Penns Valley football’s big fourth quarter leads to win against Philipsburg-Osceola
Coaches tell their players to never stop playing until the final whistle blows.
Penns Valley’s football squad took that to heart on Friday night in its 43-32 come-from-behind win over Philipsburg-Osceola.
“It was a hard-fought contest. We are very fortunate to come out on top,” Rams coach Martin Tobias said. “Everybody knows that Coach (Jeff) Vroman has his teams prepared for any opponent on any night. I give Philipsburg all the credit in the world for a great game plan and execution. I give a lot of credit to my guys for never quitting and hanging in there to eek out a win. I’m really proud of them for that.”
Penns Valley and P-O combined for 31 points in the fourth quarter with the teams trading the lead over the last 6.5 minutes of play. However, the Rams got the one that counted the most with 22.9 seconds remaining in the game.
The Mounties saw running back Sam McDonald, who led the team with 116 yards rushing and had two touchdowns, scamper in for a 12-yard score and two-point-conversion run with 2:22 left in the game to hold a 32-29 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Penns Valley receiver Danin Kerstetter returned the ball to P-O’s 42-yard line. Three straight running plays by Ty Watson had the Rams at the Mounties’ 30.
Kerstetter caught a pass down the middle from Jackson Romig to get his team to the 2-yard line. Penns Valley lost 2 yards on the next play, and things didn’t start out well on the next play either.
A low snap past Romig saw him retreating away from the end zone. He picked the ball up and ran to his right. He lofted the ball in the front corner of the end zone, where Kerstetter made a leaping grab for the game-winning score.
“I just picked the ball up and improvised. It’s what we like to do on busted-down plays,” Romig said. “I know my guys are open, and I know how to improvise.”
Kerstetter added: “It was supposed to be a corner route. I looked back and the ball was back there. I just thought I need to get a touchdown, and win it for the boys.”
Tobias was please with how the play went too: “To be running the way Jackson did, and get the ball in the air down the field and give it a chance, Danin went up and made a play. We always say, ‘Players make plays. Coaches coach.’”
The next possession for P-O saw freshman backup quarterback Archer Baughman throw a pick-six. The Rams’ Jarrett Stover stepped in front of a pass and returned it 25 yards to set up the final score with 11.4 seconds left in the game.
Mounties’ coach Jeff Vroman was very pleased with how his freshman stepped in and performed even though the result wasn’t what they were looking for.
“Our 9th grader, Archer, was very composed. He had us in the right formations and plays,” Vroman said. “It’s pretty impressive for a ninth grade to do what he did. It was nice to see.”
P-O had a great start to the game as it managed to get out to a 21-7 lead with just under two minutes remaining in the first half. It was all in part to its unique offense of a wing-T formation.
The Mounties ran its offense so well that it kept Penns Valley’s offense to just three total possessions in the first half.
“It was good, the ball control was there. We did what we thought we could do,” Vroman said. “I thought the kids executed the game plan to a T. The last 20 seconds is what it is, it doesn’t matter to me. The fight was there. When you control the football, they can’t do anything with it.”
Tobias had high praise for P-O’s offense too: “They run that wing-T so well, it’s so difficult to defend. Our guys can’t replicate it in practice. It gave us fits. They were doing a great job of moving the ball up and down the field. When his offense is running and clicking, it is his best defense as well.”
P-O recovered a squib kickoff at Penns Valley’s 30, and ran the ball four straight times to open with a score. The Rams responded and tied the game three minutes later, but was helped with a muff punt.
The Mounties came right back and used a 14-play drive that ate up over eight minutes of game time in reclaiming the lead. Jakodi Jones capped the drive off with a 1-yard dive with 9:41 left in the half to make it 14-7.
P-O forced the Rams to punt on their next possession. The Mounties again went on a drive that chewed up nearly seven minutes of play.
Jones tallied his second score of the game, this one from 3 yards out to give P-O a 21-7 lead.
“There is no such thing as a moral victory as far as I’m concerned. I’m pleased with the way we played. A level of intensity was there,” Vroman said. “Up front, we controlled the line of scrimmage for a better part of the football game. It was an all around good effort offensively. Defensively, at times we didn’t give up a lot of big plays, but we gave up too many, if that makes sense. Turnovers hurt us. We gave them the ball on the 10-yard line on the muffed punt. It is what it is. We can’t go back and replay it. We got to learn from it and get better.”
Penns Valley’s John Meyer returned the ensuing kickoff 88 yards to get his team to within seven right before the half.
The Rams pulled off a successful onside kick to open the second half. The very next play, Romig found a wide open Meyer on a wheel route that he took 49 yards for a score, but a missed extra point made it 21-20 in favor of the Mounties.
After forcing P-O to punt, Penns Valley had a nice long drive just over five minutes long end with Watson drilling a 43-yard field goal. It was the Rams’ first lead of the game with 3:22 remaining in the third quarter.
The Mounties reclaimed the lead with a field goal of its own. Carson Long nailed a 25-yard kick to make it 24-23 with 6:26 left in the game.
Then is when the scoring spree began between the teams.
“We played a really gritty game last week. I think there was some residual fall out from our guys,” Tobias said. “It was a gut check so to speak. Philipsburg was so prepared and came right at us. I think it caught our kids off guard. It didn’t catch us off guard as coaches. We warned them all week they had to be ready. There is no easy opponent anywhere on our schedule.”
Other Centre County football scores
State College 49, Altoona 7
Clearfield 26, Bellefonte 7
Bald Eagle Area 41, Tyrone 22
Penns Valley 43, Philipsburg-Osceola 32
Friday at Philipsburg
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Penns Valley 7 7 9 20 -- 43
Philipsburg-Osceola 7 14 0 11 -- 32
First Quarter
P-O--Sam McDonald 17 run (Carson Long kick), 9:58
PV--John Meyer 11 pass from Jackson Romig (Ty Watson kick), 6:02
Second Quarter
P-O--Jakodi Jones 1 run (Long kick), 9:41
P-O--Jones 3 run (Long kick), 1:55
PV--Meyer 88 kickoff return (Watson kick), 1:38
Third Quarter
PV--Meyer 49 pass from Romig (kick failed), 11:48
PV--Watson 43 FG, 3:22
Fourth Quarter
P-O--Long 25 FG, 6:26
PV--Watson 52 run (pass failed), 4:44
P-O--McDonald 12 run (McDonald run), 2:22
PV--Danin Kerstetter 4 pass from Romig (Watson kick), 22.9
PV--Jarrett Stover 15 interception return (Watson kick), 11.4
TEAM STATISTICS PV P-O
First downs 8 20
Total yards 222 318
Rushes-yards 23-93 53-239
Yards passing 129 79
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 9-11-0 5-9-1
Punts-avg. 2-38 1-32
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-yards 4-54 4-30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Penns Valley, Watson 19-110, Meyer 2-(-2), Romig 2-(-15). Philipsburg-Osceola, McDonald 17-116, Jones 27-97, Dayton Barger 6-16, Parker Lamb 1-9, Archer Baughman 2-1.
PASSING--Penns Valley, Romig 9-11-129-0, 3 TDs. Philipsburg-Osceola, Baughman 5-9-79-1.
RECEIVING--Penns Valley, Meyer 4-41, Kerstetter 3-35, Colin Niewiniski 1-4. Philipsburg-Osceola, McDonald 3-39, Lucas Peterson 1-20, Barger 1-20.
Records: Penns Valley 3-1, Philipsburg-Osceola 1-3
Next game: Bellefonte at Penns Valley, Friday, 7 p.m.; Philipsburg-Osceola at Bald Eagle Area, Friday, 7 p.m.
This story was originally published September 16, 2023 at 12:08 AM.
