MINERSVILLE - On a night wide receiver Gabe Davis became Minersville’s all-time leading receiver, quarterback Connor Schwalm showed the program’s future is pretty bright, too.

Schwalm passed for 352 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Battlin’ Miners to a 25-0 win over Marian at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The freshman signal caller had 266 yards and three TDs in the first half - including a 17-yard scoring strike to Davis that set the record.

Schwalm was 17-of-29 through the air, with six different players making receptions. Sophomore receiver Brock Polinsky making five grabs for 166 yards and two scores for Minersville (3-3), while junior Jared Graeff also went over the century mark, finishing with 107 yards on six catches.

“You have Gabe Davis, who is one of the best athletes in the area, and Marian did a great job game planning for him, they really took him out of the game,” said Miners’ head coach Justin Frantz. “Then you have Connor, and you have Brock, who was just a monster tonight, and they just step up.

“We talk about program-turning wins, and this is what we’ve been looking for.”

Davis had just one catch, his second quarter touchdown.

Schwalm missed on his first five pass attempts before finding a rhythm on the Miners’ third drive of the game, which ended with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Polinsky to make it 6-0 with 3:49 to play in the first quarter.

The pair connected again midway through the second quarter, this time from 39 yards out to give Minersville an 18-0 lead with 6:35 to play before halftime. The drive was setup after a Colts’ fumble gave Minersville the ball near midfield.

“It was coverage or blitz, and we tried to mix it up,” Marian head coach Stan Dakosty said. “He (Schwalm) threw three beautiful balls, just beat us on fades. We were right there or close to it.”

The Miners finished with 470 yards of total offense.

Schwalm nearly found Davis for another score with 7.9 seconds left before halftime on fourth and goal from the 2-yard line, but the receiver caught the pass out of the back of the end zone.

Defensively, Minersville forced two turnovers - one an interception by Polinsky - and held Marian to 79 yards of offense.

“There’s no doubt they’ve done some good things,” Dakosty said. “But we just haven’t been able to put together four quarters, especially offensively.”

Minersville put together a 10-play, 67-yard drive that spanned the closing minutes of the third quarter and ended with Luke Stevenosky (nine carries, 47 yards) going in from two yards out early in the fourth to make it 25-0.

Schwalm’s maturation process started sooner than expected for the Miners’ when junior quarterback John Adams was injured in the scrimmage prior to the start of the season, handing the reigns to the freshman.

His emergence has Minersville rolling, having won three of its past four since an 0-2 start. The Battlin’ Miners have are averaging almost 32 points per game during that stretch.

“Those two developed a real nice friendship,” Frantz said of the pair. “Johnny is almost like a mentor to him so he was working with him and working with him and then Connor took over.

“We’ve just been telling Connor to play his game, because he can do it. We thought early on he was trying to do too much. So we took him aside at practice and just told him to be Connor Schwalm. Be yourself and play your game. Tonight, he looked comfortable and he was feeling it.”

BIG BOOT

... Marian’s Mike Baloga attempted a 47-yard field goal with 8.5 seconds to play in the game. The kick appeared to have the distance but just drifted wide.

UP NEXT

... Marian closes out its regular season at home next Friday against Williams Valley (6-1). “We have more game to go, and we’ll line up and play it and give it the best shot we have,” said Dakosty.

Minersville travels to Schuylkill Haven.