BETHLEHEM – There should be no doubt that Allentown Central Catholic’s duo is the best quarterback to wide receiver combo in state history. Brendan Nosovitch threw for eight touchdowns. Five went to Kevin Gulyas including the 23-yard, game winning catch with 31 seconds remaining in a 61-54 victory over Valley View (11-2) in a first round of the PIAA State Class 3A playoffs at BASD Stadium Friday night.
Next week Allentown Central Catholic will face the District Four champion Shamokin who defeated District Nine champion Clearfield 27-26 in overtime. A site and time will be determined.
Allentown Central Catholic’s (8-5) first score came off a turnover by Valley View. The Vikings came right out and needed only two plays. Nosovitch hit Jalen Snyder-Scipio for 63 yards for the score. Tim DiGiacomo’s extra point put ACC up 7-0.
“We came out firing right from the start,” said Brendan Nosovitch. “It was a crazy game. It was an awesome feeling.”
Tyler Phillips of Valley View scored on runs of 33 and 57 and Nosovitch threw two more touchdowns in the quarter. He hit Snyder-Scipio for a five-yard pass and Kevin Guylas for a 65-yard bomb.
After a wild first quarter the Vikings led 20-14.
Valley View’s Tony Rovinski intercepted a Nosovitch pass late in the first half with his team trailing 33-21. The Cougars drove right down the field and with six seconds remaining in the first half Liam Callejas hit Nyeem Wartman for a 15-yard pass. The Cougars trailed by five at halftime, 33-28.
In the first half Nosovitch threw for 274 yards and five touchdowns.
Valley View’s first lead of the night came when Callejas faked the handoff to Tyler Kapinus and flew down the sidelines for the 65-yard score. The Cougars led 34-33 with 11:07 left in the third quarter.
The Vikings answered right back. Nosovitch hit Gulyas who fought his way into the end zone for the 30-yard touchdown pass.
Valley View scored the next two times. Kapinas had a 13-yard run and Phillips’ 52-yard gallop put the Cougars up 48-40 with 4:05 left in the third quarter.
The Vikings defense started to assert itself in the second half. RJ Taylor intercepted a short pass from Callejas and the Vikings capitalized on the turnover. Nosovitch scrambled 18-yards for the score to pull the Vikings within one, 48-47.
Sndyer-Scipio ended another Cougars drive intercepting another Callejas pass in the end zone. With the ball on their 20 Nosovitch hit Guylas in stride and he took it 80-yards for the score. The Vikings led 54-48 with 10:02 remaining in the game.
Valley View continued to pound the ball and Pat Jeffers bulled his way in from nine-yards out. The Vikings blocked the extra point and the game was knotted up at 54 with 6:44 left in the game.
The Vikings got an early Christmas present, recovering a fifth Valley View fumble on their 34-yard line with 2:33 left in the game.
Head coach Harold Fairclough said, “These kids battled and kept fighting. I told the kids at halftime we had to finish this game like champions. These kids did it today.”
Facing a fourth down and their season on the line, the Vikings’ duo of Nosovitch and Gulyas hooked up one more time for a 23-yard pass with 31 seconds remaining in the game. The Vikings led 61-54.
Nosovitch said, “I saw Kevin come across the field and I put it up for him to catch it and he made a great catch.”
With five seconds remaining and Valley View within striking range, it was Vikings’ defensive lineman Jeffrey Gulyas who had a crushing hit on Callejas that ended the Cougars hopes of upsetting the defending 3A champs.
“It was a great team effort and we fought to the end”, said Kevin Gulyas. “This game was awesome.”
Both teams combined for over 1,200 yards of total offense. Brendan Nosovtich completed 22 of 33 passes for 487 yards and eight touchdowns. His two-favorite targets were Kevin Gulyas who caught nine passes for 225 yards and Jalen Snyder-Scipio who added eight catches for 200 yards.
Valley View’s running attack was led by Tyler Phillips with 185 yards, Pat Jeffers with 145 yards and Tyler Kapinus who had 157 yards.
Stats provided by Dean Beers, D11football.com
| Final | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | T | |
| Allentown Central Catholic | 20 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 61 | |
| Valley View | 14 | 14 | 20 | 6 | 54 | |
| 1st Quarter | ||||||
| ACC – Jalen Snyder-Scipio 63 yard pass from Brendan Nosovitch 9:54 | ||||||
| VV – Tyler Phillips 33-yard run 6:51 | ||||||
| ACC – Jalen Snyder-Scipio 5 yard pass from Brendan Nosovitch 1:51 | ||||||
| VV – Tyler Phillips 57 yard run | ||||||
| ACC – Kevin Gulyas 65 yard pass from Brendan Nosovitch 0:00 | ||||||
|
2nd Quarter |
||||||
| ACC – Noah Robb 27 yard pass from Brendan Nosovitch 8:11 | ||||||
| VV – Nyeem Wartman 34 yard pass from Liam Callejas 6:10 | ||||||
| ACC – Kevin Gulyas 12 yard pass from Brendan Nosovitch 4:44 | ||||||
| VV – Nyeem Wartman 15 yard pass from Liam Callejas :06 | ||||||
|
3rd Quarter |
||||||
| VV – Liam Callejas 65 yard run 11:07 | ||||||
| ACC – Kevin Gulyas 30 yard pass from Brendan Nosovitch 9:23 | ||||||
| VV – Tyler Kapinas 13 yard run 6:56 | ||||||
| VV – Tyler Phillips 52 yard run 4:05 | ||||||
| ACC – Brendan Nosovitch 18 yard run :20 | ||||||
|
4th Quarter |
||||||
| ACC – Kevin Gulyas 80 yard pass from Brendan Nosovitch 10:02 | ||||||
| VV – Pat Jeffers 9 yard run 6:44 | ||||||
| ACC – Kevin Gulyas 23 yard pass from Brendan Nosovitch :31 | ||||||
11 Responses
ACC by 27, take it to the bank
Shamokin by min. 27 pts. Bet your house.
@ shamokin dt you better have a lot of offence for a.c.c valley view had one of the best defence i seen in this area in a long long time and a.c.c put up 61 that more that we gave up all year trust me he the best h.s. qb i have ever seen good luck
guys football 101 valley view 4 turnovers a.c.c one you turn the ball over you loose good luck a.c.c
a scrimmage? no match? were in the playoffs and we arent planing on leaving anytime soon, we have a”decent” offense, but Acc’s d is terrible, and we have a pretty stuborn defense, im pretty sure this game will be little bit more of a scrimmage, if you know anything about football, dont take the record for granted, bet u dont know one thing about shamokin football, just like all the other people that rode off us last week against cleafield
Indeed, no disrespect for Shamokin but there’s no way they can hang with ACC and it’ll be ugly for them next week! As far as Wood, clearly they would be the favorite, but think of it this way, considering the awful start ACC had and for them to make it all way to the Eastern final, that is one hell of an accomplishment. I think ACC in a way will be relaxed as they’re not expected to win and consequently all the pressure will be on Wood–and that could work to ACC’s advantage! We’ll see what happens, the game’s gotta be played!
Where are all the people that said ACC would win by 3 TDs at least? People wrote off Valley View just because they are D2.
Next week ACC has a scrimmage before they play the winner of Pottsgrove-ABW. Clearly ABW is the favorite against Pottsgrove and would also likely be the favorite against ACC.
in good weather a passing team can dominate a running team. early in Playoffs we see this during district play. when a running team makes it to the eastern/western finals though they usually have the slight advantage with poor field conditions. This week will be on interesting game.
Shamokin has turned their season around from 3-7 to now being 6-7, heading into week 14! i hope they can make a game of it against ACC for the trill of the game.
Congrats ACC. i guess when you are in a situation where you need to play on all cylinders, you are very capable of doing so. Good luck from here on out!.
Too bad Callejas and Phillips fumbled the ball and gave ACC the oppertunity to score. Would have been interesting to see if they could have put another 6 on the board and possibly go for 2 for the win.
Awesome game; not much defense but very entertaining!