J.J. Woodward was Royal in Erie’s Victory Over DuBois
Tagged under: District 10, District 9, News, pfn
Phil Myers | September 28, 2019
They say to never judge a football team by the first half. That certainly was the case Friday night in DuBois. When the Erie Royals disembarked from the bus after the two and a half-hour trip they appeared to be in a fog. “We got off the bus and we were flat,” said head coach Rob Matz. Maybe that’s why DuBois led at halftime 20-13 on three Alex Kovalyak TD tosses. It also could have been that DuBois played one of their best halves of the year.
Either way, Erie broke out of their haze and put on quite a show in the second half after getting told a thing or two by Coach Matz and his staff at the intermission. Led by J.J. Woodward, the Royals scored 58 unanswered points in the final 24 minutes of the game to come away with an improbable 71-20 shellacking of the hometown Beavers.
Mr. Woodward had himself an evening as he scored eight touchdowns and two 2-point conversions. He carried the pigskin for 283 yards on only 17 carries, scoring six times. He caught a 21-yard touchdown pass and added a 32-yard pick six. He also had another interception that might have gone for 100 yards if the last man hadn’t stopped him. When asked how do you explain a night like that he said, “I don’t know, it’s just a dream come true. I just came and played.” Coach Matz praised his junior running back and related what he told #1 at halftime, “J.J., are you ready to step it up and see what you can do?” It is believed that Woodward’s 52 points is an Erie County record for points scored in one game.
J.J. Woodward #1 scampers for a touchdown.
The offensive line opened some nice holes to help Woodward and his teammates rush for 575 yards for the evening. But Mr. Woodward made his own space too, breaking tackles and reversing the field to run to daylight. It was a performance not unlike Journey Brown’s big night at Mansell Stadium in DuBois back on September 11th, 2015 when he scored 10 touchdowns and ran for 722 yards on 30 carries.
DuBois controlled the first half by running 44 plays to Erie’s 19, plus the Beavers had the ball for 18 of the 24 first half minutes. Alex Kovalyak’s six-yard pass to Chase Husted gave DuBois a 6-0 lead late in the first quarter. The Royals answered when Woodward scored from 45 yards out and Henry Polaski’s PAT gave Erie the lead which they didn’t get back until the second half.
Kovalyak threw a TD pass to Zach Shilala, then followed that up with a 63-yard bomb to Dale Kot to give the Beavers a 20-7 lead with 3:46 left in quarter two. Woodward dashed 59 yards twenty-one seconds later to cut the lead to 20-13 at the half.
Kovalyak #14.
The third quarter found Erie scoring 44 points. Woodward scored on a three-yard run, then on a 21-yard pass reception from Trevon Tate. That touchdown, at the 6:13 mark, started a sequence where the Royals scored five times in less than five minutes. Tate scored on a 53-yard run, then Woodward had his pick six, followed by runs of 21 yards and 36 yards. The 5’9” 165 yard running back scored from the 37-yard line in the 4th quarter.
Game Notes: Erie outgained DuBois 610 yards to 331. Tate had 161 yards rushing with the one score. The Royals were penalized 17 times for 140 yards. Kovalyak finished the game 23 of 44 passing for 285 yards, 3 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Kot had 6 catches for 135 yards to lead the Beaver receivers. Husted and Shilala also had 6 grabs. Erie evened their record at 3-3. They travel to New York to play Canisius next week. DuBois falls to 0-6 and hosts Ft. LeBoeuf next Friday.
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