Published: September 06, 2008 12:26 am      

Zaman, defense propel Conemaugh Township by Windber

DAVIDSVILLE — There was certainly plenty to celebrate for Conemaugh Township on Friday night, not the least of which was a convincing, 14-0 WestPAC North victory over bitter rival Windber.

There were the 111 yards and two touchdown runs from Seth Zaman, and a key, 90-yard rushing performance from fullback Jarod Nanna.

Then there were the four interceptions.

Zaman even added a 28-yard completion to Kyle Zambanini that kept alive a drive, leading to Zaman’s second touchdown of the game.

“We were practicing that all week, and every time I threw it, it was an interception to our defensive players,” Zaman said. “I was real nervous, but I just threw it and it worked.”

Turns out he was throwing in practice against one of the area’s top secondaries, a group coached by former Windber quarterback Jeff Slatcoff. That unit has intercepted seven passes in two weeks.

Zambanini grabbed two first-half passes, Matt Jones picked off one and Keith Myers ended Windber’s late push with an interception in the end zone with a little more than two minutes remaining. Zambanini’s first interception also came in the end zone.

It all added up to a second straight victory this season for the Indians, who opened 2-0 for the first time since 2003, when they started with six straight victories. Windber snapped that streak in Week 7.

While the Conemaugh Township offense did enough to get the win, the defense was stifling against an offense that ran for 313 yards in Week 1.

“Our defensive line did a great job tonight of moving around and occupying people,” Indians coach Sam Zambanini said.

“That was the game plan coming in, keep their big guys off our linebackers. And we rotated in some defensive linemen and they did a great job.”

Windber’s Kevin Erickson finished with 53 yards on 12 carries and quarterback Brandon Ulatsky had 52 yards on seven carries, including one run of 40 yards.

Ulatsky threw for 66 yards, but had a completion of 48 yards to Mike Clark that accounted for most of that total.

Clark caught three passes for 61 yards.

The victories in back-to-back years are the Indians’ best stretch since going 2-0-1 against the Ramblers (1-1) from 1993-95.

Zaman was a big part of this success, taking direct snaps and patiently biding his time as he picked his way through the Windber front line. The junior had only one run of more than eight yards, a 21-yard scamper on his fifth touch.

A lot of Zaman’s success came from the help of senior fullback Nanna, who consistently helped open holes with the strong play of the Indians’ front five.

An understandably disappointed Ramblers coach Phil DeMarco was succinct after the game.

“I told the kids in the huddle, ‘I’m the head football coach at Windber, and I take full responsibility for this loss.’ We were outcoached on both sides of the ball (Friday), and I take responsibility for that,” he said.