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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Following Friday night's DuBois-Hollidaysburg football game, there were fireworks sponsored by an area business to entertain the fans who took in both team's regular-season finales as they exited Tiger Stadium.
Hollidaysburg's Jarrett Cavalet and Jack Sauserman, along with the Tiger defense, beat them to the punch by putting on their own fireworks show in the third quarter.
Cavalet accounted for three touchdowns, one by run, and two on passes to Sauserman, and the defense came up with a Patrick Young interception and a fourth-down stop to secure a 35-21 victory and go into the postseason with a 6-4 record.
"We got run over in the second half," DuBois coach FrankVarischetti said. "We made adjustments at halftime that should have been good, but we didn't play well. We didn't come out of the locker room in the second half."
Hollidaysburg, which started the season 1-3, took the second-half kickoff and went 63 yards in seven plays, scoring on an 11-yard touchdown run by Cavalet. The senior quarterback finished with 145 yards on 19 carries, and that included four carries for negative yards. The Vlad Hilling PAT made it 21-7.
"We knew he was the key to their offense and we did a poor job of tackling him," said Varischetti, whose club goes into the postseason with a 6-4 mark, too.
DuBois got the ball next, and three plays into its drive, linebacker Young picked off quarterback Matt Miller at the 9:06 mark. Miller completed 31 of 56 passes for 362 yards, but he was harrassed all night and sacked eight times.
"The Pat Young pick was big, really big," Hollidaysburg coach Homer DeLattre said. "We got pressure and mixed it up in our secondary. We were calling it from the sidelines with some combo covering, but our defensive coaches, coach (R.J.) Albarano, coach (Todd) Consiglio and coach (Mark) Harrington … that was a great job by them."
It took the Tigers just one play to score this time as Cavalet hit Sauserman with a 27-yard touchdown pass. The Hilling kick made it 28-7 at the 8:52 mark. On the Beavers next possesion, the Tiger defense stopped them on a fourth-and-six from the Hollidaysburg 40. Cavalet and Sauserman went to work again.
"Those guys work hard at that. They work hard at their timing. Coach (Gary) Zimmerman and coach (Dave) Wyland have done a really good job with coaching them,"DeLattre said of the duo, who connected this time on a 51-yard touchdown pass down the sideline for a 35-7 lead. "We told our playmakers at halftime that if you are one, this is the kind of game for you. We needed a game-changer and they were game-changers."
DuBois, which scored over 50 points three times this season, scored two touchdowns in the final 2:21 of the game to set the final at 35-21, but the Tigers made them do it on long drives.
"We probably only ran 12 plays on offense in the second half," DeLattre said. "We wanted sacks. We wanted pressure. We had two things for them: If they catch it, no yards after the catch, and No. 2, don't let them get behind us and for the most part, that is what we did."
Jack Vyborny and Brock Irvin each had two sacks while Trevor Mitchell, Hunter Gill, Gus Dellinger and Liam Steward added solo sacks. Miller wound up with 11 carries for minus 60 yards.
"That is a great job by them," DeLattre said.
DuBois led 7-0 after one quarter, thanks to a 1-yard touchdown run by Brock Adams. The Tigers led 14-7 at the break, thanks to a 62-yard touchdown run by Cory Storm and a 25-yard touchdown run by Cavalet in the second quarter. Storm was equally impressive, finishing with 122 yards on 13 carries.
Game notes: Cavalet was extremely efficient, hitting on 8-of-14 passes for 137 yards and no picks. … Hollidaysburg will be off the next two Fridays before the playoffs start for the 5A Tigers, but DeLattre is hoping to set up a scrimmage with another local team that has a bye to keep his club sharp. … The Hollidaysburg offensive line did not give up a sack in the game. "We controlled the line of scrimmage. That was a must-do coming into this game," DeLattre said. …Kyle Hopson finished with 15 catches for 2116 yards and one touchdown for DuBois.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
DuBois 7 0 7 7 -- 21
Hollidaysburg 0 14 21 0 -- 35
First quarter
D--Adams 1 run (Hanna kick), 4:36
Second quarter
H--Storm 62 run (Hilling kick), 10:27
H--Cavalet 25 run (Hilling kick), 3:35
Third quarter
H--Cavalet 11 run (Hilling kick), 9:32
H--Sauserman 27 pass from Cavalet (Hilling kick), 8:58
H--Sauserman 51 pass from Cavalet (Hilling kick), 4:41
D--McCloskey 10 pass from Miller (Hanna kick), 2:21
Fourth quarter
D--Hopson 4 pass from Miller (Hanna kick), 1:20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: DuBois--Adams 18-58, Miller 11-(-60). Hollidaysburg--Storm 13-122, Young 7-44, Cavalet 19-145, N. Walters 2-2, Long 1-(-3), TEAM 2-(-2).
PASSING: DuBois--Miller 31-56-1-362. Hollidaysburg--8-14-0-137.
RECEIVING: DuBois--Hopson 15-216, Garvey 4-40, Adams 4-27, McCloskey 4-39, Reed 4-40. Hollidaysburg--Vyborny 2-15, Adams 1-12, Parris 3-32, Sauserman 2-78.
INTERCEPTIONS: DuBois--None. Hollidaysburg--Young.
TEAM STATISTICS D H
First downs 25 20
Rushes-yards 29-(-2) 44-308
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 31-56-1 8-14-0
Yards passing 362 137
Total yards 360 445
Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-2
Penalties-yards 5-30 10-93
Punts-avg. 3.43.6 2-48.0