Garnet Valley Gets Back in Win Column Defeats Conestoga
Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News, pfn
Willie McGonigle | October 14, 2023
BERWYN: After losing their first Central League game since 2017 last week to Strath Haven the Garnet Valley Jaguars were looking to bounce back and were ready to work. The Jaguars entered Friday Night’s Central League contest against the host Conestoga Pioneers has the 9th seed in the District 1 6A Playoffs, while the Pioneers entered the contest on the playoff bubble sitting at 15th seed with the top 16 making it into the playoffs. In the end, it was the Jaguars who got back into the win column with a hard-fought 27-14 victory at Teamer Field.
“What I really liked was our guys showed up Monday ready to work.” Jaguars Head Coach Eric Van Wyk said, adding “They knew they didn’t get the job done last week and they were ready to work on building it this week.”
It was the Pioneers that came out swinging right from the opening kick taking their opening drive 68 yards on 14 plays behind the running of QB Jude Cook who accounted for 27 yards rushing on the drive but it was Tommy Costigan that capped the drive which ate nearly 8 minutes off the clock with a 7-yard touchdown run. Cook would finish the game with 91 yards rushing on 19 carries.
On their opening drive of the game, the Jaguars matched Pioneer going 69 yards on 14 plays all on the ground before Luke Vaughn bullied his way into the endzone from a yard out. But the Jaguars extra point was no good and the Pioneers led 7-6.
On the ensuing Pioneer drive, Cook took to the air connecting with Landon Ross for a 15-yard touchdown to extend their lead to 14-6. But the lead would be short-lived as on the ensuing Jaguar drive Tyler Lassik took to the air connecting with Dante DeVuono twice including a 13-yard touchdown the Jaguars would get the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14.
The Jaguars came out of the locker room strong to start the second half driving 74 yards on six plays including a 41 Lassik to Kai Lopez that put the Jaguars on the Pioneer 2 and on the next play Vaughn powered his way into the endzone giving the Jaguars the 20-14 lead.
It was a Vaughn interception that led to the final Jaguar score which was a five-yard touchdown run by Ronnie Leraris.
With under a minute to go and the Pioneers driving Lassik intercepted Cook to seal the deal for the Jaguars.
Lassik who returned to action last week after missing four games due to a high ankle sprain received high praise from his head coach. “Tyler is our leader he gets our offense and defense going. “ Van Wyk said, adding “I’m just really proud of him with how resilient he’s been with the injury and how he’s battled back and you saw it on display tonight.”
With the win the Jaguars improved to 6-2 and next week they will travel to Marple Newtown for a showdown with 7-1 Tigers. The Pioneers fall to 4-4 and will travel to Penncrest both games are scheduled to kickoff next Friday at 7 pm.
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