Stephen Ripka’s big night lifts Penns Valley football over Bellefonte
Stephen Ripka and his Penns Valley teammates waited nearly a month to play a football game.
But on Friday night, Ripka and the Rams came out on fire in a 28-14 victory over Bellefonte at Rogers Stadium.
“We’ve been on a roller coaster, that’s for sure,” Penns Valley coach Martin Tobias said. “Everybody knows there is nothing normal or nothing that we are accustomed to with this season. We are trying to teach the kids to just roll with it. I’ve got to commend all of our players.
“They’ve come to practice and school with great attitudes. They maximize the time on the field and really embraced the fact that they could play again. Having that taken away for a week, that was a big deal for our kids. They really came back with a passion.”
Ripka led the Rams to the tune of three receiving touchdowns. The senior wide out had 101 yards receiving in four receptions.
Ripka not only started the scoring for Penns Valley, but ended it, too.
“I’m thankful for my teammates for playing well. I’m thankful for our quarterback making good throws,” Ripka said. “It’s a team thing. It all starts up front, they did their job and I did mine. It ended up well.”
His first touchdown came on just the third offensive play of the game for the Rams. Quarterback Aidan Brinker found a wide open Ripka sprinting right up the middle of the field for a 45-yard score just over three minutes into the game.
Ripka’s other two scores came in the second half.
“I wasn’t expecting to be that open, but that’s what happened,” Ripka said of his first score of the night. “I just tried to make the most of it. It was a good throw. I’m just happy to have it.”
Brinker, who finished 10-for-15 for 148 yards passing, connected with Ripka on a 32-yard score that capped off a near six-minute long drive. Penns Valley led 21-0 with 6:07 left in the third quarter.
The final score of the game for the Rams came 36 seconds into the fourth quarter. Ripka leaped over the top of the Red Raiders’ Nick Capparelle in the corner of the end zone. The score gave Penns Valley a 28-0 lead.
“It’s been a real joy to watch him grow and develop in our program,” Tobias said of his senior. “You can see the type of athlete he is. He’s explosive. He’s going to command a lot of attention. No question, he had a big night for us. I’m really glad that he was able to show up the way he did and be a part of our game plan in a big way.”
It wasn’t all about the offense, though, for the Rams.
Yes, the defense gave up a total of 290 yards of offense, but only 107 of those yards came in the first half. The Penns Valley defense kept Bellefonte from being able to get any momentum going.
The Rams gave up just 28 yards passing in the first half. They ended up knocking Red Raiders starting quarterback Ethan Rossman out of the game. Bellefonte coach Shanon Manning had no answers on Rossman’s status at the end of the game.
Manning noted that Rossman was seen by the trainer, but didn’t get a chance to talk to any trainers or coaches about Rossman.
“This is a good Bellefonte football team. They are a physical football team,” Tobias said. “They like to grind it out and hit you with some big plays. We knew that we had our work cut out for us. We were very fortunate in the first half to gain some of that momentum. In the second half, the last seven minutes, they put 14 points on the board. We knew that was the kind of game we wanted to avoid, and we did our best for three and a half quarters.”
As Tobias mentioned, the Red Raiders didn’t just roll over after being down four scores. Instead, they turned to backup quarterback Logan Houser to lead the offense.
Houser played the entire second half, and made the most of his opportunities. The senior led Bellefonte to two scoring drives about five minutes apart.
The first drive came with the Red Raiders trailing 28-0. Bellefonte started at their own 35 and marched down the field.
Houser connected with Blandon Hawkins on a 19-yard score that saw Hawkins wide open streaking up the middle of the field.
The other scoring drive saw the Red Raiders start at their own three-yard line. The first play of the drive had Houser throwing out of his end zone and connecting again with Hawkins on a big 42-yard pass.
Houser had a 22-yard run on the next play. After an incomplete pass, Houser hit Jalen Emel for a 20-yard pass. House capped the drive off with a 13-yard running score and it was 28-14 with 2:54 left in the game.
“We are not playing consistent enough football to win football games in this league,” Manning said. “You can’t play football in spots, when you play Penns Valleys and Centrals. You’ve got to play complete minutes. There is a 48-minute time limit for a reason. If you choose to play 44 (minutes), 38, 24, whatever it is, you won’t be successful, it doesn’t matter who you play.
“We are having some problems getting things done. We’ll get there. These are good kids and good coaches. We got to keep working. I told the kids, ‘I’ll be there Monday and I’ll continue to work, and put endless hours in for them because they deserve it.’”
Penns Valley 28, Bellefonte 14
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Penns Valley 14 0 7 7 -- 28
Bellefonte 0 0 0 14 -- 14
First Quarter
PV--Stephen Ripka 45 pass from Aidan Brinker (Gage Ripka kick), 8:46
PV--Colton Winkelblech 2 run (G. Ripka kick), :48
Third Quarter
PV--S. Ripka 32 pass from Brinker (G. Ripka kick), 6:07
Fourth Quarter
PV--S. Ripka 19 pass from Brinker (G. Ripka kick), 11:14
B--Blandon Hawkins 21 pass from Logan Houser (Hayden Walker kick), 7:24
B--Houser 13 run (Walker kick), 2:54
TEAM STATISTICS PV B
First downs 18 14
Total yards 359 290
Rushes-yards 47-211 24-170
Yards passing 148 120
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 10-15-1 8-18-1
Punts-avg. 2-36.5 3-24.3
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-yards 4-45 5-50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Penns Valley, Seth Baney 24-90, Brinker 15-97, S. Ripka 1-2, Tanner Ilgen 6-20, Winkelblech 1-2. Bellefonte, Houser 6-57, Jamal Saunders 5-55, Ethan Rossman 7-39, Chris Paloskey 2-12, Jalen Emel 1-1, Nick Capparelle 3-6.
PASSING--Penns Valley, Brinker 10-15-148-1. Bellefonte, Rossman 3-9-28-1, Houser 5-9-92-0.
RECEIVING--Penns Valley, S. Ripka 4-101, G. Ripka 3-35, Mason Lieb 3-12. Bellefonte, Hawkins 3-67, Emel 3-35, Clayton Wilson 1-9, Capparelle 1-9.
This story was originally published October 3, 2020 at 12:37 AM.
