Hornets fall to Towanda.

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Top dogs as the NTL Champs, Towanda came into Wellsboro with the thought a cake walk over the Hornets, yet Wellsboro came together to show the Black Knights it wasn't going to be as easy as they hoped for.

Wellsboro came out strong and never let up, taking a 14-0 lead over Towanda in the first quarter.

"We felt better going into our game against Towanda than against Troy. With Homecoming there are a million and one distractions. Going into Towanda the focus was purely on Towanda," stated Wellsboro coach Steve Boyce.

Ben Shaw capitalized on an 73 yard interception from Towanda and took the ball into the end zone, while freshman Jack Chambers added the extra point and the Hornets took a 7-0 lead over Towanda.

Garrett Dinelli then returned in the second quarter to put the Black Knights on the board with a nine yard touchdown run; extra point no good, trailing 6-14.

Towanda came out after the halftime break and with Coach Dawsey's speech of get it together more than likely in the locker room.

The Black Knights ran a five yard touchdown run by Mason Roof, followed by Dinelli again from one yard out to take their first lead of the night 20-14 over the Hornets.

In the fourth quarter, Trey Sites capitalized on a 10 yard stint, followed by Casey Huff connecting on the 65 yard pass from Sites to take the 34-14 victory.

"We knew they would be tough. They've only lost one regular season game in the last four years. We also know that playing on their $5 million dollar field is a lot different than playing on our little patch of mud (as our boys affectionately refer to it).

"When we play together all things are possible. To win, you have to believe and we definitely believed in ourselves. That was a difference in itself.

"We stressed all week to not let one bad thing dictate the other 47:45 of the game. One bad play cannot define the game and we give up. Even in the second half as they were gaining momentum, we felt that we could score and catch them," continued Boyce.

"We knew that we would not be able to just stuff it up the middle with their interior lineman and linebackers. So, we spread the field on them showing them alignments that hadn't seen before.

"It opened up the field which allowed us to rive the ball and go in at halftime with the lead."

Boyce continued, "Halftime was good for us. We talked about our adjustments and what we felt they would do differently. The guys stayed mentally focused and took in what we were telling them. We let them know that this is a great second half team and that they will come ready to play, regardless of what happened in the first half.

"It came down to they made better adjustments than we did for the second half. We knew they would make an adjustment to our squads but they did it differently than we thought which took away from the open middle. Offensively, they started running straight ahead instead of relying on misdirection. Regardless of all that, I was proud of our guys for continually battling unlike the effort from the week before."

Boyce concluded stating that "5-and-5 is out there for us to grab hold of. It would be special to send our seniors out with a .500 season. They have had a rough career playing through three head coaches in four years. It would be nice to send them out knowing they had a hand in helping our program to refocus.

"It has been a long time (too long) since we have seen that Golden Football. We will be ready, but again, it won't be easy. If you stop Stiner, they go to Delgado, if you stop him, they throw with DeHaven. Up front they are big and quick and well coached. So just like any other Wellsboro - North Penn game, it will be worth the price of the admission," concluded Boyce.

Senior Thomas Johnston currently has 378 career tackles after 10 vs. Towanda, along with Ben Shaw posting 57 yards passing and 42 yards rushing for the night. Wyatt Covert also contributed for the Hornets with 2 tackles and 55 yards on returns.