ALMEDIA – Twice in the last six seasons, a long losing streak has been broken by either Shenandoah Valley or Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech against the other.
On a late-season Tuesday night during the unusual COVID season of 2020, Shenandoah Valley ended a 34-game losing streak with a 37-34 win over the Rams, which marked their first win since early in the 2017 season – over three years.
Then, in the opening game of the 2022 season at CMVT, on a warm late-summer Saturday afternoon just like this afternoon, the Rams scored three unanswered second half touchdowns to break open a one-score game at halftime en route to a 40-14 win over the Blue Devils, which broke a 19-game losing streak and marked their first win since the 2019 season.
On Saturday afternoon, it was once again the Blue Devils’ turn to break a losing streak. Against a team that had defeated it three times in the last four seasons, a more veteran Blue Devil squad scored on its first five possessions of the first half, including a pair of single-play scoring drives, and also added a pair of interception returns for touchdowns, and Shenandoah Valley broke a 26-game losing streak and picked up its first win since 2023 with a 56-6 win over the youthful Rams.
The win is the first for the Blue Devils since a 47-6 win over Hancock (Md.) in September of 2023, and also the first against a Pennsylvania team since a win over CMVT in the 2023 season opener. It also marked the first of third-year head coach Dave Bench’s tenure with the Blue Devils, whose squad is deeper this year in terms of numbers than any Blue Devil squad in recent years. Shenandoah Valley features 18 juniors and seniors on its roster compared to just 12 for the Rams,
“It’s great for them and obviously gives us some momentum going into Schuylkill League play,” said Bench. “CMVT is usually a tough opponent for us and they’ve had our number the last few years. But we showed up strong, were good on defense, and our speedsters showed up making big plays on kickoffs and with some big catches.
“A lot of these guys were freshmen starting on varsity my first year and we were going into some games with 16 or 17 kids on the sideline. We’re actually going to have JV games this year with a roster of 34, probably the first time in over a decade we’re going to have a JV schedule.”
CMVT was stifled offensively in the first half and was held to negative yardage, finishing the half with -7 total yards, including -27 on the ground. Two fumbles on snaps that were recovered were a big part of that. Quarterback Jaxon Hartman, playing in his first ever game under center, had a nice 20-yard completion to Wyatt Bodnar on the Rams’ second drive of the game, resulting in CMVT’s only first down of the first half, but did not complete another pass.
“We made some mistakes but kept plugging away and when some of our older kids go down that puts a strain on us,” said CMVT coach Mark Varner. “But there’s nothing more I can ask of those freshmen and sophomores playing until the last whistle and that’s what they did. We didn’t have anyone on the roster with a rep at quarterback entering the season so we knew we were going to have some growing pains. Obviously, I’m disappointed with the scoreboard but the effort that was on the field in the second half, I really appreciated.”
Meanwhile, Shenandoah Valley converted a pair of fourth downs on its first two drives to extend the possessions and ultimately scored on both drives. Ethan Bench hit Gene Sinkus for eight yards on a fourth-and-7 on the Blue Devils’ first drive to avoid a four-and-out, and three plays later, hit Sinkus again for a 27-yard touchdown pass.
On the Blue Devils’ next drive, Shenandoah Valley was pushed back by a holding penalty on its first play, and faced fourth-and-14 from the CMVT 31. Bench found David Burrous for a 31-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0 with 4:26 left in the first quarter.
“Right off the bat, we stopped them on three downs but then they got that big fourth down play and then we stopped them again and they got another fourth-and-long play,” said Varner. “We looked like we were getting to the plays but then you’ve got to give them credit for making those plays. They are upperclassmen rich and it’s not every week we’re going to see a 6’4, 220 pound quarterback.”
Bench completed 4-of-9 passes for 94 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while Joel Nunez, Mike Elchisak and Jonnuel Reyes combined for 146 rushing yards and three touchdowns on just 10 combined carries – all in the first half.
From there, things spiraled a bit out of control for the Rams. After a subsequent three-and-out, the Rams punted from deep on their end of the field, resulting in the Blue Devils taking over at the Ram 27. On the first play of the Blue Devils’ subsequent drive, Nunez busted loose for a 27-yard touchdown run.
Just two plays from scrimmage later, Burrous picked off Hartman and ran it back for a 22-yard interception return for touchdown to extend the Blue Devils’ lead to 28-0 late in the first quarter.
The second quarter brought a pair of touchdown runs by Elchisak, one a short one from two yards out and the other from 38 yards for Shenandoah Valley’s second single-play scoring drive. Sandwiched in between those two touchdowns was a 40-yard interception return for touchdown by Sinkus.
The Rams narrowly avoided another Blue Devil touchdown late in the second quarter as they stopped them at their 2-yard line just before the halftime horn. But Shenandoah Valley received the second half kickoff and Todd Seiger turned that into a 70-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to put the Blue Devils up 56-0.
“I felt this was kind of a must-win for us. Even though you really don’t hear about must wins in Week 1 most of the time, but when you have that core group that went 0-10 in each of the last two seasons, showing up strong in the first game and holding the team from scoring for the most part, that sets the tone for the season,” said Bench. “It shows all the work is paying off, the younger guys see that so it just starts to grow the program. Hopefully we can continue playing strong like this because the Schuylkill League is tough.”
With a running clock, Cody Zimmerman took over under center for the Rams in the second half, and although he was going up against primarily Shenandoah Valley’s second team defense, he put together a solid afternoon, running for a team-high 57 yards on 15 attempts, and also completing 3-of-7 passes for 40 yards. He engineered a 13-play, 80-yard drive that took up nearly 10 minutes with the running clock, featured a pair of fourth down conversions, five first downs, and ended with his own 16-yard touchdown run to put the Rams on the board and avoid the shutout.
“We came back in the second half and they put their younger kids in, which was really age-matching to what we had on the field and I thought our young guys played well and kept going until the end,” said Varner. “Cody did a great job in the second half and I couldn’t be more thrilled with him.”
Shenandoah Valley 56, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 6
Shenandoah Valley (1-0) 28 21 7 0 – 56
CMVT (0-1) 0 0 0 6 – 6
First quarter
8:14 – (SV) Gene Sinkus 27-yard pass from Ethan Bench (Mentusky kick), 7-44, 2:07
4:26 – (SV) David Burrous 31-yard pass from Ethan Bench (Mentusky kick), 4-27, :52
1:42 – (SV) Joel Nunez 27-yard run (Mentusky kick), 1-27, :10
1:30 – (SV) David Burrous 22-yard interception return (Mentusky kick)
Second quarter
9:48 – (SV) Mike Elchisak 2-yard run (Mentusky kick), 4-53, 1:25
8:46 – (SV) Gene Sinkus 40-yard interception return (Mentusky kick)
6:03 – (SV) Mike Elchisak 38-yard run (Mentusky kick), 1-38, :10
Third quarter
11:46 – (SV) Todd Seiger 70-yard kickoff return (Mentusky kick)
Fourth quarter
7:53 – (VT) Cody Zimmerman 16-yard run (pass failed), 13-80, 9:42
Statistics
SV VT
First downs 10 7
Rushes-net yards 21-156 32-31
Passing yardage 94 60
Passing 4-9-2-0 4-14-0-2
Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-0
Penalties-yards 4-27 0-0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Shenandoah Valley: Joel Nunez (4-60-1), Mike Elchisak (4-44-2), Wiskendy Salas (3-8), Aiden Solano (3-(-5)), Jonnuel Reyes (2-42), Dylan Getz (2-(-1)), Xavier Hernandez (1-10), Ethan Bench (1-1); Alex Riveria (1-(-3)); CMVT: Cody Zimmerman (15-57-1), Elijah Brown (6-6), Gage Cragle (3-(-1)), Keegan Moyer (3-(-8)), Jaxon Hartman (2-(-11), Hoyt Kelley (1-1), Zane Labate (1-0), Team (1-(-14))
PASSING: Shenandoah Valley: Ethan Bench (4-9-94-2-0); CMVT: Cody Zimmerman (3-7-40-0-0), Jaxon Hartman (1-7-20-0-2)
RECEIVING: Shenandoah Valley: Gene Sinkus (2-35-1), David Burrous (1-31-1), Todd Seiger (1-29); CMVT: Wyatt Bodnar (3-47), Alize Jeirles (1-13)