads up and they just know how to play.”

The one key component Beers was unsure of at first was pitching. They had five returning players from last year's championship team, but their pitchers moved up.

“That was the biggest thing, working on developing new pitchers for this season. (Beatrice Popescu) has thrown really well in travel ball, she's got a really nice snap to her pitches." 
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This team is aggressive on the bases, making things happen with steals and stretch hits into doubles and triples.