COUDERSPORT —  Don’t tell the Elk Catholic Crusaders that the Coudersport Falcons can’t play football with the South.

Elk Catholic (4-0) handed the Falcons (1-3) a 35-16 AML crossover loss Friday night at Paul Simcoe Field in a game that was much closer than the score indicates.

Both teams had trouble executing plays in the first quarter, Coudersport’s initial drive ending with Eric Gerber picking off a Aaron Wolfinger pass at the Falcons’ 49 yard line. Six plays later the Falcons held the Crusaders on downs taking possession at the Coudy 27.

Once again Wolfinger was victimized by a Jared Braun interception at the Elk Catholic 38. Then the Falcons’ David Burd picked off a Nate DaCanal pass. After a three and out, ECC took over on the Falcons’ 45 with 2:40 left in the first quarter. The period ran out with the Crusaders facing a 4th down.

On the first play in the second quarter, Coudersport appeared to have intercepted the Crusaders but a roughing the passer penalty gave the ball back to the Elk at the Falcons’ 19. Braun bulled into the end zone with Tyller Dilly adding the extra point for a 7-0 lead with 10:11 left in the half.

Both teams were stopped on downs. Coudersport took over at its own seven and moved to the  19 where Ryan Heary picked off Wolfinger and returned it 22 yards for the Crusaders’ touchdown. Dilly added the extra point for a 14-0 score with 4:26 left in the half.

Coudersport’s next possession resulted in a high snap on the fourth down punt attempt that rolled out of bounds at the Falcons’ 40. Six plays later DaCanal hit paydirt on a seven-yard run and Dilly was perfect again on the extra point for a 21-0 score with 1:19 to go in the half and the score remained that way at the break.

“We made some little mistakes in the first quarter that we need to address by next week,” said Crusaders’ head coach Tony Gerg.

As for the Falcons, head coach Ben Cary challenged his team to wipe the slate clean, forget the first half and play better football in the second half.

“We didn’t communicate well in the first half and when we don’t communicate we don’t play well,” stated Cary.

Elk Catholic appeared to have handed the Falcons a knockout blow on the first possession of the second half when DaCanal broke loose for a 68-yard touchdown run and Dilly again tacked on the extra point for a 28-0 lead.

Coudersport turned the ball over on downs, but then recovered a Crusaders’ fumble at the Elk 17 and capitalized three plays later with Brock Wilson’s three-yard plunge for a 28-6 score. Wolfinger scored the two point conversion with a run up the middle to make it 28-8 with 5:30 left in the third quarter.

Wolfinger ended the Crusaders’ fourth down attempt knocking away a DaCanal pass. Coudersport had the ball at its 33 with 3:14 left in the period. Wolfinger hit Jared Green with a perfect aerial for a 50-yard strike. Wilson bulled in for the two-point conversion with 2:29 left in the third and Coudy was clawing its way back into the game, 28-16.

Wilson recovered a Crusaders’ fumble only to have Wolfinger picked off by Braun as the fourth quarter started.

Elk Catholic put the nail in the coffin with an 11-play drive that was capped by DaCanal’s score from a yard out. Dilly again added the extra point for the final 35-16 score.

With just 4:11 left in the game Dilly pinned the Falcons back the their 20 with a touchback on the kickoff. Coudersport moved the ball the Crusader 37 as time expired.

“They (Coudy) came out the second half and punched us right in the nose,” stated Gerg. “I guarantee we will see them again down the road. They are well coached and played spunky football. But we didn’t get down and stayed focused and that was good to see. Also we had our starters in most of the game and we needed that conditioning.

“We have some X’s and O’s to work on but Jared Braun played a great game tonight and we managed the game well tonight,” he added.

“We just can’t seem to quit turning the ball over,” said a disappointed Cary. “We are still making fundamental mistakes that we have to correct. We have to communicate better. When we do, like in the third quarter,  we play much better football. We also have to make better decisions with the football.”

Elk County returns to action with Bradford in St. Marys on Sept. 24, while Coudersport hosts Sheffield next Friday night.

BY QUARTERS

ECC     0   21  7  7 — 35

Coudy   0     0 16 0  — 16