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Price powers Portage past North Star

PORTAGE — On Portage’s first offensive series, quarterback Connor Price rushed twice for negative 2 yards, including getting shut out of the end zone on a fourth-and-less-than-1-yard to go.

Price more than made up for his two carries as he ran for three touchdowns and threw for another — all in the first half — as the Mustangs ran all over North Star, 66-12, on homecoming night Friday in WestPAC action at Portage Area Stadium.

“He’s (Price) a good athlete, and he really makes this offense go,” Portage coach Gary Gouse said. “… he had a really big night. We’re rolling out, and if you want to play off the receivers, he just takes it and runs. So, it really makes for a lot of pressure on the edge for a defense.”

Just a sophomore, the Portage signal-caller rushed just eight times but racked up 149 yards on those chances, including four runs of 30-plus yards, while throwing for 84 despite missing several of his receivers on overthrows.

On his team’s next offensive opportunity, Price followed up Zack Wiggins’ 25-yard run with a 33 touchdown scamper himself to put Portage up 6-0 with 3:50 to go in the first stanza.

After teammate Tom Randazzo found paydirt on a 10-yard run before the end of the first, Price crossed the goal line just three minutes later on a 36-yard burst to make the score 21-0.

“Portage is a good football team. They’re well coached,” North Star coach Wes Berkebile said. “Not taking anything away from them, but we did come in tonight broken, missing three starters, especially two defensive ends and a back. We just moved forward with what we had.”

The Mustangs’ Logan Shaffer scored from 8 yards away, and Wiggins plowed his way in from the 1-yard line for the next two scores.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Cougars looked lost as the ball hit the ground and popped straight up in the air. No one from the visitors attempted to recover it, so Randazzo went up and got it to allow Portage to regain possession at the NS 32.

Five plays later, Price found himself once again giving his team points with a 4-yard TD that put the Mustangs up 39-0 with 3:14 left before the half.

The Portage defense had allowed absolutely nothing to the Cougars ground game up to that point, and although quarterback Ian Pollack was able to find open receivers with 103 yards passing on 10-of-12 attempts, up to this point, the Mustang ‘D’ still kept them off the scoreboard. NS was forced to punt on five straight possessions, one of which was blocked and led to the Wiggins TD.

“Our defense played really, really well. We have a good defense,” Gouse said. “Our run defense, I think the Mirror said (over the last two games) opponents had 66 carries and only 33 yards. We’ve got things going. (It’s) just one step at a time, don’t take anybody lightly and we’ll be alright.”

Pollack was finally able to find a crack in the defense as he used three straight completions to three different receivers to set up his 25-yard sprint to the end zone that set the score at 39-6 with 1:40 left.

However, Price and the Mustangs weren’t done scoring as the QB followed a kickoff return to midfield by finding Randazzo on first down for a 50-yard scoring pass-and-catch to run the score back up to 46-6.

With the mercy-rule running clock in effect the entire second half, Wiggins, who rushed 13 times for 123 yards, capped off Portage’s longest scoring drive of the night, seven plays, with a 12-yard run at the 8:10 point of the third.

Pollock found Eric Price on a 69-yard hook-up for a TD to make it 53-12 in favor of the home squad.

“I just told these guys they have to keep their heads up and keep playing football — they can’t quit on the game,” Berkebile said. “They came back a little bit in the second half and played a little bit harder. It was just too far gone at that point.”

The Mustangs began their next drive with a Randazzo 11-yard run and ended it when Randazzo reached paydirt from 18 yards out.

With the Portage backups in the game, the beat went on as Scott Berardinelli used the right sideline to score on a 39-yard scamper in the fourth to set the final with 8:23 left to play.

“They (North Star) played hard, but this is a very, very senior-leadership team that we’re really focused on what we do,” Gouse said. “I think that has a lot of to do with it (the success). Our kids know what they want, and each week they work really hard at practice and it shows.”

Portage, remaining unbeaten at 5-0, hosts Windber next Friday, while North Star, now 3-2, will entertain Blacklick Valley.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

North Star 0 6 6 0 — 12

Portage 14 32 14 6 — 66

First quarter

P–Price 33 run (run failed), 3:50.

P–Randazzo 10 run (Shaffer run), 15.6.

Second quarter

P–Price 36 run (Vivis kick), 9:05.

P–Shaffer 8 run (pass failed), 6:21.

P–Wiggins 1 run (kick failed), 4:31.

P–Price 4 run (kick failed), 3:14.

NS–Pollock 25 run (run failed), 1:40.

P–Randazzo 50 pass from Price (Vivis kick), 1:21.

Third quarter

P–Wiggins 12 run (Vivis kick), 8:10.

NS–Price 69 pass from Pollock (pass failed), 7:02.

P–Randazzo 18 run (Vivis kick), 4:36.

Fourth quarter

P–Berardinelli 39 run (run failed), 8:23.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: North Star–Vinisky 9-12, Pollock 10-60, Maluchnik 3-4, Supanick 1-0, Stevens 1-(-3), TEAM 1-(-22). Portage–Price 8-149, Wiggins 13-123, Forst 1-2, Randazzo 3-26, Shaffer 4-60, Bobolsky 5-34, Zatek 1-(-5), Spaid 1-1, Berardinelli 5-44, Crouse 1-(-7), TEAM 1-(-15).

PASSING: North Star–Pollock 11-16-0-172, Stevens 0-0-0-0. Portage–Price 4-9-0-84, Kargo 0-0-0-0.

RECEIVING: North Star–Supanick 2-51, Leiford 4-35, Sipel 3-15, Price 2-71. Portage–Randazzo 3-74, Shaffer 1-10.

INTERCEPTIONS: North Star–none. Portage–none.

TEAM STATISTICS NS P

First downs 6 20

Rushes-yards 25-51 43-412

Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 11-16-0 4-9-0

Yards passing 172 84

Total yards 223 496

Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-0

Penalties-yards 4-10 3-40

Punts-avg. 7-33.8 0-0

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