Even Andrew Armato wasn’t sure what was going to happen as he took a sweep up the left sideline and slowed to a near stop as he crossed the Mount St. Michael 35-yard line.
I wasn’t thinking anything,” he said. “It just happened. It was just instinct.”
The St. Joseph by the Sea senior running back baited the Mount defender in front of him and cut back across the field for a 69-yard run that set up a Lyle McCombs’ touchdown early in the third quarter. Coach Greg Manos said it was a move Armato wouldn’t have thought to try to make a year ago, but the shifty McCombs is rubbing off. Both challenge each other.
“I think by watching Lyle he realizes he can do it too,” Manos said.
Together, the two were quite a sight in a convincing 41-14 win over host Mount St. Michael in a CHSFL AAA game Saturday. Armato ran for 209 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries and McCombs ran the ball 22 times for 173 yards. The Vikings offense was stopped just once, on an Armato fumble late in the fourth. They were 7-for-7 converting on third and fourth down.
“That’s what it’s supposed to be,” McCombs, a senior, said. “That’s the gameplan every game.”
Sea (1-0, 1-0 CHSFL AAA) was ahead before its offense took the field as Chris Murphy took the opening kickoff back 95-yards for a touchdown. The play shocked a young Mountaineers team, which never appeared to recover and the Vikings took full advantage.
Quarterback Joseph Lane scored on a 2-yard keeper, for his first of two trips to the endzone and Armato added touchdown runs of 3 and 5-yards respectively to put Sea up 29-0 at the half. McCombs’s touchdown made it 35-0. He spent the afternoon carrying and eluding tacklers with quick cuts and an excellent stiff arm.
“Lyle made a 4-yard run into a 7-yard run on a first down where he walked three yards with the guy on his back,” Manos said. “Last year he would have gone down like a cheap suit.”
The Vikings defense was just as impressing allowing just one score, a 13-yard touchdown pass by Jaylen Amaker to make it 41-14 late in the fourth. The other Mountaineers score came when Eddie Cox ran a kickoff back 95-yards for a touchdown earlier in the quarter. The Vikings shut down the Mount running game, especially to the outside with tackles you could hear on both sidelines.
“This madman makes us hit like that every day,” McCombs said of his head coach.
Added Manos: “Every play we want snot bubbles. Someone is going to jack somebody up. If they can’t do it they are not going to play on either side of the field for us.”
Sea will take its hard-hitting defense and explosive running game to South Huntington, L.I. to play perennial league power St. Anthony’s next Friday night. It wants to put the win over Mount (0-1, 0-1) behind them and focus on the Friars.
“We won. It’s over now,” Armato said. “Now we have to go take care of business Friday night.