Friday, September 7th, 2018 The Scotties took on the Zanesville Blue Devils at Jack Anderson Stadium in Dresden. Tri-Valley went into the game Friday night hoping to see a repeat of their first two season games that were blowouts that lead to a running clock in the second half of each game. Unfortunately, the battle was going to be much closer than they had imagined.
The night started in a similar fashion as the previous two weeks, when #33 Jordan Pantaleo pounded his way down the field for a 41-yard touchdown with over 9 minutes left in the first quarter. Zanesville was able to block the extra point to hold the Dawgs to a 6-0 lead, but the Scotties were on the scoreboard and everything seemed to be smooth sailing.
The Blue Devils answered back shortly into the second quarter with a touchdown of their own, and with the extra point safely through the uprights they took the lead 7-6. It was a short-lived lead as Tri-Valley grabbed their second touchdown with just over half of the quarter remaining as #19 quarterback Aiden Fritter carried the ball safely into the end zone. In an attempt to get a two point conversion the Scotties were held fast and were only able to bring the score to 12-7 against the Blue Devils.
It looked as if the Scotties were going to hold the lead going into half-time, but with just a little over a minute left in the half Zanesville squeezed by the Dawgs to get a 13-12 lead followed quickly by another touchdown with only 42 seconds left in the half leaving the Scotties trailing the Blue Devils 20-12 heading into the locker rooms.
Coach Fell’s first deficit speech gave the Dawgs the kick they needed when they returned from the break. They made quick work of the Zanesville defense when quarterback Luke Fargus connected with Blayze Taylor who extended to grab the ball with one hand, for a touchdown just two minutes into the third quarter. Fargus was able to pull off a quick two point conversion leveling the playing field at 20-20 and bringing the crowd to a loud roar in the “Jack”.
Tri-Valley continued their newfound rally as #33 Jordan Pantaleo headed in for another touchdown with 6:59 left in the 3rd quarter and the extra point kick made the score 27-20 Scotties. Pantaleo would follow it up with another touchdown in the 3rd quarter shooting the score up to 34-20.
Zanesville was able to gather themselves back together enough to pull off one more touchdown but the extra point kick was blocked and Tri-Valley held them at 34-26 to end the game.
There were mess-ups on both sides of the field throughout the game including a slew of penalties, but in the end it was a very exciting game to watch and a good show of how the Scotties can handle adversity and come back to bring it together as a team. Way to go!
“We dug our own hole and had to dig our way out of it. After the half the kids listened and they played with a lot of heart!” – stated Head Coach Kevin Fell
