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Crestwood survives against Valley View in District 2 4A Title game

Tagged under: District 2, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

| November 18, 2022

As the snow fell on Crestwood Stadium, it set an amazing backdrop for the district title game. All the way back in week 1, the Comets took down the Cougars 20-7. It is hard to beat a team once, harder to do it twice.

The snow falling down played right into Crestwood’s hands. Entering today’s game, Crestwood threw the ball just 5.5 times a game, the sloppy conditions made it great for Crestwood to do what they love doing, run the ball. And run the ball they did tonight, as they set the tone on the ground, and salted it away on the ground.

The Comets came into this Title game following 2 blowout victories. A 61-7 win over Nanticoke, and a 56-14 win over Berwick. Crestwood has not been challenged yet in the playoffs entering today. The Valley View Cougars gave them a close game and stood as a much superior opponent compared to the last few weeks.

Valley View has also flexed its muscles thus far into the PIAA playoffs. An expected blowout over Honesdale, then a statement 31-14 victory over Dallas. As mentioned in my preview, Valley View wants to run their offense through their big three, QB Adam Howanitz, RB Connor Hilling, and WR Taheed Jewell. Entering tonight, these three had accounted for 51 TDs on the year for Valley View.

So all the offseason training, the long days, the grind of the summer, and the ups and downs of the regular season come down to this. 48 Minutes for a District Championship. Will it be Valley View for a back-to-back year, or Crestwood for the 2nd time in 3 years? Let’s Find out.

Around 7:45 in the first quarter, the first major play happened, after Valley View kicked off and held Crestwood on the opening drive, the Cougars would fumble. It is no surprise that sloppy mistakes will take place in an environment like this. But in a District Championship game between two stout teams, mistakes are amplified. Unfortunately for the Comets, they could not put up any points given the good field position.

The Area’s leading scorer, Noah Schultz was bound to make an impact tonight. After running for 5TDs last Saturday against Berwick, he found the endzone early into the 2nd quarter to get the game rolling on the scoreboard. The PAT was blocked so Crestwood led 6-0 with 10:28 left in the opening half.

With that ten minutes and change left in the half, not much happened. Teams traded punts and fidgeted with field position trying to get a field position edge. Nothing accumulated on the scoreboard and the score stood at 6-0 Crestwood entering halftime.

Into the second half and not much happened during the first 8 minutes of it. But with around 4 minutes left in the 3rd, a huge defensive play was made by Crestwood’s defense. Valley View QB Adam Howanitz was brought down short on a 4th and goal to go.  Dominic Memo was the main reason Howanitz did not score, his diving tackle stopped Howanitz right in his tracks and it was still 6-0 Crestwood over Valley View.

Just three minutes after the Defensive stop, another defensive play is made by the Crestwood Comet defense. Similar to earlier in the game, the Valley View offense put the ball on the ground, and gave Crestwood an opportunity, they figuratively, and literally pounced on it.

So we entered the 4th in a low-scoring defensive-orientated game, Crestwood led 6-0. With just about a minute and a half into the 4th quarter, Noah Schultz broke free for a 53-yard scamper and made it 12-0 after the 2PT try was no good. This was Schultz’s 35th rushing TD of the year.

The Valley View Cougars did not let up though, Connor Hilling found the endzone from 20 yards out to make it a one-score game.

And the momentum looked to be on Valley View’s side for a large portion of the 4th quarter. After recovering a fumble, Valley View had the ball in the short-distance territory. The Cougars needed just around 35 yards to take the lead.  The Comet’s defense stood tall though, Valley View turned it over on downs. Valley View would not see the ball for the rest of the game. Noah Schultz, assisted by his O-Line, powered through the Valley View Defense.

The Final Buzzer sounded, and the Crestwood Comets were officially District 2 4A Champions. And unfortunately, another side to these big games is the losing side. Valley View had their season ended today, and for the seniors, their careers ended.

Crestwood though will live to play another week and looks to continue with their run for a state title. After the game, I caught up with Crestwood’s Head Coach and Nick Miscavage who had a pick tonight. You can watch those below.

 

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