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Danville Repeats As D4 3A Champs

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News

| November 20, 2021


The Danville Ironmen successfully defended their Class 3A championship in a rematch of 2020’s game against Montoursville, defeating the Warriors 35-28 on Friday, November 19. For the Ironmen Friday’s win was their sixth District IV championship in program history.

“It’s great and I’m so happy for our kids,” Danville head coach Mike Brennan said following the win. “I’m very proud of them. It wasn’t easy, we knew that it wouldn’t be with those guys. Rocco Pulizzi gutted it out and played for them. Those kids are well coaches and competitors, we knew that coming in, and we had to earn every snap of it. I’m just super happy for our kids to go back-to-back and to win one here at home. We’ll enjoy it for day and get ready for next week.”

Danville’s offense got off to a quick start as Ty Stauffer nearly broke a long run for a touchdown just a couple minutes into the game, but a fumble a few plays later killed the drive and led to an early score by Montoursville. On 3rd-and-11 from the 31, Warrior QB Maddix Dalena unleashed a bomb to receiver Marco Pulizzi along the Warrior sideline for a 69-yard score with 8:58 remaining in the opening quarter.

Montoursville held the lead through the end of the but it wouldn’t last long. Not even two minutes into the 2nd quarter Stauffer again broke off a long run, but this time no one caught him, 84 yards in total to knot the game up at 7-all. Seven minutes would go by before the visiting Warriors retook the lead on another Dalena pass. This one found the hands of Brayden Brown in the flat from 7 yards away, putting Montoursville back up 14-7.

Again, the Warriors’ lead didn’t last long as the Ironmen put together a drive that culminated in a 5-yard pass from freshman QB Madden Patrick to speedster Carson Persing to tie the game at 14 with just over a minute remaining. The Ironmen added another score just before the half expired as Patrick and Persing connected again on a 20-yard strike to give Danville their first lead of the game at 21-14.

Danville extended their lead with 5:33 left to play in the 3rd quarter on Patrick’s third touchdown pass of the night. Aaron Johnson was on the receiving end of the 20-yard pass that put the Ironmen up 28-14.

Montoursville would pull back with a score, 28-21, with just under four minutes remaining on a short run but midway through the 4th the Ironmen would strike again as Patrick and Johnson connected on a 35-yard pass to put Danville up 35-21.

With three minutes remaining Brayden Brown found the end zone for the second time on the evening on a 2-yard run, cutting the lead back to 35-28 to give Montoursville a chance. The Warriors had that opportunity with under a minute remaining for one last drive, but fumbled the punt giving the ball back to Danville for them to run out the clock.

“Patrick made a lot of plays for us tonight,” continued Brennan. “He didn’t play QB last week, our veteran was out again tonight, and he came in and did a great job. I’m really happy for him. Tonight was just a battle across the board. We bent a little bit defensively but we didn’t break and we made enough big plays in the pass game to have a chance to win.”

The Ironmen (8-4) will take on Neumann-Goretti (11-1) next week at a date, time, and location to be determined.

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