CURWENSVILLE — It was a similar situation for the Curwensville Golden Tide this year as it was last year. With one game remaining in the regular season, they had the opportunity to with the Allegany Mountain League title in the southern division. However, their trip to Kane to face the Wolves was met with a crushing defeat; one that many players on this year’s squad remember.
Fast forward one year later, Kane travels to Riverside Stadium with hopes of a repeat performance. Unfortunately, Curwensville had other ideas. Using the ground attack and a strong defense, the Tide forced their first shutout of the 2009 season, blanking the visiting Wolves 15-0 for their first AML South title since 2006.
Head coach Andy Evanko was more than pleased as a huge smile was on his face outside the locker room.
“This was a really big win for us. Kane is a very tough football team, but the kids played so well. This is a big win for the kids,” said Evanko.
It was big in that the Tide defense held the Wolves to only 155 yards total offense, including just eight yards on the ground. On the other side of the ball, Curwensville’s workhorse of their run game, Jed Greslick, carried the ball the most times in one game this year. Greslick would end the night with 184 yards on 38 carries including the game’s two lone touchdowns.
“Jed ran hard, long and often tonight, but you have to credit the kids up front. Spencer Smeal, Kyle Scribe, Jonathan Michaels, Jake Pentz, just everybody on the line did their job,” Evanko said.
What Kane did not account for on the ground, they did make up for in the air. Quarterback Alex Anderson finished the night 14 of 31 passing for 147 yards. However, that was the lone highlight for the Wolves as they were shut out for the entire 48 minutes of play.
Curwensville got the ball first as Kane elected to defer to the second half, and right away it was clear what Curwensville’s game plan for the night would be. The first drive of the game would consume nearly four and a half minutes of the game clock as the Tide ran the ball right down the field.
After ten run plays, nine of which went to Greslick, he capped off the drive on a scamper from seven yards away to put the first points on the board. Greslick would also run in the two-point conversion, giving the Tide an early 8-0 advantage.
Kane’s ensuing possession would also be a time consuming drive. Using a combination of running from both Arie Paup and Anderson, along with three key pass completions, the Wolves worked their way into Curwensville territory, however, a sack by Kyle Barrett and a holding penalty pushed them back, and they were forced to punt.
Curwensville would not fair as well on their second possession as they were stopped on fourth down just past mid-field, which gave Kane their first big break of the night.
The Wolves would get the ball with just over ten minutes left in the second period, and with the help of a costly Curwensville penalty, drove down to the Tide 9-yard line. But the defense stood it’s ground, only allowing them an opportunity for a field goal. Jared Klinger came out to put points on the board, however his kick sailed right of the uprights, leaving Kane empty handed after a long drive.
On the ensuing possession, Curwensville decided to grind out the clock yet again. Using all run plays except for two incomplete pass attempts by Sam Gardner, Greslick ran the ball right at the Wolves defense, pushing the tacklers away attempting to get more yards.
Finally, on a 1st-and-goal from the Wolves 3, Greslick appeared to be stopped at the line of scrimmage. However he managed to break a couple tackles and reached the ball past the goal line for his second touchdown. The extra point left the score 15-0 heading into halftime.
The second half was all about ball control. In the third quarter, each team had two possessions, but neither team would manage any momentum as they shared both a punt and turnover on downs each.
In the fourth quarter, Kane got some momentum in their favor after a punt return left them with a short field. Starting at the 50, the Wolves drove the ball down the field off the arm of Anderson, making it down to the Curwensville 5. Two key stops by the Tide defense left Kane facing a 3rd-and-goal at the 6 yard line.
It was then that the Wolves made a key mistake. Anderson’s pass to Bruce Waters was broken up by Greslick, but Waters began taunting Greslick as he was on the ground in a pile with other Wolves’ players. That happened in front of the referee, and forced an unsportsmanlike penalty, pushing the ball back to the Tide 22 for the fourth down attempt. The defense came up big again as Curwensville deflected the pass and forced the turnover on downs.
Unfortunately for Curwensville, that defensive celebration would be short lived as Gardner threw an interception on the next drive right to linebacker Robert Kumher. But, Curwensville was not going to let this one slip away as Anderson was sacked twice on the ensuing drive, giving Curwensville the ball back once again.
Curwensville could not get anything going on the drive and was forced to punt. But, Daniel Hess booted a very high and long punt that sailed out of bounds deep in Kane territory, leaving the Wolves a long field and little time to work.
Starting at the 11, Kane moved the ball efficiently on the ground, but needed to make some passes to get any chance of a score. The Tide defense would have none of that as they forced four incompletes.
On the last Kane possession Alec Starr had a sack on first down for Curwensville, which forced the Wolves to abandon the run game and go to the air. It was not to be as Curwensville forced two incomplete passes, forcing another turnover on downs.
The Tide would run out the final 2:42 of the game on runs by Greslick and Alex Holland.
Curwensville (7-2) now has it’s first AML South title in three years, and Evanko was excited for his team to have a chance at the overall title.
“This is a great opportunity for us. We just want to keep playing football. We’ll go in, try to have a good week of practice, and hope for a similar result,” Evanko said.
The one advantage for Curwensville is that the AML title game will be played at home, a fact that Evanko was very pleased with.
“We’re very happy we’ll be playing here at Riverside Stadium,” Evanko said. “There’s no better place to be on a Friday night in November.”
The AML Title game will be played either next Friday or Saturday night. Curwensville will rematch with Cameron County, which defeated the Tide in overtime earlier this year.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th FINAL
KANE 0 0 0 0 0
CURWENSVILLE 8 7 0 0 15
BOX SCORE
1st Quarter
C: 7-yard run by Greslick (2 pt. conversion good), 7:34
2nd Quarter
C: 3-yard run by Greslick (Greslick kick good), 0:03
GAME STATISTICS
KANE CURWENSVILLE
FIRST DOWNS: 13 16
RUSH YARDS: 8 279
PASS YARDS: 147 5
TOTAL YARDS: 155 284
PENALTIES: 4 6
PENALTY YARDS: 28 60
COMP/ATT/TD/INT: 14/31/0/0 1/4/0/1
TIME OF POSSESSION: 19:07 28:53
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
KANE: Paup-12 carries, 26 yards; Eckstrom-3 carries, 9 yards; Depto-1 carry, 14 yards
CURWENSVILLE: Greslick-38 carries, 184 yards, 2 TD; Holland-11 carries, 65 yards; Gardner-2 carries, 23 yards
PASSING
KANE: Anderson-14 for 31, 147 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
CURWENSVILLE: Gardner-1 for 4, 5 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
RECEIVING
KANE: Holt-4 catches, 54 yards; Paup-3 catches, 36 yards; Depto-3 catches, 27 yards
CURWENSVILLE: Holland-1 catch, 5 yards