(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Times News will be running a series of stories asking area coaches and athletic directors to recall their “Most Memorable” sporting event. Today’s Most Memorable moment comes from Marian football coach Stan Dakosty)

By sam matta

tnsports@tnonline.com

There were no Facebook pages to scroll through and no iPhones to send messages with. The thought of social media tools and instant news sources were only in comic books or on futuristic television shows ... “Beam me up Scotty.”

It was the fall of 1990 and the big sports news that was evolving in the area centered around a band of brothers that coach Stan Dakosty had brought into the fold at Marian Catholic.

A stellar regular season had propelled the Colt football program into the postseason and eventually a PIAA Class A State Championship game.

The state football playoffs were still in their infancy. Hershey was not yet the permanent home of all the title games. Some high school stadiums were serving as the backdrop for the tournament - in the case of Marian’s 1990 game, Middletown High School was the scene.

It was Dec. 8, 1990 when Marian’s bruising football team took to the field Saturday morning to face off with powerful Farrell. The crowd was boisterous, and the estimated Marian followers were over 2,000 strong.

The contest and everything that surrounded it remains permenantly entrenched in Dakosty’s memory and was the obvious choice for his most memorable moment in his over four decades as the Colts head coach.

Farrell, a District 7 WPIAL powerhouse in not only football but basketball, was thought to be a heavy favorite. In fact, Steelers head coach Lou Falconi told this reporter, working with the Shenandoah Evening Herald at the time, during a phone interview that Marian shouldn’t show up since his team was flush with at least seven Division I players.

All week leading up to the championship game, Dakosty kept preaching to his coaching staff and players, “We can win this game.”

Dakosty was a guy who never backed down from a challenge. During the time period, he was forced to schedule schools with larger enrollments, teams that were traditionally strong like Pottsville, Hazleton, Berwick and Mount Carmel.

So when the Colts were matched against the supposed best team in the state that season, Dakosty wasn’t backing down. In fact, he relished this upstart role.

“You have to remember even though Farrell had a lot of talented football players that were being put on a pedestal, we had football players that weren’t bad either,” chuckled the legendary coach.

Among those Colts were offensive stars like quarterback Mike Makovec, who threw a pair of TD passes in the state title game, tailback Joe Gillespie, who piled up over 1,000 yards on the ground that year, fullback Brian Rafferty, receivers Chris Rodrigues and Rich Miller and tight end Mike Hosak.

“I’ll be honest, I never thought we were in over our heads,” said Dakosty. “You’ve got to remember, we come from an area that lives and dies for the game of football. Kids in this area are not only athletic but very hardnosed and enjoy a challenge.”

Dakosty always extolled where he came from. “Coal Region football, man. Coal Region football, it’s the best!” he would proudly bellow even to this day.

Before the season ever unfurled, the coach knew he had something special in the works. For the previous season, Marian had dropped three games: Pottsville (28-7), Mt. Carmel (14-6) and Panther Valley 10-7.

That team would set the tone for the 1990 run by closing the 1989 season with five straight wins; including a Class B, District 11 championship against Notre Dame Green Pond.

“We knew we had something special going,” said Dakosty. “They did all the hard work in the offseason; the work that you need to do in order to get better. You know all of our championship teams did the hard work in the offseason and it showed.”

The Colts opened in ’90 with a flurry, running the table through the first 11 games to no one’s surprise. Marian reeled off wins over Wilkes-Barre Meyers, North Schuylkill, Blue Mountain, Pottsville, Lourdes, Mt. Carmel, Panther Valley, West Hazleton, Mahanoy Area, Bishop Kenrick, and Tamaqua before losing in the Eastern Conference championship game to Hanover Area (the eventual PIAA Class AA State Champions). But they rebounded with a win over Canton to earn a spot opposite Farrell in the title game.

“After the loss to Hanover, I told the kids that no one would remember that loss if we went on and won the state championship,” said Dakosty.

The key to the victory was Marian’s defense. Dakosty felt that if his team could put pressure on the Steelers by getting a lead, it would be a totally different feel for them.

But it wouldn’t be easy. Farrell’s talented team included a future NFL star in Lorenzo Styles, a swift, athletic two-way player who went on to play linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons and the LA Rams after his college career at Ohio State.

“They really never trailed in any game they played, if memory serves me correctly,” said Dakosty. “When we scored right before the half to tie it and then when we took the lead in the second half, I think that unnerved them. Falling behind late in a game was something they didn’t seem comfortable about. We could sense it, our players just rose to the occasion and started to play with so much confidence.”

The Marian defense, which was outstanding all season, took its game to another level against a vaunted Farrell attack, not allowing an offensive touchdown until late in the fourth quarter.

Emmett McCall, who covered the game for the Times News, wrote the following about the defensive effort in his account of the state championship game.

The heroes on the Marian defense were numerous. The line, comprised of J.D. Hackenberg, Bill Gill, A.J. Serina, Mike Hosak, Ryan Hydro and Matt Mace, shut down Farrell’s inside rushing game and put a lot of pressure on quarterback Lamont Samuels when he tried to throw; linebackers Joe Gillespie and Brian Rafferty seemed to be in on almost every tackle, filling the gaps and pursuing all over the field; and the secondary of Mike and Mark Makovec, Jerome Hunsinger, Anthony Vecolitis, Rich Miller and Chris McIntyre, kept the speedy Farrell receivers from ever getting the big play and also delivered some punishing hits.

Looking back, Dakosty still remembers what stood out to him the most about that year’s team.

“Our team played with such great passion. They truly had a passion and intensity,” he said. “They had a special quality about them. They loved to play the game. You look back and see how much they’ve accomplished in their lives ... successful, great family men and fathers. And you know they all stood up to a challenge.

“They played against what many people thought back then was the best team in the state regardless of class, but our kids never backed down. They just took on the challenge.”

For sure, the Marian faithful still remember that most famous day, Dec. 8 1990.

It was the day that the Colts sent a reverberating thunder throughout the Keystone State with maybe the biggest upset in scholastic football since Shenandoah High School’s vaunted 1931 team upended not one but two collegiate freshman teams to complete a stirring 13-0 season.

Ironically it was also the home town to Dakosty.

It was also the day that Marian not only “showed up,” but they won a game few thought possible.