Central Valley cruises to second straight WPIAL Title

Tagged under: District 7, News

Andrew Schaffer | November 14, 2020

Coming into this game Central Valley had mercy ruled all nine of their opponents. Tonight was no different in a 35-0 championship win over Elizabeth Forward. “We have never talked about that, it just happens, we don’t come into our Monday meeting prepping for the next team and say hey we gotta mercy rule this team, it just happens” said Coach Lyons.

Central Valley got the ball to start the game but penalties stalled that drive. On Elizabeth Forward’s first possession Central Valley set the tone for the game. After a sack, Elizabeth Forward fumbled the ball and Central Valley recovered. On the very first play Stephon Hall scored on a 13 yard run. Central Valley’s defense was a factor in this game. “With us scoring so many points, our defense kind of flew under the radar, and I get it because everybody talks about the offense, they rose to the occasion, and they’ve been doing a good job all year” said Coach Lyons.

The score at the end of the first quarter was 7-0 Central Valley. Later in the second quarter Central Valley would extend their lead with Landon Alexander scoring on a 10 yard run. It was a slow start for Central Valley but it was the second quarter that made the difference in the game. “They did a good job, they pinned us deep a couple of times, we didn’t want to panic, we knew at some point, we were gonna flip the field and get to where we needed” said Coach Lyons.

Central Valley eventually kicked it into another gear and took control of the game. Elizabeth Forward struggled to get anything going on offense. About 4 minutes after their second score, Central Valley once again extended their lead on yet another run by Landon Alexander this one being a 41 yard run. Alexander was the superstar of the game for Central Valley. He had 221 yards on 21 carries and 3 touchdowns. “Landon is a patient young man, he knows his turn was gonna come, when you have a lot of athletes, sometimes he don’t get the number of touches, we’re just not built like guys getting 25 or 30 touches we spread the ball around, whoever is the hot hand, whoever we need they’re ready to go” said Coach Lyons.

Central Valley would score one last time before the first half ended and once again it was Landon Alexander on a 31 yard run. The score at halftime was 28-0 Central Valley.

The second half was for the most part uneventful. Central Valley made it a mercy rule game with 8 minutes in the third quarter. The touchdown was setup on 2 big runs by Landon Alexander, it was finished off on a 3 yard run by Ameer Dudley. Elizabeth Forward was held to under 60 total yards of offense in the game. “Our guys put on a great defensive effort today” said Coach Lyons.

The final score ended up being 35-0 Central Valley. They advance to the PIAA 3A Semifinals against District 5 champion Bedford at a date and location to be determined.

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