SHARON, Pa. — The Sharon High School football team is preparing for a playoff game Monday night, just three days after two of its players were killed in a car crash.
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday to mourn the teenagers killed just one day before their first playoff game in years was scheduled.
Corey Swartz, 17, and Evan Gill, 17, were killed when the SUV they were riding in with two other teammates crossed the center line of East Connelly Boulevard and struck a pickup truck, officials said.
The team will dedicate Monday’s game to all four students involved in the crash, as well as the driver of the other car.
The two injured Sharon football players, twin brothers Greg Osmon, 17, and Craig Osmon, 17, were last listed in critical but stable condition.
Father and husband John Zdelar was driving the truck the boys crashed into and was also killed. Officials said his young son was in the car with him and is currently being treated at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
“All the kids are really upset. Right now, we’re kind of at the numb stage,” Zdelar’s wife Kim said.
Saturday’s high school football playoff game between the Sharon Tigers and Girard Yellow Jackets was rescheduled for 7 p.m. Monday in light of the tragedy, and flags at the Sharon football field were lowered to half-staff in tribute to the players killed. Monday’s game is Sharon High School’s first playoff game in three years.
Channel 11’s Amy Marcinkiewicz talked with Gill’s aunt, Susan Steach, before she boarded a bus to go to Monday night’s game.
“(The community) has really come out for us,” Steach said. “It’s a terrible loss, but we will get through it with the help of this community.”
The team wore shirts honoring Swartz and Gill on Monday as they boarded buses to go to the game.
“Evan was a great kid and we will keep his memory with us. He will live on in all of us,” Gill’s cousin, Mike Steach, said.
"They were all quality, true student athletes. Good kids. Popular in school, popular in the community. They were just good kids," said Sharon High School Athletic Director Paul Torr.
“They exemplified what you would want in a young man. They were unselfish, they worked hard, they were well-liked by their teammates, their classmates. We've lost two great young men,” said Sharon High School football coach Jim Wildman.