Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Claysburg-Kimmel’s Tyler Mowry holds off Moshannon Valley’s Brady Kephart on Friday night.

CLAYSBURG — The Claysburg-Kimmel community has put a lot of time, money and effort into building a tremendous athletic atmosphere in a school district without a ton of success over its history.

The players and coaches on this year’s high school football team are helping make the dream of accomplishing that a reality.

A packed homecoming crowd witnessed a tremendous back-and-forth game, some high-level football and an extravagant postgame fireworks show above a state-of-the-art facility all while the Bulldogs came away with a huge 29-18 comeback win over Moshannon Valley.

The victory kept Claysburg-Kimmel undefeated in the Inter-County Conference’s North Division and put the Bulldogs in position to make history next week when they host Mount Union.

“What I was told was that we have never been the ICC champs for a section or overall,” Claysburg-Kimmel coach Chuck Kassick said. “If we win that game, it would be our first one we could hang (a banner). The kids will be focused, I’m sure, to get the job done.”

Mason Campagna ran for two touchdowns, threw for another and rushed for 104 yards, and Mark Lattieri ran for 112 yards, scored a touchdown and was named the homecoming king.

“I have been with these guys for a long time with practices and camps, and to have this season so far has been special,” Lattieri said. “At halftime, we had a talk and were able to turn things around. This is extremely special. We knew it was going to be a dog fight and be all about whoever wanted it more.”

Play of the game: With 1:02 left in the third quarter, Claysburg-Kimmel was facing a fourth-and-6 from the Moshannon Valley 41. Campagna, under pressure, threw a pass to Levi Kennedy, who was covered by three Knights defenders. All four players went for the ball, and it fell incomplete. A flag for defensive pass interference also fell. After the first down, Campagna scored on a 26-yard run one play later to give the Bulldogs a 22-18 lead.

“It was an absurd call, to be honest with you,” Moshannon Valley coach Chris Davidson said. “I don’t care if you put this in or not. I’m going to bite my tongue, because I don’t want to take anything away from Claysburg’s great effort and them winning this game, but that’s a horrendous call. But I want to say again, Claysburg-Kimmel did everything they needed to do to beat us tonight. They did a great job. Their coach had a great plan.”

Player of the game: In addition to his rushing yards, Campagna threw for 134 yards and was not intercepted.

Unsung hero: The Claysburg-Kimmel crowd, which forced Moshannon Valley to use some early timeouts and contributed to some pre-snap penalties.

“Our team has lots of confidence, and the crowd tonight was unbelievable,” Campagna said. “The crowd impacted the game. It was incredible.”

Most vital statistic: Following the first drive of the second half, Moshannon Valley running back Rocco Reifer rushed four times and lost 1 yard. Prior to that, he had 17 carries for 151 yards and a touchdown.

“We started off strong (in the second half) and forced a fumble,” Reifer said. “Three plays later we got a touchdown, but then we got to ourselves. That can’t happen. There were some missed calls, but that happens. It’s football.”

Kassick on the pass interference call: “You talk about the ‘big mo’ and that’s exactly what that was,” Kassick said. “It didn’t come out the way we drew it up, but it worked. Scoring the touchdown after that put us in the books.”

Kassick on the crowd: “It was pretty amazing. Our crowd, you could feel the electricity behind us. Our kids were into it, and it was a good game to be part of.”

Davidson: “Control was lost early in that game. There were numerous things that could have kept us from getting to that point, but unfortunately, we have no control over that.”

Reifer: “I disagree with that call (pass interference). It’s all on film. They can watch it later. But they called it, and we have to fight through it. We need to go pound West Branch next week and then have a good game against Berlin.”

Notable: The teams combined for 11 personal fouls, and Mason Abernethey, who had two catches for 29 yards, was ejected after his second personal foul in the fourth quarter. … Moshannon Valley’s Valent Cervenak caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from Brady Mihalko to open the scoring. … Tyler Mowry made a juggling catch on third-and-12 from the Moshannon Valley 13 and juked a defender to score on a 13-yard touchdown pass that cut the Knights’ lead to 18-15. … Ryleigh Lehman was named the homecoming queen. … Moshannon Valley’s Chase Mital broke up several passes throughout the game and had a near interception that was ruled incomplete. … Remington Diehl had a critical sack on third-and-5 when Moshannon Valley had the ball near midfield and trailed by only four early in the fourth quarter. … Reifer went over 1,000 yards rushing for the season on a 9-yard carry in the first quarter.

Records: Moshannon Valley (5-3); Claysburg-Kimmel (6-2).

Next week: Moshannon Valley is at West Branch, and Claysburg-Kimmel hosts Mount Union.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Moshannon Valley 6 6 6 0 — 18

Claysburg-Kimmel 7 0 15 7 — 29

First Quarter

MV–Valent Cervenak 41 pass from Brady Mihalko (kick failed), 10:13.

CK–Mark Lattieri 2 run (Nathan Fee kick), 6:37.

Second Quarter

MV–Brady Kephart 2 run (run failed), :38.

Third Quarter

MV–Rocco Reifer 20 run (kick blocked), 11:10.

CK–Tyler Mowry 13 pass from Mason Campagna (Campagna run), 8:33.

CK–Campagna 26 run (Fee kick), :53.

Fourth Quarter

CK–Campagna 5 run (Fee kick), 5:26.

TEAM STATISTICS MV CK

First downs 17 22

Total yards 275 349

Rushes-yards 34-170 50-215

Yards passing 105 134

Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 7-13-1 10-21-0

Punts-avg. 2-29 1-29

Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-1

Penalties-yards 10-99 10-100

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–Moshannon Valley, R. Reifer 21-150, Buck 5-39, Mital 1-12, Kephart 2-0, Mihalko 5-(-31). Claysburg-Kimmel, Lattieri 28-112, Campagna 22-104, TEAM 1-(-1).

PASSING–Moshannon Valley, Mihalko 7-13-1-105. Claysburg-Kimmel, Campagna 10-21-0-134.

RECEIVING–Moshannon Valley, Abernethey 2-29, Mital 2-8, Cervenak 1-41, Kephart 1-17, Buck 1-10. Claysburg-Kimmel, Mowry 5-50, Diehl 2-23, Kennedy 1-35, Lattieri 1-21, Herline 1-5.