RivEll Cup comes home, EC wins for Playoffs

The RivEll Cup is back home! Seven straight victories by Riverside after the RivEll series was tied at 15-15, the Wolverines finally claim the trophy and bring it back across the Connoquenessing Creek to Ellwood City after defeating the Panthers 41-0 on Friday night.

In front of a jammed-pack crowd that included several fans standing at the fence like the footage we have seen in the past 40 years, the Wolverines’ fans had something to cheer about from pregame to post game as Ellwood scored on early and often, including the first drive of the game.

The Wolverines when they win the coin toss have deferred to the second half all season long, but they knew they were the favorite tonight and wanted to jump out early to stop any thoughts of the upset by the fans in green, so they decided to take the ball first. Sure enough, it worked to perfection.

After a couple penalties back and forth on the opening drive, the Wolverines cruised down the field with the passing game starting the night off with passes from QB #12 Chris Smiley to #5 DaiLonn Currie along with #9 Luciano Gagric. EC finished the drive off with their star RB #2 Elijah Palmer-McCane running into the endzone from 1 yard out. The PAT kick was good by #19 Caitlin Kreitzer to make the score 7-0 EC.

The Riverside Panthers took the ensuing kickoff and was able to march down the field via the passing game as well, leaning on the shoulders of QB #12 Ayden Garcia(who wore #15 during the game) to get the ball to WR #27 Zack Hare. Riverside made it to the Wolverines side of things, but DB #26 Dayntae Pierce made an excellent play about 30 yards downfield to break up the 4th down pass to turn the ball back over to Ellwood.

Ellwood City didn’t take long to put up their next touchdown, once again with the passing game by Smiley coming thru, this time to WR #15 Declan Gray for 47 yards. The PAT kick was good by Kreitzer to make the score 14-0 EC with just 2:05 on the clock in the first quarter.

Ellwood City was looking to make a statement after going up 14, when Kreitzer squibbed the kick up the middle as a live ball that touched the Panther returner and was recovered by #23 Richard Cureton for Ellwood City. This was the tipping point for the rest of the game, as Ellwood City would add another score to the board before the end of the first quarter.

The third score of the night came from Palmer-McCane up the middle from 41 yards out while taking only 18 seconds off the clock, and the 2nd score by EPM. PAT good by Kreitzer, gave EC the 21-0 lead after quarter 1.

Second quarter action saw Riverside pick up a couple first downs, but a fumble by RB #2 Robert Janis was recovered by Senior #8 Michael Walters to give yet again a short field for the Wolverines.

A quick hitter by EPM up the middle while splitting two defenders gave him his third score on the night, this time from 39 yards out. PAT good by Kreitzer and just like that the scoreboard read 28-0 EC still with 10 minutes before halftime.

Riverside received the ball again, but just couldn’t do anything on offense picking up two more first downs eventually ending with a punt. Ellwood City had the ball back with great field position agan, and they didn’t waste time for the knockout punch, scoring this time on a methodical drive that featured EPM in the backfield. EPM scored his fourth score of the night, this time from 2 yards out. PAT was good by Kreitzer to make the halftime scoreboard read 35-0 in favor of EC, giving us our first mercy rule on the season for Ellwood (and before halftime!).

Second half action blew by quickly as both quarters took an official real time of 40 minutes to complete with the rolling clock as the mercy rule was put into effect for the remainder of the game.

The lone score of the second half was credited to backup QB #18 Tyler Smiley as all of the reserves were officially put in during the fourth quarter. Smiley took the snap and had a quarterback run up the right side of the field from 8 yards out to make the score 41-0. The 2PT conversion attempt was no good, making the final score tally 41-0 in favor of Ellwood City.

The Wolverines officially bring home the trophy in the 38th RivEll Cup, and in dominating fashion. The Wolverines outgained the Panthers 377 yards to just 128, while averaging 8.6 yards per play to just 3.0. Ellwood City also forced 2 turnovers that were crucial in the first half, giving 14 points off of those turnovers to Ellwood City. The Wolverines held Riverside to just 8 first downs on the night, while limiting the run game to 58 yards on 22 carries.

MVP of the game went to Palmer-McCane who finished with 154 yards (10.3 average) on 15 carries while scoring 4 rushing touchdowns on the night, leaving EPM (1,393) just 35 yards short of the single-season rushing record (1,427) set by Thad Wiley back in 1991. EPM has a chance this coming Friday to break that record in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.

The passing game has been featured all long as well as Smiley finished the regular season with 1,641 passing yards, setting the single-season record for the Wolverines as he passed Joe DeLisio (1,409 in 1966) last week against Neshannock. Smiley also now owns the most completions in a season, officially at 107 (Joe DeLisio - 98 in 1966). Smiley also sets the new passing touchdown record for Ellwood City, officially with 17 on the year (Jay Cortez - 12 in 2003).

Walters finished the regular season with 532 yards receiving on 34 receptions. But more importantly, Walters finished with 7 receiving touchdowns on the year - all three totals in the top 4 of Ellwood City football records. Dayntae Pierce will also maintain a career record in return yards, after putting up 506 yards in 2022, he added another 221 yards on limited play with injuries. To date, Pierce has officially 727 return yards, still with another year to play.

#13 Kaden Docchio finishes the year with 82 tackles while also holding the record of 17 tackles for loss in a season. Docchio picked up a half sack in the game, giving him a tie for the season record of sacks for EC at 7, another record that could be broken next week. Kreitzer finishes the regular season with 22 PATs which puts her in 7th overall in a season for the Wolverines, while EPM put up a total of 112 points in the regular season, scoring almost half of the EC points on the year.

Meanwhile as a team, Ellwood City put up 3,485 yards on the season, the most on record with our records going back to 1973. EC also scored 284 points on the season, while giving up 289. The 284 points are the most points scored by the team since the big years of 1925 (320) and 1927 (305), putting the Wolverines offense in an elite group for EC. Balance has been key for the Wolverines, putting up 1844 yards rushing and 1641 passing.

The 41-0 victory by the Wolverines was not only their first victory against Riverside since 2013, it was also their first shutout victory since their 28-0 win over Beaver Falls in 2017 after they broke their 14 game losing streak that year. The win also marks the first non-losing regular season for Ellwood City since 2011 when they finished the regular season at 6-3.

With the win, Ellwood City officially clinches playoffs for the Class 2A level, the first time they have done so since 2011 where they pulled off the opening round upset over Freeport 33-26 after being down 26-11 in the fourth quarter. The Wolverines are the 5th team from the MAC conference, as there are three conferences and two of them with 8 teams. Ellwood City rounds out the 14 teams that officially make playoffs and will face the #3 seed in the Washington Prexies who won the Century Conference with at McGuffey 13-7 the last week. Washington is the highest scoring offense in 2A, averaging 37.8 (1st) while giving up 9.8 (2nd) per game. Ellwood City is averaging a solid 28.4 (9th) while giving up 28.9 (16th) per game. It will be the first time the two teams meet in their history, so all stats and records are out the door.

#3 Washington vs. #14 Ellwood City will be on Friday at 7:00 PM, from Washington High School Stadium. More information regarding the game will be posted throughout the week with the potential live stream presented by Ellwood City Sports! Be on the look out for all information on our social media pages and our website.

Congrats to the Ellwood City Wolverines on the great season and goodluck in playoffs!