COUDERSPORT — The Coudersport football team opened its season up with a 60-6 rout of Port Allegany Friday night.
Leading the way for the Falcons was quarterback Hayden Keck, who completed 4-of-6 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns to go along with 178 rushing yards on just eight carries and four touchdowns.
For the Gators, quarterback Drew Evens completed 16 of his 28 passes for 231 yards with a touchdown and interception. Taro Tanaka rushed for 31 yards on eight carries.
“We started out a little slow, but it’s a tough game when you have nothing to go by,” Coudy head coach Tom Storey said. “There’s no scrimmages or anything. We don’t know our own team let alone know who we’re playing and everything like that. We had a good chat during halftime. The guys came out during the second half and kind of cleaned things up a little bit.”
The Falcons were able to capitalize off Port Allegany’s mistakes early in the game.
Following a fumble on the Gators’ opening drive, Keck ran for a 67-yard touchdown on Coudy’s second offensive play of the game.
On Port Allegany’s next possession, the drive was stalled after Evens was picked off by Coudy’s Josh Ross. The Falcons again capitalized and went ahead by a score of 16-0 after an 80-yard run from running back Brandt Kightlinger with 6:54 left in the first quarter.
“We made a lot of mental mistakes,” Port Allegany head coach Justin Bienkowski said. “We thought we had an idea of what was going to go on, we just didn’t execute and my job is to make sure everybody’s prepared, and I didn’t do that to the best of my ability so we took one on the chin.”
It wasn’t until later in the second quarter when Coudersport started to run away with the game.
Keck dashed for a 56-yard touchdown run to put the Falcons ahead, 24-0, after the two-point conversion. With less than two minutes to go until halftime, Keck connected with Dalton Keglovits for a 72-yard touchdown pass to make it 30-0.
Port Allegany was able to get on the board as Evens found Trey Ayers for a 20-yard touchdown pass with just 51 seconds left in the half. But Coudy was able to answer just 30 seconds later as Keck hit Keglovits again for a 48-yard touchdown, putting the score at 38-6 at halftime.
The Falcons took time off the clock with their opening drive to start the second half and extended their lead to 45-6 with a 10-yard touchdown run by Keck with 5:33 left in the quarter. He then scored his fourth and final rushing touchdown of the night on an 11-yard run with 16 seconds to go in the third quarter.
“That’s why he’s in the position he’s in,” Storey said of Keck. “Running the (triple) option is what we do and it’s why we want the ball in his hands and possibly all four of the (running) backs that are back there.”
From there, Gavyn Ayers finished the scoring with a three-yard touchdown run to put Coudy up by 54 points with 2:46 to go in the game.
With game one in the books, Storey has a clearer idea of where the team is at and knows what they have to work on in practice ahead of next Friday’s road matchup against Cameron County.
Storey wants the team to work on pass coverage, tacking and cleaning up the penalties.
“We knew we were a young team. We got some new guys in a lot of positions,” Storey said. “They’re learning and that’s what they got to do.”
Bienkowski and the young Gators will look to improve from the season opening loss to the Falcons next when they host Otto-Eldred next Saturday.
“That’s a hell of a football team (and) a hell of a well-coached football team,” Bienkowski said of Coudy. “We’re young, we have four seniors and we’re going to build off that because they’re willing to work and they’re willing to learn and I can’t say enough good about our guys….It’s just my job to help us get better and we’re going to do everything we can to go against Otto-Eldred next Saturday.”
AT COUDERSPORT
BY QUARTERS
Port Allegany 0 6 0 0—6
Coudersport 16 22 14 8—60
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: PA: 8, C: 20; Rushes/Yards Rushing: PA: 18-21, C: 38-422; Yards Passing: PA: 216, C: 138; Comp-Att-Int: PA: 15-27-1, C: 4-6-0; Penalties: PA: 6-55, C: 8-70; Fumbles-Lost: PA: 2-1, C: 2-2; Total Yards: PA: 237, C: 560; Offensive Plays: PA: 45, C: 44
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: PA: Evens 16-28-231-1-1; C: Keck 4-6-138-2-0
Rushing: PA: Tanaka 8-31-0, Price 3-7-0, Ayers 2-3-0, Moses 3-2-0, Evens 4-minus 16-0; C: Ruter 4-15-0, Josh Ross 2-2-0, Anderson 2-4-0, Deutschlander 4-13-0, Kightlinger 4-123-1, Keck 8-178-4, Ayers 6-48-1
Receiving: PA: Archer 7-118-0, Ayers 6-88-1, Tanaka 3-25-0; C: Keglovits 2-120-2, Ayers 2-18-0
Scoring summary
First quarter
Coudy: Hayden Keck, 67-yard run (Keck 2-pt conversion run)
Coudy: Brandt Kightlinger, 80-yard run (Keck 2-pt conversion run)
Second quarter
C: Keck, 56-yard run (Keck 2-pt conversion run)
C: Keglovits, 72-yard pass from Keck (PAT Failed)
PA: Trey Ayers, 20-yard pass from Drew Evens (PAT Failed)
C: Keglovits, 48-yard pass from Keck pass (Keck 2-pt conversion)
Third quarter
C: Keck, 10-yard run (Keglovits PAT)
C: Keck 11-yard run (Keglovitis PAT)
Fourth quarter
C: G. Ayers, 3-yard run (Deutschlander 2-pt conversion)
