A dream football season culminated in back-to-back nightmare finishes for the Montour Spartans a year ago.
Coming off an exhilarating victory over Aliquippa in Week 8, the unbeaten Spartans needed to beat West Allegheny at home to wrap up the Class 4A Parkway Conference title.
That didn’t happen, as Montour suffered an overtime loss and had to share the conference crown with the Indians and Quips.
The agony didn’t end there, though, as upstart Mars upset the top-seeded Spartans at the first round of the WPIAL playoffs, ending their season much earlier than many anticipated.
Flash forward nine months and it’s a clean slate for the Spartans and coach Lou Cerro, who’s back for his 33rd go-round as a varsity head coach.
Gone are several key players from last year’s team, including quarterback Trey Hopper, who performed like anything but a first-year starter as he threw for nearly 2,500 yards and 24 touchdowns. Also graduating were three-year starter Kaleb Platz (tight end/linebacker), wide receiver/linebacker Daniel Batch, wide receiver/defensive back A.J. Alson, lineman Mark Dobrowsky and wide receiver/defensive back James Bundridge.
Despite those losses, the cupboard is hardly bare on the Robinson Township hilltop, as Cerro pointed to a half-dozen returning players who should lead the way this fall.
They are seniors Caden Halajcio, Dylan Rogers and Cole Midili and juniors Jacob Halbedl, Abram Kolodynski and Dom Baron.
Halajcio will see playing time at running back and linebacker while Rogers will play defensive end and tight end and Midili inside linebacker and running back. Halbedl and Kolodynski will hold down spots on both the offensive and defensive lines, and Baron is penciled in at wide receiver and defensive back.
Newcomers whom Cerro expects to contribute include a trio of juniors – wide receiver/defensive back Zander Stern, quarterback/defensive back Brandon Bennett and inside linebacker/running back MJ Lucas.
Cerro said his team’s graduation losses have opened the door for younger players to step up.
“We’re seeing a lot of competition so far after graduating so many players,” he said. “We have a nice core and a ton of young talent.”
The Spartans also are battling the early injury bug, as Cerro said he’s already lost a pair of players to broken collarbones.
“We’ve had some weird injuries, but those players will be back eventually,” he said.
Cerro said Bennett and Dalton Young had been battling for the starting quarterback spot, but he said Bennett had a slight edge going into the Spartans season-opener at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, at Central Valley.
Cerro said Bennett “made some big throws and took control of the offense” during the Spartans’ scrimmage last week.
But he said both quarterbacks have fit the Spartans’ system “and so far they’re both doing that pretty well. Last year we didn’t have much of running threat from our quarterback, but this year we have more of a threat.”
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