By Rich Rhoades

BROCKWAY — Air Rovers? How about some dog-gone good defense?
The Brockway Rovers looked like a well-oiled balanced offensive machine featuring a defense that might be a bit underrated after their 41-26 win over visiting Curwensville Friday night.

And it wasn’t that close. The Rovers (6-0) led 34-6 after three quarters and limited the Golden Tide (5-1) to no offensive points and just 101 yards and only six downs going into the final 12 minutes.

Although Curwensville took advantage of good field position after a Rovers botched punt and turnover in helping it score 20 points in the fourth quarter, the game didn’t equal all of the pre-game hype between two unbeaten teams from the Allegheny Mountain League’s South Division.

Defense first, please.

“Our defense played phenomenal,” Brockway head coach Frank Varischetti Jr. said. “Give credit to coach Pisarchik for coming up with this game plan. Watching them the last couple of weeks, nobody has even slowed them down running the football. We put 9-10 guys in the box and dared them to pass and break the front line and they couldn’t do it. Our defensive line played outstanding. Really, our whole defense played phenomenal.”

The Golden Tide, already with 1,000-yard rusher Alex Holland, couldn’t get by through, around or throw over the Rovers defense that dared them to go deep. Holland, coming off his District 9-record 417 yards rushing against Kane last week, was limited to 83 yards on 24 carries. He had 12 carries of two yards or less.

Tide quarterbacks Hunter McCracken and Alec Starr combined to complete 9 of 21 passes for 92 yards with four interceptions, two of them by Mike Vervoort and tone each by Kyle Braun and Chris Marshall.

You can also credit that to a Rovers offense that rushed for 274 yards, keeping the pressure off quarterback Derek Buganza and the need to air it out. Buganza, nursing a sore thumb, completed 6 of 14 passes for 128 yards with one touchdown and an interception. He threw just one pass in the second half, an interception on the Rovers’ first play from scrimmage.

“We didn’t think we’d run for as many yards as we ran for but we thought we could run the ball,” Varischetti said. “We have a really big physical offensive line and we have only two seniors on it – Joel Yahner and Matt Burnett. Our other off linemen did a great job. Matt Snyder, Jake Heigle, Cody Overturf, all underclassmen, played phenomenal. We really ran the ball well. Our running backs did a great job. Our wide receivers blocked down field. Not much more I can say about that. It was just a great job running the football.

Senior fullback Chris Marshall chugged his way to a career-high 167 yards on 20 carries with one touchdown while Zach Freemer scored two first-quarter touchdowns on runs of 2 and 21 yards.

Buganza continued his somewhat slow approach to the state’s all-time passing yardage record by passing second-place Pat Devlin on the honor roll. He now needs 264 yards to pass Lancaster Catholic’s Kyle Smith as the all-time yardage leader.

While the record appears to be a certainty to fall soon, Varischetti relishes success at passing and running the ball.

“The more we stay balanced, the tougher it’s going to be to defend,” he said. “We had some things open in the passing game tonight we didn’t want to go to because Derek’s thumb was bad and he didn’t feel like throwing it as much. We definitely stuck to the run, but had some things open we could’ve gone to if need be.”

It was evident after the first drive of the game that the Rovers intended on going with some ground game. Four plays, all runs and three of them by Marshall, resulted in a touchdown finished off by Freemer’s 2-yarder.

Curwensville’s highlight of the night came on the ensuing kickoff when Shane Hoover returned the kick 85 yards for the touchdown. The Golden Tide wouldn’t score again until the fourth quarter.

Freemer’s 21-yarder came on the last play of the first quarter to put the Rovers up 14-6. They made it 21-6 late in the second quarter when Buganza hit Jake Snyder with a screen pass. Snyder then took off for a blazing 56-yard touchdown play as he outraced Holland to the end zone.

After halftime, the teams traded some interceptions, a total of three in four plays from scrimmage. On the Rovers’ Vervoort’s second of the game turned in to any points as the Rovers took over at their 42 and went 58 yards on nine plays with Vervoort finishing off the drive with a 1-yard run to put the Rovers up 28-6 at the 5:49 mark.

Then after the Rovers recovered a Holland fumble at the Tide 29, Marshall rambled in from 19 yards out to put the Rovers up 34-6.

After the Rovers’ Morgan Murray mishandled a punt snap and gave the Tide the ball at the Rovers’ 21, the Tide scored their first offensive touchdown of the game when Holland scored on a 4-yard run with 9:34 left in the game.

Curwensville recovered a Marshall fumble at the Rovers’ 29 and took advantage of another short field to score another touchdown on Hunter McCracken’s 25-yard TD pass to Shae Best to cut the score to 34-18.

But time was running out on the Tide and the Rovers made sure things were under control by recovering the Tide’s onside kick and drove 53 yards on nine plays with Buganza scoring on a 1-yard run to make it 41-18 with 2:48 remaining.

Curwensville didn’t cash it in before the final buzzer and scored again on Zack Dimmick’s 5-yard run with 37 seconds left in the game.

The Rovers put their unbeaten record on the line next week against another undefeated AML South team when they travel to St. Marys next Saturday night to play Elk County Catholic. Curwensville hosts winless Ridgway Friday night.

BROCKWAY 41, CURWENSVILLE 26

Score By Quarters

Curwensville              6          0          0          20        -           26

Brockway                   14        7          13        7          -           41

First Quarter

B – Zach Freemer 2 run (Philip Esposito kick), 10:51.

C – Shane Hoover 85 kick return (kick failed), 10:39.

B – Zach Freemer 21 run (Esposito kick), 0:00.

Second Quarter

B – Jake Shaffer 56 pass from Derek Buganza (Esposito kick), 1:27.

Third Quarter

B – Mike Vervoort 1 run (Esposito kick), 5:49.

B – Chris Marshall 19 run (pass failed), 3:59.

Fourth Quarter

C – Alex Holland 4 run (pass failed), 9:34.

C – Shae Best 25 pass from Hunter McCracken (run failed), 8:39.

B – Derek Buganza 1 run (Esposito kick), 2:48.

C – Zach Dimmick 5 run (Holland pass from Alec Starr), :37.

                                                C                     B

First Downs                            12                    18                               

Rushes-Yards                          36-133             36-274

Passing: Comp-Att-Int            9-22-4              6-14-1

Passing yards                          92                    129

Total Yards                             225                  403

Fumbles-Lost                          2-1                   4-2

Punts-Avg                               5-37                 2-30

Penalties-Yards                       4-20                 2-15

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

            Rushing — Curwensville: Alex Holland 24-83, Zach Dimmick 8-27, Alec Starr 2-13, Shane Hoover 1-8, Hunter McCracken 1-2. Brockway: Chris Marshall 20-167, Mike Vervoort 11-63, Zach Freemer 7-31, Derek Buganza 7-28, Morgan Murray 1-(-14), Team 1-(-1).

            Passing — Curwensville: Hunter McCracken 5-of-15, 58 yards, 1 TD, 3 Ints.; Alec Starr 4-of-8, 34 yards, 1 Int. Brockway: Derek Buganza 6-of-14, 128 yards, 1 TD, 1 Int.

            Receiving — Curwensville: Shane Hoover 3-39, Shae Best 2-45, Zach Dimmick 1-9, Kyle Kyler 1-0, Alex Holland 2-(-1). Brockway: Jake Shaffer 1-56, Mike Vervoort 1-38, Kyle Braun 2-22, Chris Marshall 2-12.

            Interceptions — Curwensville: Zach Dimmick. Brockway: Mike Vervoort 2, Chris Marshall, Kyle Braun.

            Kick returns — Curwensville: Shane Hoover 1-85, Shae Best 3-90, Garrett LaBorde 1-4. Brockway: Jake Shaffer 2-9, Joe Caruso 1-30.

            Punt returns — Brockway: Kyle Braun 1-15.

            Punting — Curwensville: Shae Best 5-185 (long 48). Brockway: Morgan Murray 2-60 (Murray 31).