SAXTON - Faced with a fourth-and-2 in the first overtime of his team's Inter-County Conference Silver Division battle with Tussey Mountain, Glendale's Doug Twigg entered the timeout huddle and looked right at his coach and demanded the ball.
Viking coach Matt Irvine obliged, and the offensive line responded with resounding confidence before Twigg went out and plowed his way into the end zone behind his line for the 2-yard game-winner to give his squad the come-from-behind 20-14 win over the Titans on Friday night at the Tussey Mountain Sports Complex.
"I called the timeout, and he [Twigg] looked at me and said, 'I want the ball,'" Irvine said. "The offensive line said, 'Let's do it.' Doug wanted the ball, he told me he'd score and he did. I give credit to him for stepping up and doing that."
Tussey received the ball to start the overtime session but only was able to advance to the 6 on two runs and two incomplete passes.
"We played a heck of a team. We played them to the wire. We have nothing to be ashamed of," Tussey Mountain coach Josh Smith said. "We played a great game. We were this close, we just didn't push it over and finish it. That's something we need to work on still."
Glendale (4-2 overall, 3-0 ICC Silver) took its chance, and Damon Braniff took the first opportunity 9 yards to the 1. Quarterback Gary Witherow's keeper was snuffed out by a determined Titan defense. With the ball at roughly the 6-inch mark, Braniff got the call on third and Tussey knocked him back to the 2.
That's when Irvine used his one timeout to set up the game-winning play, as Twigg put the capper on a back-and-forth battle that neither team seemed ready to take command of throughout.
With time winding down in regulation, Tussey Mountain was in prime position to cash in on a Viking turnover on downs as the Titans had the ball at the Glendale 4 with first-and-goal to go and just over 10 ticks left on the clock.
Rather than go for the game-winning 21-yard field goal, Smith elected to try a sweep to the right side. But Mitchell Corbin fumbled the pitch from quarterback Eric Husick, and by the time he picked it up, the Vikings had converged and took the him down at the 11, which caused the last seconds to tick off as TM was out of timeouts.
"To say I'm second-guessing myself [on the last play of regulation], that's certainly true," Smith said. "I don't have as much confidence in our kicking game. We figured we'd tried to get him [Corbin] to the edge and, well, things happen."
The Titans (3-3, 1-2) struck first and second in the contest as they opened the match up with a 13-play, nearly five-minute drive that Corbin finished on a 2-yard scoring run.
Tussey then got things rolling in the second quarter with a nine-play drive that ended when Husick found Wyatt Brumbaugh on a 3-yard strike at the 9:21 mark. Darrin Sipes made good on the two-point conversion run to make it 14-0 in favor of the home team.
The Viking defense pitched a shutout from that point on, while the offense, held in check much of the first half, finally got on the board when Braniff scored on a 21-yard scamper to paydirt at 3:32.
After a third quarter in which neither team was able to capitalize on turnovers, Glendale finally completed the comeback and knotted the score on the second play of the fourth quarter when Witherow hit a sliding Shea O'Donnell in the corner of the end zone from 6 yards out.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Glendale0 6 0 8 6 - 20
Tussey Mountain6 8 0 0 0 - 14
First quarter
TM-Corbin 2 run (kick failed), 7:07.
Second quarter
TM-Brumbaugh 3 pass from E. Hoosick (Sipes run), 9:21.
G-Braniff 21 run (kick failed), 3:32.
Fourth quarter
G-O'Donnell 6 pass from Witherow (Twigg pass from Witherow), 11:48.
Overtime
G-Twigg 2 run.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Glendale-Braniff 23-114, Witherow 9-28, Twigg 6-25. Tussey Mountain-T. Husick 17-63, Corbin 16-56, Sipes 19-111.
PASSING: Glendale-Witherow 8-12-1-51. Tussey Mountain-E. Husick 10-17-2-91.
RECEIVING: Glendale-Twigg 4-31, Braniff 1-4, O'Donnell 3-16. Tussey Mountain-T. Husick 2-23, Brumbaugh 1-3, Taylor 1-2, Corbin 2-4, Barnett 2-44, Sipes 2-15.
INTERCEPTIONS: Glendale-Twigg, Rojas. Tussey Mountain-Barnett.
TEAM STATISTICSGTM
First downs1018
Rushes-yards38-16752-230
Passing (comp.-att.-int.)8-12-110-17-2
Yards passing5191
Total yards218321
Fumbles-lost2-12-1
Penalties-yards6-504-24
Punts-avg.5-33.83-33.0
