Six TDs from Mikey Bentivegna ends Donegal’s season

YORK — With the memory of an early season 41-18 loss to York Suburban, where Trojan tailback Mikey Bentivegna rushed 28 times for 257 yards and three touchdowns, Donegal knew priority No. 1 was to stop Bentivegna.

The Indians did that the first two times he touched the ball, dropping him for losses.

If only time could’ve stood still …

On Bentivegna’s third touch, after the Suburban defense stopped Donegal on fourth-and-3 at the Trojan 20, the speedy senior broke down the left sideline for a 78-yard score, the first of his six TDs in a 41-6 victory Friday night in the opening round of the District 3 Class 4A playoffs.

The task of stopping Bentivegna now falls to Manheim Central, the No. 2 seed in the 4A bracket, which hosts Suburban next Friday.

Bentivegna finished with 382 yards on 13 touches, scoring on runs of 78, 80, 51, 11, 61, and 63 yards. He bumped his program record career rushing total to 2,455 yards and reset the single-game record, which had stood at 324.

“No. 2’s good,” said Indians coach Chad Risberg of Bentivegna.

“We had a great game plan, the line played incredible,” Bentivegna said. “We stuck together and played as a team. We played hard and played fast.”

Fast certainly described Bentivegna.

Taking over at their 20 after blocking a 25-yard field goal by Colin Yost, the No. 7 Trojans (7-4) needed one play, Bentivegna’s 80-yard dash, to take a 14-0 lead.

“Both those were just Iso plays, just following the line’s blocks,” said Bentivegna, who has received an offer from St. Francis and has sparked interest from several other programs.

His 51-yard run, following a Donegal punt, capped a five-play 52-yard possession. Two possessions later, after quarterback Rylan Bratton hit Dakota Shue in stride for 18 yards on a skinny post, Bentivegna ran it over from the 11.

Down 20-0 late in the first half the 10th-seeded Indians (4-7) punted away from their 28. Suburban took over at its 39 and Bentivegna was off to the races for a 61-yard TD with 27 seconds to play.

His second touch of the second half, and last of the game, yielded a 63-yard score, triggering the mercy rule.

“Our fullback, Amir (Chivers), is throwing great blocks all night and I’m just following him,” said Bentivegna. “He’s doing all the work.”

Well, maybe not all the work.

For the Indians the evening started relatively well and ended well. In between, not so much.

With a short field after the Trojans’ first punt they moved from the Suburban 38 to the 20. Shue dropped quarterback Landen Baughman for a 2-yard loss on fourth down. Bentivegna responded with the 78-yard TD.

Tyler Sload flipped the field, taking a Wing-T belly reverse 52 yards to the Trojan 13, but the Indians could only advance 4 more yards, leading to the blocked field goal.

The Indians lost seven yards total on 14 plays the rest of the way until halftime. They picked up 25 yards on nine snaps in the third quarter before putting together a nice 10-play, 83-yard drive in the fourth quarter, capped by Sawyer Floyd’s 12-yard TD toss to DeAndre White.