SLIPPERY ROCK — The Coudersport Falcons knew that they would need to play an almost perfect game to have a shot against Farrell on Saturday.
Instead, it was the top-ranked Class A team in the state who played a mistake-free first half en route to a 48-6 win against the Falcons in the PIAA Quarterfinals at Slippery Rock University.
Coudersport had its opportunities early, but a Steeler team with a deep roster full of talent didn’t let them capitalize. Farrell actually fumbled on its opening possession, but that was its only blemish on an otherwise dominant performance for the District 10 champs.
“They are a good team, there’s no doubt about that,” Coudersport head coach Tom Storey simply stated after the game. “Heck, the guys came out and only allowed 14 points in the first quarter. You think that you’re in there, and then the floodgates open in the second quarter unfortunately. It’s tough. They’ve got a good program, but it was just trying to keep the guys in there.”
Aside from a few big plays, Coudersport looked evenly matched with Farrell in the early going. And then the second quarter happened.
Other than a turnover, the Falcons didn’t make too many mistakes in those 12 minutes, but rather, it was what the Steelers did.
Christian Lewis and Kyi Wright, who each had first-quarter touchdowns, exploded for breakout performances in the second. Lewis, committed to play D-I football at Albany next year, added his second rushing touchdown of the game as well as a 77-yard punt return in that 34-point quarter.
When Lewis was bottled up on the ground, the Steelers attacked Coudy through the air. Wright, a highly-sought after senior who is playing at Pitt next year, threw touchdown passes of eight and 83 yards before halftime.
With so many different weapons, and so little time to prepare, Storey admitted it was a challenge for his team to figure out what was coming next.
“It’s been different the last 12 weeks because we know everybody,” he said. “We know all the teams we play against. For me, to not see these guys all year long and the only get two game films to look at and both of those games are runaways for them, it’s hard to figure out what they do and how they do it and how their players play. It’s just kind of seeing where we can go and what we can do. Unfortunately, you start giving up the ball there like we did in the second quarter.”
In addition to Wright and Lewis, Farrell receiver Jourdan Townsend also had a monster performance. The senior caught all three of Wright’s touchdowns and finished with 172 yards. All three Steeler stars were pulled at halftime with the game out of reach.
Coudy didn’t fare much better on the offensive side of the ball, either. The Steelers have four players weighing over 250 pounds that clogged the middle, and a talented secondary that limited the Falcon passing options. Stephen Kelly, who ran for over 300 yards last week, was held to just 37 yards on 13 carries. Quarterback Hayden Keck attempted just four passes and the Falcons also lost three fumbles, though one was on an onsides kick.
Coudersport ran just 29 offensive plays compared to 56 for Farrell, and due to the running clock because of the score, Coudersport attempted just eight of them in the second half.
Not only did the Falcons have the challenge of matching up against the state favorites, but they also had to play the Steelers just five days after defeating Smethport in the District 9 title game on Monday — with Thanksgiving also disrupting practice plans. Still, Storey wasn’t ready to use that as an excuse for his team’s play on Saturday.
“We kind of took the Monday’s game against Smethport as a big practice, nothing against them,” he said. It’s the end of the season, if we don’t know what we’re doing now, we kind of have to just go with it. It was a little tough making sure we knew what they were doing and there were some long nights for the coaches — nothing worth crying about — but we took some nights to understand who these guys were.”
Keck put the Falcons on the board with a 61-yard rushing touchdown to open the second half, which proved to be the final score in the game and a fitting way for the Falcons to end their season.
Despite Saturday’s loss, Coudersport got much further than many expected when the regular season ended a little over a month ago. With a 5-4 record entering postseason play, the Falcons enacted revenge in three straight weeks against teams they had lost to in the regular season. Storey made sure to address that with his team after the game, and remind them to embrace the run they went on.
“Winning last week, the revenge tour and all of that is going to be big for these guys,” he said. “Our athletic director (John Sherry) just talked to them about where we were at the beginning of the season, who we were and where we went and how we ended the regular season to turning it all around.”
“The thing I’m going to remember with these guys is how they could turn it around there at the end. Again, being 5-4 at the end of the regular season, and the to come around and win Districts is special.”
AT SLIPPERY ROCK
BY QUARTERS
Coudersport 0 0 6 0—6
Farrell 14 34 0 0—48
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: C: 4, F: 15; Rushes/Yards Rushing: C: 23-129, F: 44-327; Yards Passing: C: 11, F: 199; Comp-Att-Int: C: 1-4-0, F: 9-10-0; Penalties: C: 3-11, F: 6-35; Fumbles-Lost: C: 5-3, F: 3-2; Total Yards: C: 140, F: 523 Offensive Plays: C: 29, F: 56
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: C: Hayden Keck 1-4-11-0-0 ; F: Kyi Wright 8-8-177-3-0, Christian Hartley 1-2-12-0-0
Rushing: C: Keck 6-85-1, Stephen Kelly 13-37, Kolby VanWhy 3-5, Thomas Wilson 1-2 ; F: Christian Lewis 12-110-2, Tymir Green 3-81-1, Jaden Harrison 16-65, Anthony Stallworth 4-19, Wright 2-17, Jourdan Townsend 3-31, Hartley 2-6, Lewis 1 (-1), Brice Butler 1 (-1)
Receiving: C: Brandt Kightlinger 1-11; F: Townsend 6-172-3, Brian Hilton 1-6, Marion Odem 1-12, Lewis 1 (-1)
Scoring summary
First quarter
F: Christain Lewis, 47-yard run (Brian Hilton PAT good), 5:38
F: Jourdan Townsend, 22-yard pass from Kyi Wright (Hilton PAT good), 3:28
Second quarter
F: Townsend, 8-yard pass from Wright (Hilton PAT good), 10:27
F: Tymir Green 36-yard run (Hilton PAT good), 9:25
F: Lewis, 43-yard run (Hilton PAT blocked), 4:11
F: Townsend, 83-yard pass from Wright (Hilton PAT good), 2:03
F: Lewis, 77-yard punt return (Hilton PAT good), 0:19
Third quarter
C: Hayden Keck, 61-yard run (Keck 2-pt run failed), 11:34
Fourth quarter
No scoring
