ALMEDIA – Leading 15-0 late in the first quarter and facing a third-and-29 from its own 31 after a big loss due to a bad snap and a pair of penalties, Cowanesque Valley again fumbled the snap. It was picked up off the turf by running back Keegan Lane, who pitched it at the last second to Levi Stahli, who in turn threw a deep ball that barely eluded the Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech defensive back and was caught by Dave Hess, who spun around and ran it all the way to the end zone for a 69-yard touchdown reception. That score made it 21-0 late in the first quarter.
That play perfectly encompassed the afternoon for both Cowanesque Valley and CMVT. Even when things didn’t appear to be favorable for the Indians, they still ended up with a favorable result. On the other end, next to nothing went well for the Rams, who have been battered by injuries the last few weeks and forced to play people out of position or inexperienced players.
All of those factors resulted in a thorough domination by Cowanesque Valley, as the Indians blanked the Rams, 63-0.
“We’ve had a rough couple of weeks with injuries, sickness, things like that, so we really needed this,” said Cowanesque Valley coach Jacob Lane. “We only had 18 kids suited up today so we’re still a little light, but they played together today and played hard from the snap of the ball to the whistle.
“We had some new guys in new positions this week so we expected some mistakes but I was glad to see how even in the face of mistakes and errors, they all still kept rolling and didn’t put their heads down but kept moving.”
About the only thing that went wrong for the Indians was penalties, as they were penalized 18 times for 125 yards.
But Cowanesque Valley more than made up for that by holding CMVT to just 89 yards of offense as the Rams never came close to the end zone, managing just five first downs. And unlike the last few weeks when the Rams put up some passing yards in lieu of their usually strong running game, CMVT wasn’t able to muster up much offense through the air either, only managing 68 passing yards, and they also committed four turnovers.
Even more problematic for the Rams was their inability to tackle consistently on defense, as the Indians put up 469 yards of offense. Cowanesque Valley also scored off three of the Rams’ turnovers, putting together two scoring drives of a single play, and two other scoring drives that required just two plays.
“When you have a hard time running the ball and teams can tee off on you, that’s the kind of day you have,” said CMVT coach Mark Varner. “ We have to figure out a way to at least get a small running game going, so we’re just going to turn the page, look onto the next game and keep going.
“It seemed like we were a step slow, but they were aggressive, so you have to give them credit,” said Varner. “We were a little slow to the ball and we were reaching instead of moving our feet, so we’ll work on that this week.”
The Indians scored on seven of their first eight possessions. Even on the one drive that they didn’t score – their first of the game – they were stopped on downs at the CMVT 9-yard line, and three plays later, sacked Myles Koser in the end zone for a safety to open the scoring at the 6:12 mark of the first quarter.
From there, it was rapid fire for the Indian offense, as they scored touchdowns on their next seven possessions.
Hess accounted for four touchdowns on the afternoon as he caught two, ran for one and also threw for one, three of which came in the first quarter alone. Following the recovered fumble on the broken play late in the first quarter, Lane would later score four touchdowns – three rushing and one receiving – and finish with 128 rushing yards on eight carries.
CMVT, meanwhile, didn’t manage a first down until about midway through the second quarter and had just five first downs in the contest. That wasn’t helped by Koser, who has been bothered by a shoulder injury the last few weeks and has missed a few offensive series in the last two games, having to leave the the game with the shoulder injury late in the second quarter and this time, he didn’t return.
Following their initial offensive possession of the game, which came after recovering an onside kick on the opening kickoff in Cowanesque Valley territory, the Rams only ran three offensive plays the rest of the game on the Indians’ side of the field – all coming in the fourth quarter.
“We’re also reaching for blocks just like we are on tackles instead of moving our feet and blocking with leverage,” said Varner. “When you tackle and block with leverage, you make them, but when you reach for them, they run through it and you miss them. It doesn’t matter who we have in the backfield at the moment, when they get to the line of scrimmage, the defensive players are facing them, and no back is going to run through that, so we need to keep working on staying in contact with the defensive players and just moving our feet and keeping them locked up.”
Cowanesque Valley 63, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 0
Cowanesque Valley (3-4) 21 23 12 7 – 63
CMVT (3-4) 0 0 0 0 – 0
First quarter
6:12 – (CV) Team Safety
5:40 – (CV) Dave Hess 25-yard run (Churchill kick), 1-15, :32
5:15 – (CV) Camden Stahli 22-yard pass from Dave Hess (kick failed), 2-22, :25
:35 – (CV) Dave Hess 69-yard pass from Levi Stahli (kick failed), 3-50, 2:47
Second quarter
8:09 – (CV) Kegan Lane 7-yard run (Lane run), 4-42, 2:21
6:42 – (CV) Kegan Lane 35-yard run (Churchill pass from Hess), 1-35, :09
1:49 – (CV) Dave Hess 1-yard pass from Levi Stahli (Churchill kick), 7-29, 3:00
Third quarter
8:04 – (CV) Kegan Lane 21-yard pass from Levi Stahli (run failed), 5-41, 3:56
1:01 – (CV) Kegan Lane 38-yard run (kick blocked), 2-45, 1:18
Fourth quarter
2:36 – (CV) Stevie Olson 20-yard run (Churchill kick), 7-70, 4:50
Statistics
CV VT
First downs 17 5
Rushes-net yards 27-278 26-21
Passing yardage 191 68
Passing 8-14-4-0 6-16-0-1
Fumbles-lost 2-0 3-3
Penalties-yards 18-125 2-10
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Cowanesque Valley: Kegan Lane (8-128-3), Levi Stahli (6-3), Max Millard (6-68), Dave Hess (5-59-1), Stevie Olson (1-20-1), Brody Bruce (1-0); CMVT: Matthew Allen (7-15), Charlie Sego (7-12), Myles Koser (4-(-15)), Zane Labate (3-5), Keegan Moyer (2-3), Liam Patraw (2-2), Team (1-(-1))
PASSING: Cowanesque Valley: Levi Stahli (6-9-131-3-0), Dave Hess (2-5-60-1-0); CMVT: Myles Koser (3-8-24-0-1), Charlie Sego (3-8-44-0-0)
RECEIVING: Cowanesque Valley: Dave Hess (3-75-2), Camden Stahli (3-69-1), Gavin Churchill (1-26), Kegan Lane (1-21-1); CMVT: Blake Sponenberg (2-52), Axton Koser (2-14), Charlie Sego (1-1), Matthew Allen (1-1)