Penns Valley football wins second straight, best four-win Bearcats
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SPRING MILLS – Less than two minutes removed from halftime, the Penns Valley football team stood deadlocked in a 6-6 tie against a solid Class 3A squad in Huntingdon. Pushing for their second straight win, the Rams would have to do more offensively in the second half. Or, they could make the most of the time they had left in the first.
Penns Valley (3-6) would choose the latter, scoring a touchdown, forcing a three-and-out and scoring another touchdown before the second-quarter clock hit triple-zeros. Both touchdowns were accompanied by two-point conversions, and the Rams would use that surge to propel themselves to a 30-18 win over the Bearcats.
"I think that it was a really strong performance from our team," said Penns Valley head coach Martin Tobia on the win. "This was another week where they stepped up and did a really good job."
"I think it was in large part due to our execution. We were really able to put together some drives and make some big plays as a part of that, and our defense really stepped up and did a nice job containing a good Huntingdon team," he added.
Offensively, sophomore quarterback Cael Smith went into the contest with 11 passing touchdowns and came out of it with three more. He connected with Spencer Althouse twice for touchdowns of 27 and 59 yards, the latter coming within that late span in the second quarter. And just before halftime, he found tight end Emery Reed from 11 yards out for the trifecta.
Althouse made up two of the team's three successful two-point conversions on the night and capped Penns Valley's scoring with a 65-yard touchdown on a punt return to up the team's lead to 30-6 in the third. And Reed made up the third two-point conversion on a rush and added fumble recovery to his list of stats, contributing to the turnover deep in Penns Valley's territory to keep Huntingdon scoreless through one.
The defense was what impressed Tobias most on the night, as the Rams held a solid Huntingdon offense to 18 points – six through the first three quarters – to stay a few steps ahead. Though prolific running back Cole Lane had a second-quarter score, Penns Valley prevented the back from becoming a problem throughout the night.
"Our defense really put in a gutsy performance, so I was pleased with that," said Tobias. "A lot of it comes back to fundamentals. They've continued to practice every day and work hard on the fundamentals. They're also playing well together as a unit, and the combination of those two things has been key."
In the fourth, the Bearcats got two touchdowns on the board to narrow the gap to two scores. But Penns Valley's run game would allow it to finish the job, running out the last five minutes to seal the victory.
With the win, the Rams (3-6) remain in decent standing when it comes to clinching a playoff berth, staying in the No. 8 slot of the District 6 Class AA standings. Three teams in the field have 3-6 records, so a must-win awaits the team at Somerset in Week 10 if it hopes to secure a spot, though that's not the team's only motivator.
"It's not something that we've really talked about. We've just tried to focus on improving from week to week," said. Tobias. "If it happens, it happens."