Cambria Heights Highlanders escape with fourth-quarter TD in victory over United Valley
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ARMAGH -- A clean game it was not.
Reigning Heritage Conference and District 6 Class 3A champion Cambria Heights survived a frantic start to the fourth quarter en route to a 22-15 victory against United Valley on Friday night at Thomas J. Madill Athletic Field on Friday night.
The teams combined for 17 penalties for 120 yards and four fumbles in the conference football season opener for both schools.
Play of the game: The game-winning score, appropriately, came on what started as a disaster. Senior quarterback Kaiden Ivory fumbled the snap but managed to recover the ball and his senses before he found Brayden DeArmitt for a touchdown pass that covered 83 yards early in the fourth quarter.
"We were there for it to make a play. And (the pass) coverage fell down. The kid broke two or three tackles. That was high tackling. That is something we'll work on next week," United Valley coach Lou McElwee said.
"That's not how you draw it; I can assure you," Cambria Heights coach Jarrod Lewis said. "We dropped the ball; we got it out."
Player of the game: Cambria Heights sophomore Nolan Clawson rushed for a game-high 121 yards.
Unsung heroes: James Holtz and Carson Lobick recovered fumbles for the Highlanders.
Most vital statistics: Cambria Heights outgained United Valley, 331-254. Ivory threw for 177 yards and two touchdowns and one interception.
Coach Lewis: "I liked our resilience. The thought the first half was probably the bigger problem. We left a couple of touchdowns on the board. But we'll take it."
Lewis on achieving offensive balance: "If we're going to be the team we think we are (and) can be, we need to make sure we get a lot of guys involved."
Clawson: "We knew coming into this game they weren't going to back down; and it was going to be a dogfight. We came prepared. But the mental mistakes just screwed us sometimes."
Coach McElwee, speaking of the inevitable Week 1 miscues: "We knew, this being Game 1, there would be some mental mistakes made. We knew there would be some hiccups. It came down to where we made more mistakes than they did."
Notable: Several players cramped up on a warm evening in a game that required nearly 3 hours to complete. ... Cambria Heights attempted a halfback option from Clawson to Carson Lobick that would have netted 40 yards had a holding infraction not nullified the pass play. … United Valley managed only 5 more yards after Dmitri Worthington found a wide-open Logan Lichtenfels on the Lions' first play from scrimmage. The Lions settled for a 41-yard field goal by Conner Riffer. ... Worthington gave United Valley a short-lived 15-14 lead when he hooked up with Cole McGinnis for a 29-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter. ... Worthington threw for 140 yards.
Records: Cambria Heights (1-0), United Valley (0-1).
Next week: Cambria Heights plays host to River Valley, and United Valley visits Homer-Center on Friday.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Cambria Heights 7 0 7 8 - 22
United Valley 3 0 6 6 - 15
First Quarter
UV--FG Riffer 27, 7:38.
CH--Lewis 15 pass from Ivory (Kutruff kick), 5:28.
Second Quarter
No scoring.
Third Quarter
UV-Lichtenfels 5 run (kick failed), 6:12.
CH-Dawson Warner 1 run (Kutruff kick), 3:03.
Fourth Quarter
UV-McGinnis 29 pass from Worthington (pass failed), 11:53.
CH-DeArmitt 83 pass from Ivory (DeArmitt pass from Ivory), 10:54.
TEAM STATISTICS CH UV
First downs 15 13
Total yards 331 254
Rushes-yards 38-153 39-114
Yards passing 178 140
Passes-Comp.Int. 19-11-1 24-15-0
Punts-avg. 30.3 4-40.1
Fumbles-lost 2-0 2-2
Penalties-yards 10-75 6-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing--Cambria Heights, Clawson 20-131, Warner 5-22, DeArmitt 3-11, Dawson Warner 3-6, Ivory 2-4, Team 4-(-19). United Valley, Szymusiak 12-46, McGinnis 2-36, Worthington 13-24, Lichtenfels 6-23, Oleksa 3-6, McElwee 2-(-5), Team 2-(-16).
Passing--Cambria Heights, Ivory 10-18-1-177, Clawson 1-1-0-1. United Valley, Worthington 15-24-0-240.
Receiving--Cambria Heights, DeArmitt 4-129, Lewis 3-30, Lobick 2-19, Clawson 1-2. Gray 1-9. United Valley, Luko 7-46, Lichtenfels 3-61, McGinnis 3-34, McElwee 2-12.