Hornets' come from-behind victory.

presented by:

Friday night's matchup between the Cowanesque Valley Indians and the Wellsboro Hornets was a search for a first season victory for either team.

The Hornets, who had suffered a heartbreaking 70-19 loss in the home opener against Canton, and a two-point defensive safety call to allow Montgomery a narrow win (28-26), were in hopes of posting their first win of the season over Cowanesque.

The Hornets showed more intensity and strength on the field taking on Montgomery and had prepared to focus on the game ahead of them, taking on the Indians.

Cowanesque came out strong in the first quarter and held Wellsboro back with a 22-6 lead, as Tyler Bowers scored first for the Indians with a four yard run and two-point conversion.

Less than a minute later, Bowers returned into the end zone on a six yard run to take Cowanesque to a 15-0 lead over the Hornets.

With just over a minute left in the first quarter, Shean Daley connected with a 10 yard pass from Trevor Adriance into the end zone to score, before Wellsboro's Ethan Callahan captured a 66 yard pass from quarterback Ben Shaw to put the Hornets on the board.

Shaw ran through the red zone from 15 yards out before the first half concluded to decrease the deficit to 22-12.

"We had three turnovers, three penalties and only had the opportunity to run six plays on offensive in the whole first half," stated Wellsboro head coach Brandon Falk, "and we scored on two of them. We just need to be more careful with the ball and if we give it up, the defense must stop our opponent from scoring especially after a turnover."

Returning in the second half, Nick Saniga took a 10 yard pass from Shaw and a two-point conversion to come within two of the Indians' lead.

Ethan Callahan took the Hornets ahead of Cowanesque on a 75 yard fumble return with three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Callahan and Shaw connected gain on a 68 yard pass in the fourth quarter, while Cowanesque's Trevor Adriance brought the Indians within five points from one yard out to score and conclude the game.

"We were able to run more offensive plays, and the defense got us the ball and did not give up long, time consuming drives," stated Falk heading into the second half. "Teams know we are a quick strike team and if they can play keep away, we wont be able to score as many points against them."

"For the first time since I have been the coach here, I saw a group who got behind on the scoreboard but did not mentally and physically quit on the game or their teammates and the end result shows that they have the ability and determination to bend but not break on the way to a victory," Falk continued.

Wellsboro posted 13 first downs with 4 penalties for 26 yards, while Cowanesque garnered 20 first downs with six penalties for 60 yards.

Offensively Cowanesque's Trevor Adriance posted five completions on nine attempts for 51 yards passing, while Wellsboro's Shaw posted 9-for-15 attempts and 209 yards.

Tyler Bowers garnered 162 yards rushing on 31 attempts for the Indians, while Shaw and Johnston combined for 56 yards rushing.

"We outplayed them in almost every category," stated Cowanesque Valley head coach Jeremy Loveland. "We had a few costly turnovers in the second half. We were very successful executing our gameplan, but put the ball on the ground in very critical parts of the game. Anytime we do that, we'll struggle to win."

"We are a very young football team, over half of our offensive and defensive starters are freshman and sophomores. Those young kids played extremely well and we played well enough to win the game," continued Loveland.

"Our upper classmen also responded to what we expected from them this week. They were excited to be playing at home and certainly were mentally prepared to play."

"Going into this week, the coaches and I decided to keep things very simple for our kids. We trimmed the number of plays we planned on running against Wellsboro as well as limited the number of stunts and coverages we planned on running. That worked very well for us."

"The kids are improving and were able to execute and attack rather than hesitate like we have in the first two games," stated Loveland.

"I would say our entire passing game is stepping up. Teams have gameplanned to stop our running game. When they do that we have to be able to open things up and complete a few passes. We did that friday night. Trevor Adriance did a nice job and made some nice decisions."

"At halftime we talked to them about not being satisfied leading at halftime and there were two more quarters to go. We are still learning how to win, and our kids are learning quickly what it takes to be successful."

"Although we didn't come out on top friday night, our goal was to get better from our Athens game and we certainly did that. We didn't lay down when Wellsboro took the lead and I'm very proud of them for that. If we continue to play decent defense and don't turn the ball over, good things are going to happen," concluded Loveland.

Quarterback Ben Shaw, for the Hornets, has tied for the District IV lead in touchdown passes, with five, while teammate Thomas Johnston, a junior is leading Wellsboro with 147 yards rushing on 33 attempts and 35 defensive tackles.

Also for Wellsboro, senior Ethan Callahan, with his height at 6'7", leads the Hornets with eight receptions for 238 yards.

Wellsboro will be fosucing on tackling, pass protection, special teams, and run blocking as they prepare for the matchup with Athens Friday night, September 24, during the Hornets' homecoming festivities.

"We are still 1-2, we need to improve on everything as the year goes on," concluded Falk.