ALMEDIA – Playing almost two hours from home, their senior quarterback knocked out of the game after their first offensive series, and being a young team made up almost exclusively of freshmen and sophomores, Cowanesque Valley could have easily folded on Saturday early against Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech.
Instead, the Indians rallied behind second-string quarterback Tucker St. Peter and the Cowanesque Valley defense didn’t allow the Rams to finish many drives and the Indians snapped the program’s 18-game losing streak with a 20-8 victory over CMVT. The win is the first for the Indians since Sept. 22, 2017 against Wyalusing and the first for first-year head coach Michael Schmitt.
“We did it with a lot of adversity after Seth went down early and it was a real team victory,” said Schmitt. “Everyone kind of fit in where they had to. We had a lot of freshmen and sophomores do a lot of stuff today. I’ve believed since the get-go that these kids can win some games this year and I feel like they have to believe it and I’m happy that they could feel that since they’ve worked hard and are good young men.”
Cowanesque Valley limited CMVT to just 158 total yards and the Rams only twice got inside the Indians’ 30-yard line.
“Defensively, we tried to play it simple and really tried to understand the scheme that they were running,” said Schmitt. “I thought we did a real good job with that. They adjusted and hurt us with a few things but we came back after that and were able to adjust and fix it. We just did what we were supposed to do – real simple and no blitzing.”
For CMVT, it marked the second straight game the Rams were without senior running back Jake Shotwell, who was half of the two-headed monster in the offensive backfield, and the one player with big play ability on offense. Not having that big play threat had an effect on the offense, but head coach Mark Varner instead pinpointed execution as the main issue his team had against the Indians.
“It all starts with fundamentals and right now, we’re lacking them,” said Varner. “We’ve had two weeks to prepare with Jake being out so we know he’s going to be out and can’t use that as an excuse. When you have a player like Jake out, you have to do the little things correctly and we didn’t do that today and if you don’t, you’re not doing to win.”
Seth Huyler, one of just five seniors on the Cowanesque Valley roster and who was off to a good start to the season at quarterback, played just one series, completing all three pass attempts and making a 15-yard run on the Indians’ first play from scrimmage, before he was forced to leave the game due to a shoulder injury.
St. Peter moved from receiver to under center and on his second series, was given a very short field with which to work after CMVT had a fake punt stopped from their own 20 on a fourth-and-3 play. Taking over at the CMVT 21, the Indians took four plays to put the ball in the end zone on a three-run yard by St. Peter to take a 6-0 lead after a failed two-point conversion early in the second quarter.
“We’ve been getting better each week offensively and the game plan was to use our quarterback but when he went out, we had to do it differently with a smaller guy who less experienced but he did a great job,” said Schmitt.
Later in the second, the Indians took advantage of a CMVT turnover to extend their lead. Kole Hurler, another one of the five seniors for Cowanesque Valley, picked off a pass at midfield and gave the Indians possession at the Ram 45 with 2:37 left in the half. Hurler then made a key play on offense as four plays later, St. Peter found him on a short out pattern near the left sideline, and Hurler eluded the sideline and a handful of CMVT defenders to go all the way for a 36-yard touchdown reception and put the Indians up 12-0 heading into halftime.
Cowanesque Valley then had a sequence of events go against it to begin the second half, but once again, it responded right away. The Indians went three-and-out after receiving the second half kickoff and had their punt blocked, giving CMVT the ball at the Indian 33.
CMVT then put together it’s only scoring drive of the afternoon, as they got six straight rushes from Mekhi Mundrick, the last being a two-yard plunge, followed by another Mundrick run for a two-point conversion to pull within four at 12-8 with 7:21 left in the third.
But the Indians responded in a big way as they put together their longest and best drive of the game on their ensuing possession. An 11-play, 65-yard drive was capped by St. Peter’s nine-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Schmitt and he then found Hurler for the two-point conversion to give COwanesque Valley a 20-8 lead. The play for the touchdown was the second third down conversion of the drive, and the Indians also converted a fourth-and-2 on an 11-yard completion from St. Peter to Elliott Good.
The Rams were unable to get anything going on the final three possessions, as they punted once, lost a fumble and then turned it over on downs.
Cowanesque Valley 20, CMVT 8
Cowanesque Valley (1-3) 0 12 8 0 – 20
Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech (2-2) 0 0 8 0 – 8
Second quarter
10:04 – (CV) Tucker St. Peter 3-yard run (pass failed), 4-21, 1:51
:33 – (CV) Kole Hurler 36-yard pass from Tucker St. Peter (run failed), 4-45, 2:04
Third quarter
7:21 – (VT) Mekhi Mundrick 2-yard run (Mudrick run), 6-33, 2:59
2:23 – (CV) Jacob Schmitt 9-yard pass from Tucker St. Peter (Kole Hurler pass from St. Peter), 11-65, 4:5
Statistics
CV VT
First downs 12 11
Rushes-net yards 37-103 37-145
Passing yardage 124 13
Passing 11-15-2-0 3-11-0-1
Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-1
Penalties-yards 7-43 5-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Cowanesque Valley: Chris Bathgate (14-49), Elliott Good (11-32), Tucker St. Peter (11-7-1), Seth Huyler (1-15); CMVT: Mekhi Mundrick (24-111-1), Seth Shoemaker (10-32), Caleb Dawson (3-2)
PASSING: Cowanesque Valley: Tucker St. Peter (8-12-107-2-0), Seth Huyler (3-3-17-0-0); CMVT: Caleb Dawson (3-11-13-0-1)
RECEIVING: Cowanesque Valley: Kole Hurler (4-87-1), Elliott Good (3-11), Jacob Schmitt (2-20-1), Tucker St. Peter (2-6); CMVT: Seth Shoemaker (3-13)
