Battle Of Brawn Nearing For King’s

By DOUG PAPE [email protected]
Friday, November 02, 2001 Page: 3B

Because it will be a contest between two physical football teams, King’s
College coach Rich Mannello believes the winner might have been crowned off
the field.

“This one’s going to be decided in the weight room,” he said of his
team’s game against Albright College at 1 p.m. Saturday at Betzler Fields. “I
really believe that who had the best full 12 months of weightlifting,
including in-season this year, that’s who’s coming out on top Saturday.”
King’s (5-3 overall, 5-2 in the Middle Atlantic Conference) and Albright
(6-2, 5-2) are battling for sole possession of third-place in the MAC and a
chance at season’s end for berth in the Eastern College Athletic Conference
playoffs.

The teams are also eerily similar. Both have size and are tough against the
run. The Monarchs have the best rushing defense in the MAC, yielding 64.8
yards per game, while the Lions are third with 106. They also have similar
offensive philosophies and lions representing their schools.

Albright is coached by E.J. Sandusky, a former offensive lineman at Penn
State. He is the son of former Nittany Lion defensive coordinator Jerry
Sandusky.

Quarterback Mike Strack leads the Lion offense. The senior Hazleton Area
High School graduate has thrown for 1,698 yards with 11 touchdowns and three
interceptions.

“He’s a very tough kid,” Mannello said. “He might be one of the toughest
quarterbacks in the conference. He’s a kid that you have to hit and keep
hitting, and he keeps getting up and you have to keep going after him. He’s a
good competitor.”

Running back Chris Shivery is King’s main offensive weapon. He has 10
touchdowns and is 2 yards shy of 1,000 rushing yards for the season. Teammate
Richard Jackson, a freshman from Lackawanna Trail, had a breakout game last
week against Susquehanna, rushing for 210 yards on 24 carries with two scores.

“That’s an example of a kid taking advantage of an opportunity,” Mannello
said. “He went out there in the second half and rushed for over 200 yards and
changed the complexion of that game offensively for us.”

The Lion defense, which is heavily senior laden, is led by middle
linebacker Tom Fitti. He has 71 tackles on the year and earned MAC Defensive
Player of the Week with 18 last week against Moravian.

Linebacker Chris Keene leads the Monarchs with 62 tackles. He also has 8.5
sacks. Defensive end Steven Wilson continues to dominate with 57 tackles and a
school single-season record 17.5 sacks.

King’s has won the past two meetings with Albright. The Monarchs, though,
carry a chip on their shoulder. They believe since suffering through plenty of
down years, that the rest of the league thinks King’s wins are flukes.

“People don’t think wins should have happened,” Mannello said. “We still
have to go out and prove our place in the MAC, and that edge is on this
football team, I want it. I want it to stay there and that’s something we feed
off of. We don’t talk about streaks, we talk about the fact that people think
we shouldn’t have won.”