KINGSTON – Riding a three-game losing streak after starting the season 4-1, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech was aiming to put together a complete game on Saturday as it traveled to Luzerne County to face Holy Redeemer after having a bad quarter or bad half the last two weeks, which led to two narrow losses to Cowanesque Valley and Hanover Area.
So, the Rams turned to their strength and also turned in an outstanding defensive performance. Behind Braxtyn Brown’s 271 rushing yards and six touchdowns, CMVT snapped its losing streak and lifted its record back above .500 with a 46-14 win over Holy Redeemer.
“The last two weeks we had one bad quarter against Cowanesque and against Hanover, we didn’t play well in the second half after a great first half, so we talked about putting a full game together,” said CMVT coach Mark Varner. “They did that and they trusted each other, which is very important moving forward, that they trust each other with gap responsibility, did their job, and good things happen when everyone does their job.”
After giving up 56 points to Hanover last week, the Rams held the Royals scoreless in the first half and limited them to a pair of touchdowns in the second half, with the last one coming with less than a minute to play. CMVT held the Royals to just 24 rushing yards, as Holy Redeemer largely abandoned the run after falling behind early. The Rams built a 32-0 lead at halftime as Brown ran for four of his six touchdowns in the first half.
“I told our defense before the game that they needed to step up,” said Varner. “I put them on the spot and told them they didn’t do a good job the last two weeks and the game is going to be in their hands and they stepped up, so I’m very happy with everyone that played on that side of the ball this week. We worked hard defending the pass this week and they did a great job after playing two subpar games against good passing teams.”
The Rams started a bit slow, punting after going three-and-out on their first possession, and then giving the Royals a gift with an interception that was returned back to the Ram 27-yard line. But Holy Redeemer missed a 26-yard field goal attempt wide right with 3:24 to play in the first quarter.
On the Rams’ first play of their subsequent drive, Brown got loose for an 80-yard touchdown run. After a three-and-out by Holy Redeemer and a shanked punt, the Rams took over at the Royal 46, and three plays later, Brown found the end zone from 27 yards out.
CMVT took advantage of the first of three Holy Redeemer turnovers on the afternoon when they recovered a fumble at its own 46. The Rams then proceeded to put together a 10-play, 54-yard drive that took up 4:42 and was capped by a 20-yard touchdown run by Brown.
Another turnover was taken advantage of by the Rams on Holy Redeemer’s ensuing drive when quarterback Brady McDermott was pressured into rushing his throw by a blitzing Kaeden Keller, and McDermott’s pass was picked off by Myles Koser and returned 25 yards to the Royal 25-yard line. Brown then ran it in from 25 yards on the second play of CMVT’s drive to make it 26-0 with 1:56 to play in the half.
“Braxtyn is very slippery. When people think they have him squared up and are going to get him at the line of scrimmage, he has the ability to just jump step or change his hips a little bit and make that person miss and then he’s gone and has a big run,” said Varner. ”That’s why our counters and cross bucks have worked so well this year because he can make that first person miss more often than not, and when people come up, Myles can throw deep really well so we’re going to keep that formula for these last two weeks and keep attacking.”
Holy Redeemer then went four-and-out, leaving CMVT with well over a minute to have another possession, and the Rams capitalized as Myles Koser hit Axton Koser for a 48-yard touchdown pass on a flea flicker to extend the lead to 32-0.
The Royals took advantage of a short field after a 27-yard kickoff return to start the second half and got on the scoreboard with Thomas Dugan’s one-yard touchdown run to cap an eight-play drive that took 4:33.
But that was answered immediately by the Rams as they responded with an eight-play, 57-yard drive capped by a six-yard touchdown run by Brown.
And CMVT made it 3-for-3 in points off Holy Redeemer turnovers after Myles Koser got his second pick on the Royals’ next drive, returning it 34 yards to the Holy Redeemer 19. Three plays later, Brown capped the afternoon with his sixth touchdown a three-yarder, to put the game into the mercy rule.
Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 46, Holy Redeemer 14
CMVT (5-4) 14 18 6 8 – 46
Holy Redeemer (0-9) 0 0 7 7 – 14
First quarter
3:11 – (VT) Braxtyn Brown 80-yard run (A. Koser pass from M. Koser), 1-80, :13
1:02 – (VT) Braxtyn Brown 27-yard run (pass failed), 3-46, :56
Second quarter
2:33 – (VT) Braxtyn Brown 20-yard run (run failed), 10-54, 4:42
1:56 – (VT) Braxtyn Brown 25-yard run (pass failed), 2-25, :13
:32 – (VT) Axton Koser 48-yard pass from Myles Koser (run failed), 2-50, :50
Third quarter
7:27 – (HR) Thomas Dugan 1-yard run (Schultz kick), 8-40, 4:33
3:42 – (VT) Braxtyn Brown 6-yard run (pass failed), 8-57, 3:45
Fourth quarter
11:12 – (VT) Braxtyn Brown 3-yard run (Bracey pass from M. Koser), 3-19, :35
:45 – (HR) Josh Grochowski 26-yard pass from Brady McDermott (Schultz kick), 13-77, 10:27
Statistics
VT HR
First downs 17 11
Rushes-net yards 34-274 17-24
Passing yardage 75 162
Passing 3-8-1-1 20-40-1-2
Fumbles-lost 2-0 3-1
Penalties-yards 5-35 4-27
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: CMVT: Braxtyn Brown (26-271-6), Tyson Brown (4-6), Myles Koser (3-(-2)), Team (1-(-1)); Holy Redeemer: Wildy Rodriguez (9-33), Brady McDermott (4-(-5)), Thomas Dugan (3-(-4)-1), Josh Kreidler (1-0)
PASSING: CMVT: Myles Koser (3-8-75-1-1); Holy Redeemer: Brady McDermott (20-40-162-1-2)
RECEIVING: CMVT: Axton Koser (1-48-1), Tyson Brown (1-17), Logan Bracey (1-10); Holy Redeemer: Mike Zbierski (11-90), Josh Grochowski (4-48-1), Thomas Dugan (3-21), Kevin Arroyo (1-3), Kyle Ly (1-0)
