Jul 16, 2020 5 min read

Today’s “When Sports Were Played” is from Nov. 21, 1975, when Beth-Center capped an undefeated football season by shutting out and shutting down Kitanning to win the WPIAL Class AA championship.

MT. LEBANON – Beth-Center coach Bill Connors smiled broadly after his team had recorded its second consecutive 13-0 shutout to capture the WPIAL Class AA championship over Kittanning last night.

“To go 12-0 and win the title, you have to have a lot of things go your way,” beamed Connors.

Yeah coach, like a rock-ribbed defense that never crumbles and an offense that moves consistently without utilizing the forward pass.

One of the big factors in the game was field position. The Wildcats were continually bottled up in their own end and were forced to make long journeys in their attempts to score.

Kittaning started only one drive inside Bulldog territory, that coming at the B-C 48 and ending at the 30.

The deepest penetration came in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter after Larry Shepard had galloped for 31 of his game-high 114 yards to the B-C 33.

Two plays later, the Wildcats were perched on the Bulldogs’ 28, but Shepard fumbled and lost one and then Barry Stotka salted away the defensive player of the game award on fourth down.

The Wildcats decided during a timeout that they would test the Stotka-Kyle Lockett side of the B-C defense with a pitchout to halfback John Ochs. Stotka stormed past the interference that was leading Ochs and threw the junior runner for a 10-yard loss.

That side of the defense has given up yardage to the opponents only in the playoffs and that amount was minimal.

Another key to the triumph was Connors’ strategy of giving the fullback, Shepard, his yardage up the middle but concentrating on stopping the outside threat of the Ochs boys.

“We saw in watching films of Kittanning that most of their big plays came off the outside stuff of the halfbacks,” commented Connors.

“Our plan was to shift our linebackers to the side that their wingback was on or in the direction of the man in motion, and we ended up with four men on the outside, which left us vulnerable up the middle.”

How well the Bulldogs performed their assignments is reflected in the statistics of Bob and John Ochs. Bob carried the ball eight times and gained one net yard, and brother John journeyed seven times, resulting in minus-10 yards.

The 6-2, 185-pound bruiser, Shepard was called on 24 times by quarterback Kurt Bowers and his 114 yards earned him the offensive player of the game award.

Both teams shunned the pass as an offensive weapon. Beth-Center threw only three times and had two of those picked off. Bowers threw 10 times, completing three for 40 yards, and had one picked off.

Connors had planned to throw the ball more, but when his team jumped off to an early lead and held that advantage into the second half, he decided against any aerial displays.

The early lead came with each team’s kicker figuring in the play. Bob Ochs went into punt formation at the Kittanning 40 and perhaps became a victim of playoff nerves. His punt went straight up and came down in the vicinity of the line of scrimmage and took a true Astroturf hop into the arms of B-C kicker Len Corazzi, who scampered 40 yards into the end zone. He missed the conversion but with 4:02 gone the Bulldogs led, 6-0.

Strange as it may seem, Connors claims they practiced that play.

“When we took them to Mountaineer Field on Wednesday, we had them working on scooping up the ball,” smiled Connors. “What we really had in mind though was blocking a kick or two, then worrying about picking up the ball. Corazzi made a good, smart play in that situation.”

Kittanning coach Harry Beckwith came under some fan pressure in the second quarter after his defense had picked off the first of two Kevin Bailey passes.

The Wildcats moved the ball to the B-C 37 and after three plays gained seven yards, Beckwith chose to punt the ball into the end zone, which proved to be highly unpopular with his fans.

Jim Shargots, Beth-Center’s senior defensive back, capped an amazing season for himself in the second quarter when he picked off a Bowers pass. The interception was his 19th of the season, not his career, but the 1975 season.

At the end of the third quarter, and beginning of the fourth, Shepherd turned workhorse, carrying nine out of 10 plays. The senior, who went over the 1,000-yard mark for the season in the game, picked up 58 yards in those nine carries.

The Stotka defensive play seemed to stir the Bulldogs, who then marched 61 yards in nine plays to finish the Wildcats. Stotka and Bailey were the big gainers in the drive, which was culminated by a Stotka blast into the end zone from two yards. Corazzi converted the extra point.

Stotka finished with 89 yards in 22 carries, helping Beth-Center accumulate 180 total yards and 12 first downs. The Wildcats had 10 first downs and 154 total yards.

“We felt real good at halftime because our team has been a good second-half club all season and they came through with the usual fourth-quarter performance,” Connors said.