By Dan Irwin
New Castle News

For Shenango, the hope is that one quick start will end the same way as the other.

The Wildcats took control of last night’s WPIAL Section 2-AA opener at Laurel early on, then kept pouring it on for a 57-22 win.

The victory not only got Shenango off on the right foot in section play, but it also boosted its overall record to 3-1, going into tonight’s nonleague home game against Wilmington.

Laurel dropped to 0-4 overall.

“We worked all year for this,” senior Brett Chieze said of the Wildcats’ break from the gate. “We haven’t stopped since right after last season ended, we worked the whole year. Every single one of us put in lots of time, so it feels good.”

That, senior Jeff Williams added, is the same way Shenango wanted to approach the Spartans.

“We knew coming into it we had to jump on them right off the bat,” said Williams, who tallied 13 points. “We couldn’t take them lightly, because it’s always a backyard brawl no matter how our teams are looking.

“We came out and fortunately, we were able to shut them down early and we kept them down for the rest of the game.”

Shenango held a 7-4 lead with a minute and a half left in the opening stanza, then went on a 14-3 run to go up 21-7 by the midpoint of period two. Jordan O’Hara contributed eight of those points — including a pair of 3-point goals — en route to a 15-point night.

The Wildcats iced the game in the opening minutes of the third quarter, when they scored the first 11 points of the period to take a 37-11 lead. Mike Linz contributed six of his team-high 17 points during the decisive streak.

“The guys were really excited about tonight,” Shenango head coach Bob McQuiston said. “Obviously, it’s a cross-town rivalry. We played well at the end of our last game, and I think it kind of carried over to the next game.”

Shenango didn’t have the hottest of shooting nights — 19 of 47 from the floor for 40 percent — but Laurel fared even worse, draining just 23 percent (9 of 39) of its field goal tries. The Wildcats, meanwhile, dominated the boards, finishing with a 48-24 advantage. Chieze and Linz led Shenango with 14 and 12 caroms, respectively.

“Everyone was blocking out good and getting boards,” Linz noted, “and Chieze was finding me, everyone was finding me, when I was open down low.”

McQuiston also credited his guards with creating turnovers and, by extension, additional scoring opportunities.

“That’s one thing I think we can do with our guards,” he said. “We got Vinny Fiorilli and Greg DePorzio out front guarding people. They’re both really quick, and I think they can cause people some problems this year. That’s one of our strengths, having those guys out front being able to pressure the ball.”