CURWENSVILLE – Needing a win over Brockway Friday night at Riverside Stadium to hold onto the fourth seed in the upcoming District 9 “A” playoffs was what was on the line for the Curwensville Area High School football team.
Unfortunately, the Rovers spoiled the evening for the Golden Tide with a 24-14 victory.
The loss drops Curwensville to the fifth seed in the playoffs with a 6-4 record. The Golden Tide will play next weekend, Friday or Saturday, yet to be determined, on the road either at Elk County Catholic (ECC) or Redbank Valley.
Curwensville defeated Redbank Valley earlier this season 37-21, while losing to ECC in the season opener 37-14.
Brockway, a “AA” squad, finishes its regular season at 8-2.
The Rovers struck first against the Tide with a Jon Wood 12 yard run with 13 seconds remaining in the quarter and Zane Puhala added the extra point to make it 7-0 Brockway after one.
Brockway took a 14-0 lead with 7:50 to go before halftime on another Wood score, this time from 13 yards out and again Puhala booted the PAT.
The Tide didn’t go away though, as it scored a touchdown with 4:15 to play before the break on a Cole Bressler one yard dive. However the extra point attempt was missed, but Curwensville was alive and well, trailing just 14-6. Bressler ended the game with 71 rushing yards for the Tide.
Hopes for the Golden Tide were somewhat dampened when the Rovers scored with just six seconds remaining in the second quarter on a Peter Downer 11 yard pass to Wood, his third TD of the first half. Once again Puhala made good on the point after and the Rovers took a 21-6 margin into the third quarter.
Neither squad added points to the scoreboard in the third quarter.
Curwensville once again got back into the battle at 8:46 of the final 12 minutes when senior Blake Passarelli scored on a 20 yard run and then ran in the two point conversion. Passarelli ending up leading the Tide in rushing with 76 yards on 13 carries.
Now it was 21-14 in favor of the Rovers.
But with 3:47 left, Puhala gave Brockway a 10 point lead with a 21 yard field goal to make it 24-14 which would be the final score.
For the Rovers, Wood had close to 200 yards of offense for the game – 112 yards rushing and 70 yards receiving.
This writer would like to thank Rusty McCracken for providing the stats and other information for the past two Curwensville football stories here on Gantdaily.
SCORING SUMMARY
BROCKWAY 7 14 0 3 24
CURWENSVILLE 0 6 0 8 14
1ST QUARTER
BKWY :13 Jon Wood 12 yard run. Zane Puhala PAT 0 7
2ND QUARTER
BKWY 7:50 Wood 13 yard run. Puhala PAT 0 14
CURW 4:15 Cole Bressler one yard run. PAT failed 6 14
BKWY :06 Peter Downer 11 yard pass to Wood. Puhala PAT 6 21
4TH QUARTER
CURW 8:46 Blake Passarelli 20 yard run. Passarelli two point conversion run 14 21
BKWY 3:47 Puhala 21 yard field goal 14 24
