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JV holds back Knights

By Rich Murawski

For the Mirror

HOUTZDALE — Leading 14-6 early in the fourth quarter Friday, the Juniata Valley defense was on its heels as Moshannon Valley was knocking on the door inside the Hornets’ 30-yard line.

But Kyle Derugen came up with a huge play when he jumped in front of a Knight receiver and picked off a Ben Murawski pass at the 10-yard line.

Derugen then caught a 37-yard pass on second-and-13 from the 7-yard line two plays later to key an eight-play, 90-yard drive that culminated in a Jaxson Rand 2-yard run and put the Hornets in the driver’s seat with 8:01 to go at CNB Stadium.

Juniata Valley’s defense did the rest in a 21-6 win.

“Those were two big plays, and Kyle Derugen is just playing some nice, steady football and doing what we’re asking him to do,” Juniata Valley coach Bill Musser said. “He’s worked extremely hard, and it’s paying dividends right now.”

“We were driving the football. We found a niche in our running game, and we were moving the ball and they made a play,” Mo Valley coach Michael Keith said.

The Knights had success in their running game early on as Jon Dale picked up 100 yards on 19 carries in the first half, and his 32-yard TD run with 7:46 left in the second quarter had the hosts just a point behind, 7-6, at the break.

But after hitting the century mark by halftime, Dale was held to just 24 yards on 10 carries in the second half, and the Knights only collected 52 yards as a team over the final two quarters of play.

“Coach Showalter challenged the kids, and they raised to the challenge,” Musser said. “We had to make a decision on whether or not we were going to allow ourselves to be run over. The kids stepped right up and made the decision not to be.”

While the Hornet defense rose to the occasion in the second half, it was the Black Knights D that controlled the first half after the initial Juniata Valley drive resulted in the game’s first score.

The Hornets went 67 yards in 13 plays, overcoming a second-and-32 play from their own 29 to take the lead with 6:06 to go in the first quarter.

Rand ran the ball nine times for 35 yards in the series and finished things off with a 2-yard score.

The Knights stopped Juniata Valley on downs twice in plus territory (once at their 25 and the other at the 36) and forced and recovered a fumble at their 19 to snuff out another drive.

“Mo Valley’s got a very nice team,” Musser said. “Their strengths were some of our weaknesses. We’re building the line still; we had a couple things we had to shift around this week. Mo Valley has a very strong line, and we could just not get a rhythm going. They did a very nice job disrupting us at the right times throughout that first half.”

But just like they did in the first half, the Hornets were able to put together a successful drive on their first possession, going 66 yards on 11 plays, converting two fourth downs.

Quarterback Quinn Zinobile connected with Grant Musser for a 32-yard score to finish off the drive with 5:06 left in the third to make it 14-6. Zinobile was 13-of-20 for 213 yards in the game.

Mo Valley had the ball four more times in the second half but went three-and-out twice and tossed interceptions twice.

“This is an example of a game where we just didn’t score enough points,” Keith said. “We played well enough to win the game. We just didn’t score enough points.”

Juniata Valley led 20-11 in first downs and had a 392-201 advantage in total yards.

Rand carried 30 times for 120 yards, while Zinobile had 14 runs for 76 yards.

Juniata Valley improved to 6-2 and hosts Glendale on Friday.

Mo Valley had its two-game winning streak snapped and slipped to 2-6. The Knights travel to Mount Union on Friday.

Score by Quarters

Juniata Valley 7 0 7 7 — 21

Moshannon Valley 0 6 0 0 — 6

First Quarter

JV–Rand 2 run (Hill kick), 6:06.

Second Quarter

MV–Dale 32 run (kick blocked), 7:46.

Third Quarter

JV–Musser 32 pass from Zinobile (Hill kick), 5:06.

Fourth Quarter

JV–Rand 2 run (Hill kick), 8:01.

TEAM STATISTICS JV MV

First downs 20 11

Rushes-yards 47-179 34-118

Comp-Att-Int 13-20-0 7-19-2

Passing Yards 213 83

Total Plays-Yards 67-392 53-201

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-1

Punts 2-24.5 4-28.0

Penalties-Yards 5-40 3-25

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–Juniata Valley, Rand 30-120, Zinobile 14-76, Collins 1-8, Brower 1-(-3), Team 1-(-22). Moshannon Valley, Dale 29-124, Murawski 4-1, Team 1-(-7).

PASSING–Juniata Valley, Zinobile 13-20-0-213. Moshannon Valley, Murawski 7-18-2-83, Dale 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING–Juniata Valley, Brower 3-55, Betres 3-42, Derugen 2-58, Rand 2-10, Musser 1-32, Collins 1-9, Rupert 1-7. Moshannon Valley, Matchock 3-36, Bacher 3-27, McCoy 1-20.

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