BROCKWAY, Pa. (D9sports.com) – Behind 120 yards rushing and two touchdowns from Mark Latuska, fourth-seeded Brockway moved into the semifinals with a 20-6 win over visiting and fifth-seeded Elk County Catholic Friday night.
Latuska was a workhorse lugging the ball 33 times and scoring on a first-quarter run of 1 yard and a fourth-quarter tote of 2 yards.
His fourth-quarter score with 4:53 to play came five plays after a 1-yard Elk County Catholic punt gave the Rovers (9-2) the ball at the ECC 30 up by just seven, 13-6.
Latuska then had his name called on all five plays of the short drive including runs of 11 and 9 yards on the first two plays of the drive.
Hunter Antonucci then sealed the win when he picked off ECC quarterback Nate DaCanal on the Crusaders’ next possession.
Latuska gave Brockway a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter with his 1-yard touchdown run that came at the end of an 11-play drive that was highlighted with a 26-yard Hunter Miller run to the ECC 5-yard line. From there, Latuska took the ball to the 1 before going in for the touchdown on the next play.
The Rovers made it 13-0 at halftime when Miller found paydirt from a yard out with 7:10 left in the half. That capped a 10-play drive, all on the ground, that saw Latuska carry the ball seven times for 36 yards including a 13-yard pickup early in the drive.
ECC (7-3) threatened right out of the gate in the second half driving to the Brockway 14-yard line before the Rovers defense came up with a sack on third down back to the 20. Troy O’Brien then picked off a DaCanal pass on fourth down to end the threat,
The Crusaders finally broke through late in the quarter on a 1-yard Noah Werner run that capped a 7-play, 29-yard drive that was set up by a 20-yard Werner punt return. A roughing the passer penalty on Brockway helped during the drive.
Brockway had a chance to put the game away early in the fourth quarter, but Miller was stuffed a yard short of the stick on a fourth-and-2 call from the ECC 6-yard line.
ECC, though, was never able to dig out of the deep hole created by that Brockway drive never crossing midfield the rest of the game.
Miller added 99 yards rushing on 15 carries for Brockway and was 2 of 4 passing for 14 yards.
Werner paced ECC with 38 yards rushing on 11 totes with DaCanal going 6 of 20 passing for 69 yards with three interceptions. Brockway outgained the Crusaders 305-109.
The Rovers will face top-seeded Redbank Valley in the semifinals next week at a date, time and location to be announced.
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