Six Touchdowns by Aiden Bliss Helps Port Allegany Thwart Brockway’s Upset Bid

Tagged under: District 9, Gameday Hub, News, pfn

Phil Myers | October 24, 2025

On a chilly senior night at Frank Varischetti Field in Brockway, the Port Allegany Gators, led by all-state running back Aiden Bliss, fought off the Rover upset quest by scoring three touchdowns in four minutes in the latter part of the fourth quarter to come away with a 48-22 victory in District Nine’s Region 2 title game.

Aiden Bliss is already in the D-9 record books with 103 career rushing touchdowns.  Now he has 108 as he scored 5 more last night carrying the ball 29 times for 276 yards.  But it was his non-rushing touchdown that changed the game early in the third quarter.  Brockway’s Aiden Patton had just thrown a long pass to Kolton Kahle to the Port three-yard line.  On the next play, Bliss recovered a fumble and raced 95 yards to put his team up 21-8 instead of his Gators possibly being down 15-14.

“We were opportunistic tonight, but I can’t say enough about Aiden Bliss on offense,” commented head coach Justin Bienkowski, “he’s a remarkable human being.  Forget the fact that he can run.  Forget the fact that he is tough and strong.  He’s just a high character human being that everybody who loves coaching would love to coach.  He’s phenomenal.”

Aiden Bliss on far right in white #31 with ball as he heads to score one of his six touchdowns.

Overall, the game was a little sloppy with both offenses turning the ball over more than once.  Also, penalties, especially on Port, kept Brockway drives alive or in one instance had an Aiden Bliss touchdown run negated.  But in the first half the defenses played very well as Brockway only had 127 yards of offense and Port Allegany was held to their lowest total of the year, 99 yards.

Coach Bienkowski stated, “It’s just good to get another ‘W’ and quite honestly we didn’t play very well at all.  Not one of our prettier wins, but that had a lot to do with what Brockway did.  They’re very strong tackle-to-tackle up front.  Brockway is a formidable opponent and we knew it was going to be a tough one.  10-0 is a total credit to our kids for continuing to buy into what we’re trying to do.  I’m proud of our guys for finding a way to win.”

The only scoring in the first half was two touchdown runs by Bliss sandwiched around a touchdown toss by Brockway’s Aiden Patton to Caleb Daugherty.  The first Bliss score came on an 18-yard jaunt in the first quarter and his two-point conversion gave the Gators an 8-0 lead that carried into quarter number two.  Port’s defense did come up big and stop Brockway on a 4th down try at the Gator two yard line in the opening quarter.

The Rovers eventually answered in the second stanza with Daugherty’s grab in the end zone.  He was wide open to complete the 9-yard scoring play.  Patton tied the game at 8 with a power run of his own for two points.  

An unusual sequence near the end of the half gave the Gators a lead they never gave up.  Port drove to the Rover 24, but Daugherty stepped in front of a Brennan Fillhart pass to give the home team the ball at their own 10 with 3 minutes left.  Moments later as Brockway was getting a first down at the 20, a fumble was recovered by Liam Hawver of Port Allegany.  It took two Bliss runs to go the twenty yards and score.  That put the visiting Port Gators up 14-8 at the intermission.

The second half started off with Brockway’s drive deep into Gator country but the Bliss long fumble recovery return for a touchdown gave Coach Bienkowski’s team a bit of breathing room for the moment.

Just under a minute later Brockway climbed back into the game when Patton threw a bomb to Daugherty who ran the rest of the way for the 66-yard touchdown.  Mr. Daugherty, a soccer player too, booted the extra point to make the score 21-15.  

Brockway’s ‘D’ did their job and forced a three and out, but so did Port’s defense.  But the Port Allegany ‘D’ went an extra mile and Gavin Moses blocked Brockway’s punt.  The football rolled into the end zone where Nick Wilfong fell on it for the Gator touchdown and the now 28-15 upper hand after Jarrod Funk’s PAT.

Brockway continued to battle and pulled within a score again, at 28-22, early in the fourth quarter when Patton threw his third touchdown pass of the game, this time a 21-yarder to Kolton Kahle.  Patton pitched the pigskin for 222 yards on the evening.  But that was all she wrote for the Rovers on the night, even though many thought Brockway now had the momentum.

Aiden Patton, #10 in black far left, ready to let one go. He completed 15 passes for 222 yards and three TDs.

Port Allegany secured the game by handing the ball off to Aiden Bliss whose running skills include finesse, power, a little stiff arm here and there, and speed.  He toted the rock on ten of Port’s last eleven plays of the game, getting four runs of ten or more yards including one for 67 yards.  He scored on three of those carries from 5, 10, and 3 yards.  All of this happened in 3 minutes and 59 seconds.  Just amazing.

Overall, the game ended with over 700 yards of offense with almost 500 of that in the second half.  Port had 381 yards and Brockway 333.

For 10-0 Port Allegany, they posted their second consecutive undefeated regular season and now have 22 straight regular season wins.  They will be the top seed for the District Nine Class 1A playoffs.  

Ethan Tarbox, one of the captains and leaders of the Gator football team, was injured in the second half and was taken by ambulance to the local hospital in DuBois.  “He’s absolutely a wonderful human being,” said Bienkowski, “That’s a huge loss for us.”  He had just come back from a different injury a few weeks ago.

Brockway now sits at 6-4, but their tough schedule may make them a force to contend with in the playoffs.  They will be the top seed in District Nine’s Class 3A playoff picture.  Brockway’s losses came at the hands of Punxsy, Central Clarion, Karns City, and Port.  Those teams at this point have a combined record of 30-7.  

Coach Jake Heigel knows his team could have played better too, but is looking forward to the playoffs expecting to do well if his team can play the way he knows they can. 

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