Northern Tier League Roundup – Week 8

Written by: Ed Weaver on Sunday, October 19th, 2014. Follow Ed Weaver on Twitter.

After week 8, there are no more unbeaten teams in the Northern Tier League.

Canton 37, North Penn 36

The Canton Warriors accomplished what no other team has been able to this past Friday night. Beat North Penn. The Warriors scored the game’s opening points late in the first quarter as Tyler Cole punched the ball in from two yards out after a making a big punt return a few plays earlier. After the extra point was missed, Canton held a 6-0 lead.

Canton’s lead would become short lived as just about two minutes later, North Penn’s Bryce Zaparzynski would score a two yard touchdown of his own and then he would convert the two-point conversion to put the Panthers up 8-6. Canton would answer back on their next drive. Cole scored his second touchdown of the night on a 39 yard run after he broke a few tackles to put the Warriors back up 12-8 after they failed to convert the two-point conversion.

North Penn would score twice more before the end of the half. Their first came on a pass from Bo Burleigh to Levi Christman for 27 yards. The conversion attempt failed and the Panthers held a 14-12 lead. That score would increase to 20-12 going into halftime as Burleigh set up a screen pass for Zaparzynski and he 28 yards for the score.

After a Canton fumble on their opening drive of the second half, Burleigh found Christman again in the end zone, this time for four yards to put the Panters up 28-12 after a successful two-point conversion.

From that point on, Canton would score 18 unanswered points to get back into the game. Their first score came on a four yard carry by Noah Barnett with 8:27 left in the third quarter. The two-point attempt failed and North Penn held a 28-18 lead. Cole scored his third rushing touchdown to bring the score to 28-24 on a seven yard run. Canton would eventually take the lead with 1:41 remaining in the game.

The Warriors took control with 6:15 remaining and used the majority of the clock along with converting three third down conversions to eventually find the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown. Cole pounded in his fourth touchdown of the game from 10 yards out. The point after was no good as Canton took a 30-28 lead. North Penn bounced back after being aided by Canton penalties to regain the lead. Burleigh hit Dayton Wood on a 29 yard pass and run in the two-point conversion to take a 36-30 lead with 1:05 remaining.

The Warriors had 75 yards to go, no timeouts, and were without Cole who was ejected from the game on a personal foul on the previous drive. Neither of these things were a factor for the Canton offense who used two huge pass plays, one on third down between Bowman and Bryce Cole for 21 yards and another between Cole and Travis Butcher for 25 yards. The Warriors’ first attempt at a game winner was placed just out of the reach of Moore. The second attempt, with just seven seconds left on the clock, could not have been placed any better.

Bowman threw a ball over the defender’s head and over the shoulder of Moore who would haul it in to tie the game at 36 all. The game was won behind the foot of Route who converted the game winning point after.

Wyalusing 38, Wellsboro 28

The Wellsboro Green Hornets suffered their second NTL Division 1 loss on the year as Wyalusing rushed for 294 yards. The Green Hornets struck first as Levi Mack found the end zone from nine yards out to put the Hornets up 7-0 after Jack Chambers made the extra point with 5:04 remaining in the first quarter.

Wyalusing would answer back after they pinned Wellsboro in their own territory and forced a bad punt. Luke Jennings found the end zone for the first time on the night as he took the ball 24 yards to the house to tie the game at 7-7 with 10:25 remaining in the second quarter. The Hornets would rebound on their following drive to take back the lead. After a few runs by Mack and a 16 yard gain by Senior Quarterback Michael Pietropola on fourth down, Pietropola hit Mack on a middle screen that got Wellsboro down to the Rams nine-yard line. On the next play Pietropola found Junior Anthony Cooper in the back of the end zone. The snap on the extra point was bad but Freshman Quinn Henry picked the ball up and hit Junior Nick Tremper for a two-point conversion to take a 15-7 lead with 7:00 remaining in the first half.

The Rams would bring the score to 15-14 five plays later as Ryan Kipp scored from nine yards out. Wyalusing would then take the lead with 14 seconds left in the first half on a 30 yard field goal by Warner Mendoza to take a 17-15 lead at the half after the Rams got the ball inside the Wellsboro 10-yard line after another bad punt.

Wyalusing would score on their first drive of the second half as Jennings caught a pass from Justin Haley and raced 77 yards to the end zone to go up 24-15 with 10:26 remaining in the third quarter. Wellsboro would answer back on their opening drive as Pietropola converted passes to Seniors Nick Levindoski and Nick Marple and with a 16 yard run by Mack, the Hornets found themselves on the Wyalusing six-yard line before Pietropola found Senior Kieron Smethers to trail Wyalusing 24-21.

Jennings found the end zone for the third time, after the Rams forced back-to-back turnovers, as he carried the football 17 yards to put the Rams up 31-21 with 6:30 remaining in the game. Wellsboro would take to the air on their next drive and found themselves at the Rams’ five-yard line after Pietorpola hit Smethers with a 39 yard pass. After a Wyalusing penalty in the end zone moved the ball to the three-yard line, Pietropola ran the ball in a touchdown two plays later and the Hornets trailed 31-28. The score would be the Hornets last on the night.

Wyalusing put the nail in the coffin on the next drive when Jennings snuck through the Hornets defense for a 52 yard touchdown on third-and-two to take the 38-28 lead.

Sayre 48, Montgomery 19

After being tied 13-13 at the half, Sayre scored out scored the Red Raiders 35-6 in the second half to claim the NTL Division 2 victory. Sayre scored five straight touchdowns, starting with a 23-yard William Hudock run at the 10:20 mark of the third quarter. After the JP Harbst point after, Sayre led 20-13. A Matt Ingrassia 5-yard run five minutes later put the Redskins up 27-13 after Harbst’s kick, then 10 seconds into the fourth quarter Ward scored on a 23-yard touchdown run to make it 34-13 after Harbst’s point after. Ingrassia then scored on a 21-yard touchdown run followed by Harbst punching one in from a yard out to put Sayre up 48-13.

Montgomery scored their lone points of the second half on a 36 yard touchdown strike from Sergi Cole to Keanu Sauers with no time left on the clock to make it a 48-19 final.

Troy 43, Towanda 28

It was the tale of two halves between Troy and Towanda. The first half of Friday’s game was the Noah Huff show as the Towanda quarterback scored three touchdowns and racked up more than 250 yards of total offense in the half. Troy had few answers for Huff and weren’t able to get anything going offensively as they trailed 21-0.

After the half everything changed as the Trojans scored 43 second-half points on their way to a 43-28 victory on Friday night in Towanda’s Homecoming game. The second half started out with a bang for Troy as Brandon Mattocks took the opening kickoff back 91 yards and just 11 seconds into the half Troy had cut the 21-0 deficit to 21-7. The Trojans cut into the lead even more later in the third quarter when Nick Stephani scored on a 10-yard run with 3:42 left in the quarter. The extra point failed and it was 21-13 Towanda.

Early in the fourth quarter the Trojans tied the ball as Ben Sherman ran in from 24 yards out and Mattocks had the two-point run. With 11:05 left in the fourth it was 21-21. Just over a minute later Troy took the lead as Towanda went to punt from deep in their own territory and Schucker busted in and blocked the kick for the safety to make it 23-21. Troy took the kick after the safety and went right back to work as Sherman ran in from 51 yards out and just 51 seconds after they took the lead the Trojans were up 30-21 after the Stephani extra point.

Towanda got back to within two points as Huff raced 80 yards to the end zone to bring the score to 30-28. Troy added two more scores to finish off the night, both by Mattocks. Mattocks scored on a 16 yard run with 5:38 left and the extra point failed after picking up nine yards on a fake punt on fourth down and with 3:05 left Mattocks had a 54 yard scoring run to close out the game.

Athens 40, Cowanesque Valley 0

A week after defeating Wyalusing, Athens kept their momentum alive as they shut out Cowanesque Valley. The Wildcats wasted no time in keeping the momentum on their side as Brandon Sturzenegger gave the Indians a raw deal on his 64-yard touchdown for a score with a run down the sideline on the second play of the game. Austin Lister added the PAT for an early 7-0 lead. The Indians responded on the following kickoff as Ethan Mead returned the ball down to the Wildcats’ nine-yard line, but were unable to produce any points.

Athens then turned to Sturzenegger, the Wildcats’ running man, on the next series. Sturzenegger carried the ball seven times on the 12-play drive for 41 yards before scoring on a three yard run. Tyler Forbes narrowly missed scoring on the conversion attempt as he slid just outside of the left side pylon. CV responded with an 11-play drive with Mead carrying the ball seven times for 27 yards and Connor Calaman adding 20 yards on three carries. However, once again, the Wildcat defense tightened up in the red zone and stop the Indians on downs at the 15-yard line.

Athens scored to make it 20-0 when Tyler Forbes converted on third-and-10 at their own 15-yard line when he hit Kalen Keathley, who raced 85 yards for a touchdown just before the end of the first half. Athens and CV traded possessions for much of the second half before the Wildcats’ Payton Lewis scored to make it 33-0 in the fourth quarter. A few minutes later, Lewis broke tackles up the middle of the CV defense before getting away with an 87 yard touchdown with just over a minute left in the game to push the score to 40-0.

Ed Weaver is the creator of WellsboroAthletics.com and WellsboroFootball.com. You can follow him on Twitter, friend him on Facebook, or add him to your circles on Google+.

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