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DuBois Beats Brockway by a Yard (and a Point)

Tagged under: District 9, Gameday Hub, News

| September 3, 2022

Before one of the biggest crowds in recent memory at DuBois’ Mansell Stadium, the DuBois Beavers beat the Brockway Rovers 27-26 when they stopped the visitors one yard shy of winning the game as time expired.  The game was also one of the best games Mansell Stadium has seen for quite a while as the lead exchanged hands six times in the second half and came down to the final play.

“Our guys threw haymakers back and forth with them.  To get stopped at the one is heartbreaking,” commented Jake Heigel Brockway’s head coach.  TJ Wingard, the coach of the victorious Beavers stated, “Brockway played one heck of a football game.  It was sad that one of us had to lose.  They’re a hard-fighting good football team.  They’re going to win a lot of football games this year.”

 

The game was similar to an Apollo Creed – Rocky Balboa fight.  DuBois is a 4A school and the favorite to win since they beat Brockway, a 1A school, two years ago 49-0.  DuBois came out swinging and Brockway struggled for the better part of the first half to get anything going.  Yet right before halftime the Rovers counter punched and got on the scoreboard.  Suddenly the game changed with each team trying for that knockout punch that never came.

After stopping Brockway on the opening drive of the game, DuBois marched 80 yards to score the game’s first points at 4:15 of the first quarter on an Austin Henery 2-yard run.  A steady diet of Dalton Yale and Henery runs chewed up over six minutes on the clock and over half the 80 yards, but a key 34-yard pass from Cam-Ron Hays to Yale on third down kept the drive alive.  The extra point attempt was blocked and DuBois led 6-0.

A short punt by Brockway from their five and a little bit of a return set DuBois up at the Rover 17 in the second quarter.  On the play after Yale gained 12 yards to Brockway’s five, Henery scored his second TD from 5 yards out.  Brockway blocked the second extra point try too, but DuBois looked to be in control at the 8:09 mark leading 12-0.

The Beavers threatened on their next two drives but lost a fumble at the Brockway 37 and followed that up by driving to the Rover 30 before losing 14 yards on a fumble forcing them to punt.

Brockway got a decent return on the punt plus a 15-yard penalty setting the ball at their own 45 with 1:47 remaining in the half.  Another penalty put the ball at the DuBois 40.  That’s when Brayden Fox, Brockway’s young left-handed quarterback, snapped out of a funk he’d had the first 22 minutes of the game where he had only completed 3 of 17 passes for 30 yards.  He preceded to hit Alex Carlson twice for a total of 17 yards and then with 54 seconds left he spun a nice pass to Dylan Hanna for the 23-yard touchdown.  The point after was good and Brockway had life going into halftime trailing 12-7.

The momentum continued into the second half as Carlson intercepted Hays on the second play setting up shop for Brockway at the Beaver 32.  It took one play and eight seconds for Brockway to score as Fox found Carlson for the TD.  Suddenly, Brockway led 14-12 with just under a minute gone in the third quarter and the game was on.  Nobody gave an inch.  Both teams were physical and made plays on both sides of the ball.  It looked as though whoever had the ball last was going to win as they say.

DuBois used a recipe from the first half and ran the ball except for one pass as they drove 65 yards to retake the lead 18-14 at the 7:53 mark.  The big play on that drive was a 19-yard jaunt by Hays plus a 15-yard roughness penalty on Brockway after the play.  Hays, who ran the ball three times in the first half, ran 3 times on this drive including a 1-yard sneak into the end zone.

Brockway, who netted a grand total of 51 yards on their first six drives of the game was never stopped thereafter.  Only a turnover, which we’ll get to, and the clock stopped them after those first six drives as they scored each and every other time they had the ball.  Blake Pisarcik capped the next Rover drive on a 3-yard run.  Brockway went 68 yards to retake the lead 20-18 with 3:38 left in the third. They missed the PAT.  The Rovers lost Pisarcik for the balance of the game with an apparent lower body injury as he scored.  He is one of their star receivers and cornerback on defense.

On the last play of the third quarter, after a DuBois punt and a penalty pushed the Rovers back to their 15, Fox completed a short pass but the ball was dropped while the receiver was running and DuBois recovered at the Brockway 12.  There were many twists and turns in this game that could have led one team or the other to the victory, but this was huge.  It led to Cullen McAllister booting a 31-yard field goal with a little over 10 minutes left in the game that put DuBois back on top 21-20.  McAllister had missed from 36 the play before but Brockway had jumped offside.

The Rovers did not get down and proceeded to travel 58 yards to pay dirt when Fox threw his third TD of the game and second to Carlson.  That pass covered the last 13 yards to allow Brockway to retake the lead.  But, the 2-point conversion failed and the Rovers clung to a 26-21 lead.  7:42 was left on the clock.

The Beavers responded with a 55-yard drive to score with 5:05 remaining.  Hays dumped a pass off to Kaden Clark who did the rest.  Again, the drive was all runs except for one pass which proved to be the biggest of the night for the Beavers.  The big play on that possession was Hays dashing 22 yards down to Brockway’s 9-yard line.

4:58 remained after Brockway returned the kickoff to the their 32.  A Fox to Jendy Cuello pass for 22 yards put the Rovers in business in DuBois territory.  A couple more pass completions, a penalty, and Fox’s 6-yard run to the five set up the dramatic ending.  Brockway had used 11 plays and all the clock to reach the DuBois 5 with only a few ticks left.  Due to an injury to their kicker during the game, Brockway had to go for the touchdown to win and not what would appear to be a simple 22-yard field goal.  Fox found Carlson on a slant but the DuBois defender hit and tackled Carlson just before he reached the goal line.  Brockway thought they scored and DuBois thought they got the stop.  When the dust cleared and no touchdown was signaled, the DuBois fans and players erupted in jubilation while the Brockway faithful and players were stunned and shed tears.

“We felt we were the better team and I still think we’re the better team, but they are deeper than us,” stated Heigel.  “We were confident we’d score.  It just felt like we were going to win it.  Brayden Fox came on in the second half and Alex Carlson is an absolute monster,” Heigel continued.  Fox finished with 20 completions on 37 attempts for 236 yards and 3 scores by going 14 for 17 in the second half.  Carlson caught 8 passes for 92 yards and a pair of TDs.

“I give them credit for stepping up and playing bigger school,” said Wingard, “we preached not to panic and let the game come to us and stay calm.  I’m 100% proud of our guys.  They are not going to quit. No way.”  DuBois finished the game with 254 yards rushing.  Yale and Hays had 86 and 85 respectively to show the way.

To show how even the game was, DuBois outgained Brockway 306-299.  Both teams turned the ball over twice.  DuBois was penalized 11 times for 129 yards.  Brockway was flagged 5 times for 40 yards.

Brockway, now 1-1 on the year, journeys to Coudersport next week to take on the Falcons who are 1-1 also.  DuBois (2-0) will go on the road too, traveling to Clearfield to tangle with the Bison who are 1-1.

Both bands did a nice job at halftime with Brockway performing numbers from the Broadway play ‘Wicked’ and DuBois playing songs by the rock group, Journey.

 

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