Hornets fall to the South.

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Falling short, 6-20 to South Williamsport, on Friday, September 30, the Wellsboro Hornets post a 2-3 overall record, but remain focused on a successful season.

In the first half of the matchup, Wellsboro entered the opponents' field and held them to a 6-6 tie heading into the break.

Ben Shaw put the Hornets on the board first for the evening after connecting with a 39 yard pass fired over to Thomas Straniere, followed by South Williamsport's Tyler House with an eight yard shot to Tyler Weaver to tie the game.

"The field there, like everyone else's was a mess. Mud every where, with little to no traction," stated Wellsboro Head Coach Steve Boyce.

"You could run the ball straight forward and passes were effective, but you couldn't cut or make a move without falling. The rain is making it worse and worse every week. The scoring was way down because of those conditions. Putting a score up before South was big, but we had a bit of wind knocked out of our sails after the opening drive," he continued.

"We held the ball for almost nine minutes and walked away with out a score because we turned the ball over inside the red zone again. That has been our story all year. Drive the field and cough it up. Getting the first score was good, but knowing that we should have been up bigger gets into your head," Boyce said.

Returning in the second half, South Williamsport shut down the Hornets as Brandon Stonge ran a 25 yard stint into the end zone early in the third, and Matt Bartholomew held out a one yard score in the fourth, with the two-point conversion securing the win.

Wyatt Covert rushed 10 time for 31 yards and Shaw 8-50 passing for the Hornets. Bartholomew went 20 for 84 rushing as Stronge posted 18 attempts for 111 yards total.

Shaw recorded 80 yards passing, while freshman Michael Pietropola posted 52 yards for the Hornets. Tyler House recorded 119 yards passing for South Williamsport.

Wellsboro also recorded six penalties for a total of 40 yards lost to the South's seven for 57 yards.

"Our biggest issue right now though is not coming out of the locker room at halftime. The last two weeks we have faced a longer than normal halftime because it was a homecoming game," Boyce stated. "We just don't leave the locker room with the same intensity. The other teams get a little momentum and we bury our heads in the sand and wait for something bad to happen.

"In our second win it still happened that way. I don't think that we have scored in the third quarter once this year. If we are going to win more games, which we can definitely do, we have to score coming out of the locker room in the third quarter and we have to play the second half like we want to win," Boyce continued.

"The team is doing a great job in staying together. In the last couple of weeks we have been missing starters at key positions due to various reasons and the team doesn't let up when they have been let down. They roll with those punches and come out to play. They are working well as a unit, they just have to find a way to win the close ones. It also shows their hard work as they don't give away a ton of points. They have been in every game going in at half, even at Athens. We just have to complete a game.

"Looking ahead to Wyalusing we have a great opportunity to win. They aren't the machine that Wyalusing usually puts on the field year in and year out. Don't get me wrong, they are a good team, they are huge up front and their backs run hard. They will be tough to stop. They, like us, have had some bad breaks in their games, so it should be a great one. I just hope it doesn't rain any more this week! We have all our guys back, everyone is healthy and we have a couple of wrinkles to throw at them that they might not be ready for," concluded Boyce.

Wellsboro travels to Wyalusing on Friday night, October 7 for a 7:00 p.m. start.