Diesel Top Nickel City For 4-1 Start Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2013 8:00 am By Sam Wilson Olean Times Herald OLEAN — A second-half shutout, coupled with two touchdown passes from quarterback Zach Smith, gave the Southern Tier Diesel a 22-16 comeback win over the Nickel City Kings at Bradner Stadium Saturday. The win, the Diesel’s third in a row, continues the best start in team history at 4-1. “This team’s never been 4-1, so now they write their own history,” coach and owner J.R. Bennion said. Smith ran in the Diesel’s only first-half score, a 1-yard keeper, second quarter. To start the second half, with the Diesel trailing 16-8, Smith led a drive culminating with a 12-yard touchdown to receiver Mike Gillie before running in the two-point conversion himself. Smith put the Diesel ahead, 22-16, with a 7-yard pass to Bradley Button with little over five minutes remaining in the game. “I think Zach really got his confidence (going),” Bennion said of Smith, who has started each game in the Diesel’s win streak. “He’s getting his feet underneath him and I think he’s playing great football. Of course, there’s always things you can improve on and I think he’s going to continue that.” Smith sealed the game with a 15-yard run on third down with the Kings out of timeouts and less than a minute remaining. The Diesel had one turnover, a fumble by John Evener, but Pat Folland and Jason Kaszynski intercepted a pair of Nickel City Passes. “We finished in the plus category, which is always the biggest thing,” Bennion said. Folland’s pick put the Diesel at the Kings’ 25-yard line, while Kaszynski stopped a scoring opportunity with the Kings just outside of the red zone. Long passes by quarterbacks James Celatto and Raphael Butler proved to be the bulk of the Kings’ offense. Celatto threw a 41-yard pass to Ronald Dixon to set up the Kings’ first touchdown. In the second quarter, Butler found a streaking Dixon for a 76-yard score after the two-minute warning. Bennion said the Diesel knew to adjust their coverage to help the cornerback matched with Dixon. “We told him right at halftime, they’re going to come back to you, they’re going to come back to you and that’s what they did,” Bennion said. “We fully expected it. We tried to give him a little help rolling a safety over the top, giving him some help and we tried to adjust his alignment in his coverage and I think we did it in the second half.” With the team off an unprecedented start, Bennion admitted he’ll have to guard off overconfidence. “It’s always a worry because it’s been bad for years and we’ve just had guys missing out of certain positions,” he said. “This year we have them, so that’s the biggest thing. I think as long as they don’t get overconfident and they walk that line, then they’re going to continue to play good football.” Starting running back Anthony Poole left the game with an apparent ankle injury in the third quarter, while Gillie left with an injury after his touchdown. “I think he tweaked his ankle,” Bennion said of Poole. “We’ll see what it’s like, then we’ll just go from there. It’s really unknown right now and (is) the same with our receiver, Mike Gillie.” The Diesel are off with a bye until July 13, when they travel to face the WNY Dragons at Kunz Stadium in Buffalo.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 14:12:27 +0000
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