Of all the calculator-busting numbers this thing threw off, the most important is two.
That's the number of wins between Lancaster Catholic and a state championship.
The Crusaders won their 13th straight game Saturday, rolling past storied Mount Carmel 41-28 in a quarterfinal game of the Class AA state playoffs before 3,489 at Hersheypark Stadium.
It means Catholic earns a state-semifinal meeting with Philadelphia West Catholic at 7 p.m. Friday at Northeast High School's Charles Martin Stadium in Philadelphia.
West Catholic advanced with a 49-21 defeat of Dunmore Friday.
It was the first state-tournament win ever for Catholic, but that isn't the history the Crusaders were really interested in shaking.
It seems some Coal Region media had categorized Catholic as a finesse team last week, and Mount Carmel's defense is known as "Red Death."
"The kids were hearing that they were more physical than we were," coach Bruce Harbach said. "We called the kids out."
They were hearing that from Harbach, of course. And the message was aimed at five kids in particular: Ben Waschman, Nick Schmalhofer, Andrew Heise, Ross Hall and Andrew Foltz.
That would the Crusaders' starting offensive line. You might say they answered in a positive manner.
Catholic blew the Red Tornado off the line of scrimmage again and again and again. Junior running back Jordan Stewart took it from there, rumbling for 13 yards on the game's first snap, 10 on the second, and so on, and so on.
The opening drive was nine plays, eight of them runs, six of them Stewart runs. He scored, from 10 yards out.
What ensued was often messy and very, very long, but a tone had been set.
"They came out and ran the ball and we didn't expect that," Mount Carmel coach Mike Brennan admitted. "We thought they would come out throwing. They controlled the line of scrimmage."
"We wanted to run the football," Harbach said. "We challenged our offensive line to establish the line of scrimmage. I thought they did."
Stewart finished with 132 yards in 24 carries and three touchdowns, but that's only a sliver of the onslaught.
Do the math: Catholic finished with 600 yards of offense, 320 passing, 280 running. The teams combined for 1,011 yards of offense.
But some mental errors by Catholic plus an officiating crew that seemed a bit too full of itself combined to suck a lot of the joy out of this one, which lasted nearly three hours. That's with no TV time-outs.
Catholic had 15 penalties for 155 yards.
"Let us play the game," was Harbach's simple request of the refs.
An insane 10 of those penalties, for 106 yards, came in the first half. Which is how Catholic outgained Mount Carmel 347-107 in the half, but headed into the final seconds up only 14-7.
Enter the hook-and-ladder. You've seen that play — a completed pass to wideout headed toward the middle of the field, followed by a quick pitch to a teammate headed the opposite direction, down the sideline.
Quarterback Kyle Smith suggested that one to Harbach as the Crusaders faced a second-and-18 on their own 48 with seven seconds left.
"Of course, it never works in practice," Harbach said.
Smith drilled Tyler Purvis on a slant at the Mount Carmel 35. He flipped instantly to Travis Jankowski reversing field and finding daylight.
Jankowski ran over the one tackler who got a good shot at him and rumbled 35 yards to the end zone. The Tornadoes were seven seconds away from feeling really good about themselves, and now they were gut-punched.
It was 35-7 before the Tornadoes got their breath back. Their QB, Marcus Wasilewski, who owns most of his school's passing records, had location issues in the first half and went just 3-for-11.
He found himself, too late, and his receivers got behind the Catholic secondary a few times when the Crusaders should have been playing deep center field.
It wasn't really over until Catholic emerged from wild scramble with a recovery of an onside kick less than four minutes left.
More lusty numbers: Smith completed 16 of 24 throws for 320 yards and two TDs. Purvis caught six for 135 yards. Jankowski caught five for 107.
Mount Carmel is probably the state's most accomplished Class AA program, having won five state titles. But the Tornadoes are 0-3 against Lancaster Catholic since 2006.
Catholic probably can't afford this many errors against West Catholic, perhaps District 12's best hope for a state title since it joined the PIAA three years ago.
"I hope we can stop 'em," Harbach said. "That might be a shootout."
Mike Gross is assistant sports editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at mgross@lnpnews.com.
