Penns Valley flies past Philipsburg-Osceola
Philipsburg-Osceola had no answer for Penns Valley’s passing game Friday night as the Rams spoiled the Mounties’ Homecoming with a 35-13 win.
Penns Valley quarterback Andrew Tobias completed 15 of 28 passes for 229 and two touchdowns apiece to wide receivers Marcus Woodford and Jared Hurd as the Rams picked up their second win of the season.
“They took away our running game so we had to open things up,” Rams coach Martin Tobias said. “We knew we had to do some other things. Give our receivers credit, they made some nice runs after making the catch and our line kept him (Andrew Tobias) relatively clean. I think he only got hit once.”
Woodford had five catches for 130 yards and a pair of scores while Hurd had six receptions for 73 yards.
“It was just like Groundhog Day,” said Mounties coach Mike Mann. “This happens week after week. We stop the run and then they burn us on the slants. We had problems in the secondary once again.
“But the kids are playing hard. This is the hardest I’ve seen them play. I think it’s the best they’ve played all year. And they keep working hard and not complaining. They keep coming back week after week.”
And they tried to come back after the Rams had mounted a 14-0 first quarter lead.
On its second possession of the game, Penns Valley started on its own 35 and moved to the P-O 32, thanks in part to a 22-yard pass to Woodford. On second down, Andrew Tobias connected with Hurd for a 32-yard score. Woodford’s PAT kick was wide right.
Thanks to a good kickoff return, P-O put the ball in play at the Ram 40 and drove to the 27, where Dan Slogosky’s pass was picked off by Woodford at the 17 and returned it to the 25. It was the first of four interceptions thrown by two Mountie quarterbacks in the game.
The Rams took over on their own 25 and moved to the 38, and from there a pair of 15-yard penalties pushed the ball to the P-O 33. From there Tobias and Woodford hooked up for the touchdown and Tobias found Takoda Bubb for the two-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 2:09 left in the quarter.
P-O answered with a 70-yard, seven-play drive midway through the second quarter that was capped when Matt Johnson went in from the 3 for the score. Keegan Soltis kicked the PAT to make it 14-7 with 9:22 to go in the half. But the Rams put the ball in play on the Mounties 40 after a punt and three plays later it was Tobias and Hurd hooking up again, this time from 23 yards out, and Woodford kicked the PAT to make it 21-7 with 4:52 to go until halftime.
Penns Valley took control of the game on its first possession of the second half when it drove 78 yards in 12 plays, capping the march with a 26-yard scoring strike from Tobias to Woodford with 5:42 to go in the quarter. Woodford made it 28-7.
“To do what we did on that first series of the second half was a good thing,” Martin Tobias said. “We needed this win. We needed something positive to happen to build their confidence.”
The Rams scored their final TD when Bubb went in from a yard out on the second play of the fourth quarter and Woodford made it 35-7.
P-O followed that with a 42-yard drive that featured three straight completions by Brandon Anderson before he scored from the 12 with 9:51 left in the game. The PAT kick was no good.
This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 11:23 PM with the headline "Penns Valley flies past Philipsburg-Osceola."