Narrative
CB West entered the 1999 season on a 30 game winning streak and were the two-time defending 4A champions. While they suffered heavy losses due to graduation on the offensive line and defensive and linebacking corps, expectations were sky high in Doylestown. The reason? Dustin Picciotti. “The Bull” as he was affectionately known, was returning to the CB West backfield after rushing for 1,969 yards and 41 touchdowns as a junior, including an all-time performance in the state final, where only played three plays in the second half, but finished with 236 yards and five touchdowns. He was rated as the top fullback nationally and one of the top 25 overall recruits in the country, and held offers from Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Syracuse before his senior season.
Outside of Picciotti, quarterback Mike Orihel also returned after being the first sophomore starter at the position in CB West history. While they lost four offensive linemen to Division I programs, Rob Bowser returned as the next elite offensive lineman on the CB West assembly line. Defensively, though there were lots of new starters, stalwarts Andy Elsing and Bryan Colahan were back along with Picciotti. There was also a very strong junior class ready to take varsity snaps.
Preseason polls had CB West as the favorite largely thanks to the return of Picciotti. There was also relative consensus in the top four. Out west, fourth ranked Erie Cathedral Prep’s seven sophomore and two freshman starters were back a year older and stronger as the Ramblers were a heavy favorite to make it to Hershey. In the east, third ranked Cumberland Valley brought back seven starters on offense and defense, plus Penn State recruit Jesse Neumeyer was back after missing all of 1998 with a knee injury. And second ranked Parkland brought back 17 starters, including 1,900 yard rusher Sean Bleiler, top junior recruit Tim Massquoi, and the entire offensive line from their surprising Eastern Final run. Longtime coal region football reporter Babe Conroy even noted in his preview that you could “pencil in Parkland and CB West in the Eastern Final and boy what a game that will be.”
In District 1, CB West’s biggest challenges were expected to come from fifth ranked Norristown and star running back Troy Swetteberger and sixth ranked North Penn, who returned Hikee Johnson and Penn State recruit Chris McKelvy and had given the Bucks their toughest game in 1998. Although Norristown was not the CB West schedule for the first time in years, the Bucks would wrap their season up with North Penn in one of the most highly anticipate regular season games of the decade.
CB West sleepwalked through their opener, fumbling five times and giving up a sloppy 27 points to Upper Darby in a 56-27 win (talent wins out..). Over the course of the next eight weeks, CB West would outscore their opposition 292-14. Offensively, the Bucks fought through some inconsistency with their offensive line, but were still able to bully teams with the power of the 245 pound Picciotti plus rising star juniors Dave Camburn and Phil DiGiacomo in the backfield. And defensively, this was one of the best units in Pettine’s tenure. They pitched six shutouts in eight weeks, and yielded just two fluke, big play touchdowns. In the first nine weeks of the season, they did not trail for any game time and were never tied beyond 0-0. The Bucks were ranked #4 in the country by the USA Today heading in to the regular season finale with North Penn.
In Lansdale, Mike Pettine Jr.’s North Penn Knights were having similar success. The Knights opened the season with a 33-14 win over St. Joseph’s Prep and cruised through the rest of their schedule. They had move up to #2 in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette poll while the AP had them ranked #4 in the state behind the #1 Bucks. Tailback Hikee Johnson, who committed to Virginia during the season, led District 1 with 1,222 yards heading in to the final week of the season. The game had major buzz - North Penn sold out their allotment of tickets in an hour and a half. It also would be the first game featured as the PCN Game of the Week.
Nine thousand fans packed War Memorial Stadium to see the third iteration of the Pettine Bowl. In the first quarter, after five straight handoffs to Picciotti, North Penn bit hard on a play action fake, and Mike Orihel hit a wide open Ted Kinyon for a 43 yard touchdown. In the second quarter, CB West put together a long, methodical drive capped by a Picciotti touchdown run to go up 14-0. North Penn only had three first downs in the first half, all on a sustained drive that end at the 12 yard line by a Phil DiGiacomo fumble recovery. But the Knights would open the second half in Buck-esque fashion, marching down the field with a 10 play, 76 yard drive capped by a 6 yard TD scramble by quarterback Clay Kuklich. The North Penn drive ended with 1:25 left in the third quarter and cut the CB West lead to one score. They would only run three more offensive plays the rest of the game. CB West converted five third downs - all on runs by Picciotti, and burned 9:18 off of the clock on a 19 play drive. It ended with a 27 yard field goal which put the Bucks up 17-7. CB West intercepted a pass on the third play of the next North Penn drive, and the Bucks ran the clock out from there. Picciotti finished with 33 carries for 142 yards and a TD, despite his longest carry of the game being just seven yards. The CB West defense also bottled up All State running back Hikee Johnson, who had just 7 yards on 11 carries.
The win clinched the top seed and home field advantage for the District 1 tournament. It also held the Bucks as the wire-to-wire #1 team in the state in the regular season. North Penn earned the second seed in D1 and finished the year ranked 4th in the state. Third seeded Norristown was ranked #9 in the state. Interestingly, Glen Mills finished the year 9-1 and ranked #6 in the state, but did not make the D1 tournament thanks to a loss to Ohio powerhouse St. Ignatius (the Division I champion that year) in the regular season finale. Because Glen Mills was not in a conference, eight of their ten games were against out of state competition, which did not count towards the bonus points calculation in the D1 formula.
Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, Parkland, the presumed challenger to the Bucks, was ranked #2 after a dominant 10-0 regular season and an average margin of victory of 28.1 points. They had a highly anticipated potential D11 final with #7 Bethlehem Catholic, whose only losses came to St. Ignatius (OH) and Glen Mills. Erie Cathedral Prep took care of business out west and was slotted in at #3 behind the two eastern powers. Woodland Hills was the WPIAL representative in teh top 5 after an undefeated regular season, with #10 North Hills looking like their biggest challenger in D7. And though Cumberland Valley was the preseason favorite in D3, they were taken apart in the regular season by undefeated and eight ranked Wilson West Lawn, who was the favorite in central PA.
CB West opened their playoff run on a 40 game winning streak and had outscored their opponents 363-48 during the regular season. They had not been tied all season with an opponent (beyond 0-0) and had never trailed. One of those streaks would fall in the second quarter of their first playoff game, as Pennridge connected on a 73 yard touchdown pass to tie the game 7-7. If the Rams were thinking upset, that was dashed pretty quickly, after a 23 yard Phil DiGiacomo TD, a 60 yard pass to Ted Kinyon, then two Picciotti Tds on quick drives took the score from 7-7 to 35-7 by the end of the quarter. CB West would finish with a 49-7 in their 41st straight victory.
The big news on Saturday morning was not the brief tie by Pennridge. In Allentown, the “pencil in CB West and Parkland in the eastern final” crowd took a major hit when Easton shocked the Trojans, 7-6, two weeks after losing the regular season matchup 42-13. All of the other favorites around the state held serve, including North Penn who escaped from Norristown with a 28-27 win. Norristown missed a 37 yard field goal with 15 seconds left, but got another chance when the Knights were called for roughing the kicker. On the follow up attempt, Norristown missed again, this time from 27 to set up Pettine vs. Pettine IV.
Unlike the regular season matchup, Picciotti served as more of a decoy rather than a bell cow. The bull managed just 89 yards on the ground, though his second quarter touchdown run gave the Bucks a 7-0 lead at the break. The Bucks opened the second half with a 59 yard drive, with quarterback Mike Orihel picked apart the North Penn defense, then Picciotti scoring a bizarre touchdown on 4th and 2 from the North Penn 20. Picciotti jumped over the line for the first down yardage, but landed on his feet and kept running as the Knight defense stopped playing when he dove. CB West capped their scoring in the fourth quarter when tailback Phil DiGiacomo hit Andy Elsing, who was subbed in at tight end, for a 48 yard TD on a halfback option, the first catch of Elsing’s career. Defensively, the Bucks unit, which was joining the ranks of greatest defenses in state history, suffocated the North Penn offense. Hikee Johnson ran for just 75 yards on 22 carries, while the Knights only passed for 29 yards. Orihel was 6-7 for 76 yards in the 21-0 win.
The rest of the state playoff field was a series of heavyweights. Out west, District 10 champ Erie Cathedral Prep continued their dominant season with a 70-0 win over D8 champion Schenley, setting up a match up with Hollidaysburg, who eeked out a 28-24 win over State College in the D6/9 subregional. Woodland Hills continued their tear through the WPIAL, advancing to Three Rivers Stadium with a 42-21 ripping of Mount Lebanon, while McKeesport, who upset second seeded North Hills in the first round, continued their Cinderella run with a 43-16 win over Norwin for the other slot in the WPIAL final. In the east, Wilson West Lawn handed Cumberland Valley the worst loss in program history, a 47-0 shellacking in the D3 final, while Bethlehem Catholic won an instant classic with Easton, stuffing the Red Rovers in the final minute on a game winning two-point conversion attempt to hold on to a 21-20 victory. CB West would match up with Abington Heights, who won their second consecutive D2 title with a 27-0 winner over Hazleton.
On the fifth play from scrimmage, Mike Orihel hit Dave Camburn for a 50 yard touchdown pass. Things would get worse for Abington Heights from there. CB West would finish the game with 500 yards of total offense and picked up a staggering 27 first downs. In the second half, the Bucks struggled with turnovers, so Pettine went in to grind mode and just kept handing the ball to Picciotti to salt the game away. He finished with 178 yards and 4 TDs, putting his season rushing total over 1,500 yards for the second consecutive season.
In the other eastern quarter, Bethlehem Catholic stunned Wilson West Lawn, holding Penn State bound running back Pete Gilmore to 17 yards in a 42-7 blowout. Bethlehem Catholic tailback Dave Wilson, the state’s leader in rushing with 2,588 gashed the Bulldogs for 213 yards and four scores. It was a bizarre year in the Lehigh Valley for Bethlehem Catholic. Eight teams left the East Penn Conference for the Mountain Valley, abandoning Becahi and clearing out the Golden Hawk’s schedule. They responded by declaring up from 3A to 4A so the defectors would have to see them in playoffs and adding St. Ignatius and Archbishop Moeller from Ohio, plus Glen Mills and Saxon Maryland to their schedule. Becahi beat nationally ranked Moeller on the opening week of the season, and blew big leads to lose one possession games against St. Ignatius and Glen Mills. The Hawks were a mirror image of CB West, a big offensive line clearing the way for Wilson and a dominant defense led by All State linebacker Mike Gregorik. Most of the press picked CB West, but noted that unlike a lot of teams, Becahi had faced big-time competition during the season and wouldn’t be afraid of the Bucks.
There were 16,000 fans at Lehigh’s Goodman Stadium for the Eastern Final, still the record for largest crowd at a PIAA playoff game. CB West found themselves in a new situation in the first quarter, trailing 7-0 after sophomore quarterback Mark Borda hit future Villanova receiver John Dieser for a touchdown on Bethlehem Catholic’s opening drive. After forcing a three and out, Becahi was on the move again and crossed midfield, but Bryan Colahan stripped Dave Wilson just past the 50, and Angelo Palena returned the fumble inside the Becahi 5. Picciotti bulldozed in from the 3 to tie the game. In the second quarter, as so often happened in CB West games that year, a team went on a long, ball control drive capped by a TD by their star running back to seemingly take control of the game. But it was Bethlehem Catholic, who got a Wilson TD at the 1:57 mark of the second quarter after a seven minute drive to take a 14-7. CB West was trailing at halftime for the first time since the 1997 Eastern final.
After halftime, the Bucks went to their security blanket. Dustin Picciotti carried the ball 11 straight times on their opening drive of the second half. But carry 11 came on a 4th and 2 from the Becahi 20. Picciotti was met in the hole by sophomore linebacker Pat Bedics and dropped at the line of scrimmage to end the threat. Becahi was forced to punt and CB West went on the march again, but stalled out at the 25 with three straight Orihel incompletions. CB West put together another drive at the start of the fourth quarter, moving to the Becahi 33. On third down and 1, Mike Gregorik wrapped up Picciotti at the line of scrimmage, and set up the third 4th and short of the second half. CB West ran Picciotti over All State left tackle Rob Bowser, but Gregorik was there again, sticking Picciotti and driving him back for a one yard loss. After the game, Pettine said “when Dustin got stopped, I really wondered if we deserved to win.”
The fourth down stop gave the Bethlehem Catholic offense life. CB West had bottled up Wilson completely in the second half, but the precocious Borda was having the game of his life, hitting little completions to Dieser and fellow sophomore Eddie Scipio to inch down the field. The Hawks drove all the way to the CB West 30, but Elsing strip sacked Borda to end the threat. CB West quickly crossed midfield, until getting stuck with a 3rd and 10 from the Becahi 40. But Orihel hit Bryan Colahan for a 15 yard gain (just Colahan’s second catch of the season) and Picciotti scored a 24 yard TD on the next play with 5:42 left to knot the game at 14. On the next drive, Becahi started at their own 7 after a penalty, but Borda hit Scipio for a 33 yard gain to get the Hawks out of the shadow of their own end zone. But the drive stalled there, and sophomore linebacker Gavin Potter stopped Gregorik on a 3rd and 2 to force a punt.
Gregorik punted, which Dave Camburn fielded at his own 23. He immediately cut to his left and turned on the jets up the sideline. CB West had built a perfect wall, and Camburn was off to the races with only Gregorik to beat. The star linebacker had an angle on Camburn, but postseason hero Andy Elsing came out of nowhere to catch Gregorik and push him off line to allow Caumburn a straight shot at the end zone. Camburn turned around and back pedaled the final ten yards, saluting the CB West crowd as he crossed the goal line. The 15 yard celebration penalty pushed the extra point try back far enough to force a miss, but the Bucks were ecstatic with their first lead of the day, 20-14 with four minutes to play. Pettine said the return was the greatest execution on special teams he had in his career. On the following drive, Borda hit Scipio for a 20 yard gain, but the sophomore tried to do too much, and got stripped by Elsing fighting for extra yards after the catch. Picciotti cashed in a 15 yard TD after the turnover to ice the game with 2:10 left on the clock.
Picciotti ran for 167 yards and 3 TDs on the afternoon on a season high 33 carries. Camburn added 70 rushing yards in addition to the punt return. Though Mark Borda threw for 125 yards, the Bucks held Wilson to 67 yards on the ground, 133 yards below his season average, and forced two massive turnovers in crunch time. After the game, the CB West team celebrated with roses on the field, mocking Becahi after Pettine received an anonymous bouquet during the week with a card that read “condolences for the end of the winning streak” (though conspiracy theorists surmise it was Pettine himself who sent the roses as a motivational tool). The win, one of the hardest earned during the now 44 game streak, punched CB West’s ticket to the state final for the third year in a row and record fifth time in 4A.
Out west, Erie Cathedral Prep was ready to give the Bucks another challenge. The Ramblers stormed in to state playoffs averaging 45.9 points per game and had given up only 82 points during the season. They set a PIAA playoff record with a 70-0 over Schenley, then blanked Hollidaysburg in the state quarterfinal. Like the Bucks, they needed to show their mettle in the semifinal against undefeated WPIAL champ Woodland Hills. The Wolverines took a 23-20 lead with 4:21 left. After going nowhere on their first two plays, Ed Hinkel took a screen pass 41 down to the Woodland Hills 23, then caught a 17 yard touchdown on 3rd and 4 to put the Ramblers ahead with just 1:27 on the clock. Woodland Hills would drive inside the ECP 20, but a desperation pass attempt on fourth down fell incomplete.
The Ramblers came in to the state final ranked #9 nationally by USA Today (behind the #6 Bucks). They were also very young, with a star group of underclassmen including Division I prospects Joe Dipre, Josh Lustig, Ed Hinkel, Charles Rush, Matt Parsons, and Juwan Walker, who had all started as freshmen and sophomores on the ‘98 surprise western finalist. They were led by seniors Erik Carlson, the D10 player of the year who threw for 1,600 yards and 20 TDs, and superstar running back/safety Bob Sanders. Sanders missed six weeks of the season with a broken foot, but still had 992 yards rushing and was the best defensive back in the state, while the sophomore Walker had 1,394 yards as his replacement. Rush and Dipre were also two of the best defenders in the state on the defensive line and linebacker, respectively.
After the 1997 and 1998 state title games turned in to coronations early, the 1999 title game was a war. Erie Cathedral Prep opened the game with turnover, when Matt Showalter knocked the ball free from Walker and Bryan Colahan recovered. Picciotti carried four times on the following drive. On his fourth and final carry, he suffered a severely sprained right ankle which ended his evening and CB West career. Suddenly, the Bucks were without their superstar, and more importantly, their entire offensive identity. Not to mention that Phil DiGiacomo was out with ankle injury sustained in the second half of the Bethlehem Catholic game. CB West managed a touchdown to finish the drive, with DiGiacomo’s backup Ryan Blomgren scoring from a yard out on a wingback handoff. The rest of the game turned in to a rock fight.
Without Picciotti, the Cathedral Prep defense, led by Dipre, Rush, and Sanders completely stymied the Bucks offense. At the end of the first quarter, the Ramblers put together their first real drive of the game. From the Bucks 23, Eric Carlson lofted a jump ball in the end zone. It appeared as though Ted Kinyon would come down with the touchdown saving interception, but all state receiver Ed Hinkel went up over Kinyon, and snatched the ball out of his hand to tie the game at 7. Neither team would muster a first down in the second quarter as the defenses completely took over.
After forcing a three-and-out to open the second half, Erie Cathedral Prep put together the only real drive of the day. Sanders ran for 24 yards on the first play of the second half. Facing a third and ten, Carlson hit Josh Lustig for a 12 yard gain, then fired a dart to Lustig to get the Ramblers inside the red zone. Sanders would cap the drive with a 17 yard burst off the right side for a touchdown. However, the Ramblers missed the extra point, to hold only a 13-7 lead. On the ensuing drive, disaster struck the Bucks again. Dave Camburn, the feature back with Picciotti out, had to be helped off of the field with an ankle injury of his own, and suddenly the Bucks were down to no players who had more than five carries in any game that season. Still, their defense had buckled down after that opening drive, and the teams traded punts into the fourth quarter.
CB West’s offense gained their only bit of traction fourth quarter. With less than five minutes remaining, Mike Orihel scrambled and hit Bryan Colahan on a deep post for a 35 yard gain that put the Bucks near the red zone. On the next play, reserve tailback Bobby Warden ripped off a 17 yard run on a toss play down to the Cathedral Prep six. But the Ramblers bulled their necks, stuffing Warden and Orihel on run attempts, dodging a bullet on an incomplete pass, then sacking Orihel on fourth down back at the 15. This gave the ball back with 4:16 to go. The Buck defense, as it had all season, rose to the occasion and stuffed ECP on two run plays, then Ted Kinyon broke up a third down pass to Hinkel, giving CB West a shot at excellent field position and likely one last shot to score.
Hinkel also served as the Rambler punter, and he stood waiting for the snap at his own goal line. Andy Elsing lined up on the left side, which the Bucks had overloaded presnap. He came off the edge untouched and dove from the five yard line as the line drive punt came off of Hinkel’s foot. The ball hit Elsing right in the facemask, and Elsing never broke stride as he picked the ball up at the one yard line and fell into the end zone. Bobby Tumulty nailed the extra point to give CB West a 14-13 lead with 2:53 left in the game. Sanders returned the kickoff to the 40, but after a deep incompletion on first down, Carlson was intercepted by Kinyon on a bomb to the 18 to seal the game.
Pettine called it the greatest win in his career. The Bucks defense held the dynamic Erie Cathedral Prep offense to 176 yards and over 30 points below their season scoring average. After Sanders scored to open the second half, the Ramblers only gained 28 more yards in the second half. Despite losing their three leading rushers, the Bucks found a way to win the football game, with Elsing playing the hero. He finished his career as a varsity football player with a record of 45-0 and three state championships. The Bucks closed the decade with a record of 121-8 and four state championships, including the run of three in a row clinched by the Elsing block.
CB West finished the season ranked #6 in the country by the USA Today. The defense gave up just 5.5 points per game for the season, the lowest of any big school state champion in the 33 years of the tournament. Dustin Picciotti would run away with the AP Player of the Year honors after rushing for 1,748 yards and 34 touchdowns despite most of the stadium knowing he was getting the ball on every snap, running behind an inexperienced offensive line. He was named a second team All American by the USA Today, and was ranked as the #10 overall recruit nationally and the top ranked fullback in the class of 2000. He finished his career as the Bucks all time leader in rushing yards (3,647) and touchdowns (71). He was joined on the All State team Rob Bowser on the first team as a first team offensive tackle, state tournament hero Andy Elsing as a second team defensive end, and linebacker Bryan Colahan as a third team linebacker. Pettine won AP Coach of the Year honors for the fourth time in his career, a record that still stands. The Bucks would take a 45 game winning streak in to the 2000 season, with a chance to break the state record of 53 set by the Bucks from 1984-1988.
The record would not come under Mike Pettine’s watch. On January 13, 2000, the legendary coached retired after 33 years on the CB West sideline. He finished his career with a record of 326-42-4, four state titles in the state playoff era, plus another four “mythical” titles in 1978, 1980, 1984, and 1985. He had three different 30+ game winning streaks in his career, including the 45 straight in his final three years as a head coach. His four state titles are the most of any 4A coach in the state playoff era. Pettine passed away in February of 2017. His son Mike left North Penn to take a film job with the Baltimore Ravens. From there, Pettine would work his way up to defensive coordinator of the New York Jets and head coach of the Cleveland Browns. He is currently the Green Bay Packers’ DC.
We didn’t know it at the time, but the ankle injury in the state final would be an ominous sign of things to come in Dustin Picciotti’s football career. After the season, Picciotti surprised many by selecting Pitt over Ohio State, Michigan, and Syracuse. He was naturally selected to play in the Big 33 game the following summer, but suffered a serious concussion in the game. He returned to field in time for camp with the Panthers, but suffered a second concussion during two-a-days. He returned to play sparingly as a true freshman. He suffered another serious head injury in camp the following summer, which forced him to miss his entire sophomore season and briefly retire from football after suffering from post concussion syndrome. Picciotti eventually transferred to Rhode Island, where he joined former teammates Andy Elsing and Bryan Colahan, and played two seasons for the I-AA Rams, recording seven sacks as a senior.
The story ended up rosier for Orihel. After leading the Bucks back to the state final in 2000 as a third year starter, he signed with I-AA powerhouse New Hampshire. But a shoulder injury during his freshman year caused him to transfer to Rowan. He earned his way into the starting lineup as a freshman, then exploded as a sophomore, throwing for 3,200 yards and 40 touchdowns and leading Rowan to the Division III Final Four. He would take Rowan back to the Final Four as a junior and the Round of 8 as a senior. He finished his career with 8,197 yards passing and 71 touchdowns, both Rowan records. Dave Camburn was second team All State as a defensive back as a senior, then went on to Delaware, where he won a national championship as a strong safety. Phil DiGiacomo was first team All State at running back as a senior, then joined Camburn in the A10 at Villanova. Rob Bowser was a I-AA All American guard at Duquense. And sophomore right tackle Justin Outten, the only 10th grader to start on the ‘99 Bucks offense, would blossom in to the best player of the lot. After earning All State honors in 2000 and 2001, Outten went on to play center for Syracuse. He is now the tight ends coach of the Green Bay Packers, joining Pettine Jr. on staff.
