CURWENSVILLE – The fans who showed up at Riverside Stadium on Friday night were given plenty to discuss on the way home as the Curwensville Area High School football team fell to visiting Brockway 17-12. The Golden Tide came out throwing the ball early and often in a very balanced attack that just ran out of time in a questionable conclusion.
“It seems like we just can’t put a whole game together,” mentioned Tide head coach Andy Evanko. “We play great in either the first half or the second half. If this team puts a complete game together they could do great things.”
Friday night the Tide’s solid half was the second as they found themselves down 17-6 at halftime. In the second half, Curwensville allowed the Rovers just one first down and gave up just 52 yards rushing. Meanwhile, the offense ran for 118 yards and passed for 93 more, but could find the end zone only once to come up short in the end.
Brockway scored first on their opening drive after winning the coin toss. The 11-play running drive moved the ball to the Curwensville 10 yard line where Phil Esposito connected on a 27-yard field goal. The initial drive ate up 6:12 of the quarter before the hosts could touch the ball.
The Golden Tide shocked everyone on its opening possession by throwing the ball four straight times to move the ball to the Brockway 32-yard line. Junior quarterback Hunter McCracken found senior Jesse Zorger for catches of 11 and 17 yards respectively to jump start the drive. Senior running back Alex Holland picked up 18 yards on his first haul to the 14. However, the drive fizzled due to a bobbled snap, a tipped pass attempt and a final pass fell incomplete on a fourth-and-seven play from the 11-yard line.
The defense held the visitors to just five yards after the turnover on downs and watched a punt roll dead at the Curwensville 45-yard line. After three downs of their own,two of them pass plays, the Tide gained just one yard. However, while in punt formation, Holland received a direct snap that resulted in a 36 yard gain. After the fake punt, Holland covered the final 18 yards on his own in six carries to put his team in the lead 6-3 with 8:40 left in the half.
Before halftime, however, Brockway would score twice to hold the 17-6 advantage. Rover quarterback Kyle Braun rambled for a 34 yard score on a third-and-11 play at the 3:22 mark. The second score followed an interception by senior backer Levi Miller that gave the visitors a short field at the Curwensville 38. Four plays later Tom Vervoort bounced in from five yards out with just :41 left in the first half. Esposito drilled both PAT attempts.
“We just couldn’t seem to stop Braun in the first half,” Evanko admitted. “You’ve got to come out ready to play every game, especially at Riverside Stadium in front of great fans and a great atmosphere.”
Braun finished the first half with 12 rushes for 125 yards and a score.
What the Golden Tide needed was a halftime to regroup, and the offense brought life back into the stadium immediately in the third quarter. Two plays gave the hometown hopeful the notion that things were going to be different in the second 24 minutes of the game. Zorger took the second half kick-off from the five to the 28-yard line where the offensive line and lead blocking needed one snap to ignite the crowd. Holland followed fullback Brad Coudriet threw a huge hole on the right side, Coudriet met the outside backer head-on and Holland outran everyone for a 72-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 17-12.
Brockway managed one first down on its opening drive of the second half before having to punt the ball back to Curwensville. It was the Rovers last first down of the game.
Unfortunately for Curwensville, they held very poor field position for much of the rest of the game. Good punting, untimely penalties, and a stingy Brockway defense was enough to hold the Tide at bay. Curwensville’s final hope started on their own 17-yard line with 1:25 left in the game.
On first down of the final drive the junior connection of McCracken and Jordan Russell caused a huge commotion. Russell, in one-on-one coverage to the left side, pulled in a quick pass, dipped to the inside and then scampered down the sideline for what appeared to be the go-ahead score. However, it was ruled that he stepped out at the Tide 39. Curwensville would go to the air the rest of the game.
Coudriet picked up nine yards on the first down, but couldn’t get out of bounds. Russell then pulled in a seven yard gain and slid out to stop the clock with under a minute to play. Coudriet added 11 yards to his total as the clock stopped again with :36 left on the Brockway 34.
On the next play, Curwensville was flagged for offensive pass interference – a 15-yard penalty and a loss of down. The second-and-25 pass had Holland open deep over the middle, but missed the mark. On third down, McCracken looked to Zorger, who was triple-teamed, but pulled in the 23-yard pass play two yards short of the first down that would have stopped the clock to move the chains.
It appeared that the Tide might have had time for one more play – spiking the ball was not an option on fourth down. However, the ball never was set by the officials and time ran out with McCracken under center waiting for the ref to release the ball.
“The guys hustled into position, we wanted to get off the snap, but the whistle never came,” Evanko lamented.
McCracken finished the night 11-of-25 for 120 yards and two interceptions. Zorger caught 4 passes for 51 yards, Russell totaled 49 yards on five receptions and Coudriet caught two passes for 20 yards.
Holland was the only back to carry the ball for Curwensville in the game covering 209 yards on 28 carries. Braun finished the game with 20 carries for 163 yards with Vervoort adding 40 yards on 11 touches and Melillo posting 39 yards on eight carries.
The loss drops the Golden Tide into a three-way tie for second place in the AML-South Division. Elk County Catholic holds the top spot in the South with a 5-1 mark after defeating Kane 13-6 on Friday. Brockway and Curwensville now stand at 4-2 with Ridgway, who dumped winless Johnsonburg 39-0.
Curwensville’s road doesn’t get any easier as they travel to meet the Elkers next Friday before visiting the Crusaders in two weeks.
Score by Quarters
Brockway – 3 14 0 0 – 17
Curwensville – 0 6 6 0 – 12
BOX SCORE
1st Quarter
Brockway: 27-yard field goal by Esposito, 5:48
2nd Quarter
Curwensville: 2-yard run by Holland (kick failed), 8:40
Brockway: 34-yard run by Braun (Espisito kick), 3:22
Brockway: 5-yard run by Vervoort (Espisito kick), 00:41
3rd Quarter
Curwensville: 72-yard run by Holland (pass failed), 11:42
4th Quarter
No scoring
GAME STATISTICS
Brockway / Curwensville
FIRST DOWNS: 9 / 13
RUSH YARDS: 241 / 209
PASS YARDS: 0 / 120
TOTAL YARDS: 241 / 329
PENALTIES: 8 / 4
PENALTY YARDS: 55 / 17
COMP/ATT/TD/INT: 2-0-0-0/ 12-25-0-2
FUMBLES: 0 / 0
FUMBLES LOST: 0 / 0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
BROCKWAY: Braun -20 carries, 163 yards, 1 TD; Vervoot-11 carries, 40 yards, 1 TD; Melillo-8 carry, 39 yards; Team-1 carries, (-1) yards; TOTALS: 40 carries, 241 yards, 2 TD’s.
CURWENSVILLE: Holland-28 carries, 209 yards, 2 TD’s.
PASSING
BROCKWAY: Braun-2 attempts, 0 completions, 0 yards.
CURWENSVILLE: McCracken – 25 attempts, 12 completions, 120 yards, 2 interceptions.
RECEIVING
BROCKWAY: none .
CURWENSVILLE: Zorger – 4 receptions , 51 yards; Russell – 5 receptions, 49 yards; Courdriet-2 receptions, 20 yards; Greslick-1 reception, 0 yards; TOTALS: 12 receptions, 120 yards.