Minersville quarterback and UCF Football commit Dante Carr, and wide receiver Paiten LaPoint had 3 touchdowns to each other in the air throughout the first half. Along with 2 interceptions by Justin Cutler on the Battlin’ Miner defense, both of those helped Minersville easily get past Nativity 34-0 on Friday night at Saint Clair Veterans Memorial Stadium in the 8th annual “Battle in the Backyard.”
On the opening drive, Carr hits LaPoint for a 21 yard passing touchdown to make the score 7-0 in favor of the Miners less than a minute into the game. On the next possession, Carr finds LaPoint again down field for a 68 yard touchdown with 7:27 remaining in the first quarter. In the middle of the 2nd quarter, the Minersville defense went to work where Justin Cutler caught his first interception of the night off of Colt Mason. With around 6 minutes left in the second quarter, Carr connected with Ty Atkinson as they scored a 30 yard touchdown in the air with a great catch on the sideline. The Green Wave did one of very few positive things for their night as they blocked Jordan Bowers’ PAT after Atkinson’s touchdown to up the Minersville lead to 20-0. The scoreboard put on seven more points for the Miners when LaPoint used his good footwork to juke out 2 Nativity defenders to score a 22 yard passing touchdown with less than a minute remaining in the half.
The second half was really quiet other than Adam Eckert running 2 yards for another Minersville score with 57 seconds left in the 3rd quarter, and Cutler getting his second interception of the night late in the 4th quarter.
Cutler said after the game that he was happy to get his first interception of the year during this game. He also gave lots of credit to the angry and hungry Minersville linemen. LaPoint also credited the offensive line along with the receiving corps helping him get 3 touchdowns tonight.
LaPoint won the Brian Laudeman Award, which is the MVP award given to the best Minersville player in the game. Mason won the Nativity MVP award, the John Lieberman Award. The media present at the game help determine who should receive these awards.
Overall, Minersville improves to 6-2 on the year, and they face off against Tri-Valley next week. The Green Wave of Nativity fall to 4-4 on the year as their next opponent is the best AA team in the state, the Schuylkill Haven Hurricanes, who beat Pine Grove 72-0 in their latest win on week 8.
