WILD HORSES: Portage Area’s Sinosky & Burgan provide powerful 1-2 punch
By Joshua Funk, Senior Reporter, WesternPAFootball.net
Special for PA Football News
Tommy Burgan, helmet off following Portage’s thrilling 42-35 victory over North Star, sported a nasty black and blue bruise under his left eye.
No, he didn’t sustain the injury during the game.
“I got elbowed in gym class,” the Mustangs’ junior back said.
Speaking of elbowed, North Star was dealt a solid right cross last Friday night. It came in the form of Burgan and his teammate, Portage’s battering ram of a fullback Mike Sinoksy.
Sinosky and Burgan had been bottled up effectively in the first half of the game, however. Burgan had three carries for 23 yards and Sinoksy eight for 78 yards and a touchdown. But take away Sinoksy’s 58-yard scoring run which knotted things up at 8-apiece, #2 had a mere seven carries for 20 yards in the opening 24 minutes.
That all changed in the second half. Just ask North Star head coach Stacy Schmitt.
“It’s tough to key on (them),” Schmitt said. “They mix it up. It’s tough to key on one guy because they have a lot of weapons.”
After North Star had taken a 22-20 lead, Portage was flagged for an illegal block below the waist, one of 15 Mustang penalties in the game. But on the very next play, Burgan took an inside handoff 79 yards to the end zone, giving Portage a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Burgan wound up finishing the game with just 10 carries, but he ran for 149 yards and the touchdown. Sinoksy did even better – 23 carries, 181 yards, and a pair of touchdowns, including an 11-yard jaunt which capped Portage’s scoring with 10:07 left in the game.
Don’t think for a minute, however, that this North Star game was the only game where the duo shined brightly. They’ve been doing this all season long.
Entering the North Star game, Burgan had run the ball 68 times for 883 yards and 13 touchdowns; Sinosky had 93 rushes for 757 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Tabulate the numbers now through eight weeks: Burgan (78 rushes, 1,032 yards, 14 TD), Sinosky (116 rushes, 938 yards, 18 TD).
The numbers are mind-boggling. Just ask veteran head coach Gary Gouse.
“We’ve had (two 1,000-yard backs) once or twice before,” Gouse said, “but it’s really nice to (nearly) have two 1,000 rushers in eight games with one game left.
“That’s phenomenal.”
It is indeed impressive – and keep in mind that the only other PIAA affiliate team that’s in the same position as Portage is District 10’s Erie McDowell, who boast a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in AJ Fenton and Alex Schmude.
To give you an idea, Portage has scored 57 offensive touchdowns as a team this season. Fifty-two of those scores have come on the ground, and, of those 52 scores, 32 of them (61.5 percent) belong to either Burgan or Sinosky.
Neither #2 or #27 care who gets the ball in the Mustangs’ Air Force and Delaware Wing-T offensive scheme.
“It’s great,” Sinosky said. “The (other) team doesn’t know who’s going to get the ball.”
“He (Sinosky) is one of my best friends,” Burgan said. “It’s great to play in the same backfield with him.”
It’s great, too, when the dynamic duo averages 246 of Portage’s 350 rushing yards per game. And while some coaches might find the play-calling easier when a team can just line it up and run, Gouse didn’t think so, especially after the North Star game.
“I thought our offensive coordinator, Larry McCabe, did a great job calling the plays,” Gouse said. “They (North Star) played seven, eight, maybe 10 different defenses. We just countered with things after we knew what they were doing.”
It’s easy to counter when you’ve got two backs like Burgan and Sinosky, who have run for a combined 3,900 yards and 58 touchdowns in their high school careers. And the scary thing is this: both backs are only juniors.
And after the victory over North Star, Portage, which has now won 18 of its last 19 games, should be on the short list of favorites to compete for the District 6 “A” championship, along with Bellwood-Antis and Bishop McCort.
So how far can this Mustang team go?
“Very far,” Burgan said, “as long as we don’t get cocky.”