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HOUTZDALE -- In a rivalry game where yards were tough to come by, a special teams play by Moshannon Valley's Rocco Reifer came up huge against Glendale on Friday night at CNB Bank Stadium.
On the second play of the second quarter, Reifer shot through the line and blocked Connor Oshall's punt. Reifer then scooped up the ball around the Glendale 30 and bolted to the end zone to break a scoreless tie.
"It was a big momentum shift their way," Glendale coach Chase Hill said. "It's tough to bounce back from something like that. If you take that away, it's 7-6 at the half. We did a good job bouncing back from the adversity when it faced us. We didn't hang our heads. I was proud of them for that."
The Black Knights needed that play on a night where the Vikings limited them to negative rushing yards and 129 total yards. Mo Valley scored one offensive touchdown and made a defensive stand at the end of the game in a 14-12 win.
"We work on special teams a lot," Mo Valley coach Chris Davidson said. "We're just very fortunate to see it pay off. We've done a good job with special teams this year. Guys really buy into it and the evidence was right there. We felt like we could get one and Rocco came through."
Davidson was holding the first Croatian Club Trophy, which goes to the winner of rivalry game.
"This is a really good rivalry between these two schools," Davidson said. "The last three years it's been nip and tuck. We didn't expect anything different this year."
Offensive play of the game: Moshannon Valley quarterback Brady Mihalko threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Jack Moore with 2:33 left in the first half to make the score 14-6.
"We feel we have two pretty good receivers on the outside and with Jack Moore and Mason Abernethy," Davidson said. "We feel like we can go to them pretty much any time we want. We felt we had a decent matchup with Jack. Brady's got a good arm. He laid it up there for him, and Jack tracked the ball well and hauled it in."
Series of the game: Quarterback Logan Skebeck and running back Gage Myers, who had 105 yards rushing on 16 carries, led the Vikings on a 17-play, 60-yard drive late in the game.
Skebeck finished it by getting stopped initially on a sneak from the 1 before changing course and moving right into the end zone with 2:13 left in the game.
"Our two-minute offense looked great," Hill said. "Logan was making really good reads. Gage was running hard. Our line was firing out. They wanted to move the guys in front of them. Our receivers were sitting in spaces. Everything was clicking for us."
Defensive play of the game: The Vikings needed a two-point conversion after the Skebeck touchdown. He completed a pass to Myers, but Mo Valley linebacker Alex Reifer tackled the Viking short of the goal line.
Players of the game: The quarterbacks combined to complete 28 of 45 passes for 273 yards. Skebeck was 19-of-26 for 134, while Mihalko was 9-of-19 for 139. He threw a TD pass and was intercepted by Kaiden Franks.
Unsung heroes: Mo Valley's JC Smith kicked two extra points and recovered a fumble.
Notable: Glendale sacked Mihalko five times, leaving him with minus 46 rushing yards and the Knights with minus 10 rushing yards. ... The Knights recovered another fumble in the final minute. ... Abernethy caught four passes for 73 yards. ... Glendale's Tanner Ammerman had seven catches for 46 yards.
Next week: Glendale hosts Southern Huntingdon. Moshannon Valley visits Mount Union.
Records: Glendale (0-4), Moshannon Valley (2-2)
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Glendale 0 6 0 6 --12
Moshannon Valley 0 14 0 0 --14
Second Quarter
MV--Reifer 30 blocked punt return (Smith kick), 11:34
G--Hamilton 3 run (run failed), 5:06
MV--Moore 20 pass from Mihalko (Smith kick), 2:33
Fourth Quarter
G--Skebeck 1 run (pass failed), 2:13
TEAM STATISTICS G MV
First downs 12 8
Total yards 258 129
Rushes-yards 32-124 20-(-10)
Yards passing 134 139
Passing (comp.-att.-int) 19-26-0 9-19-1
Punts-avg. 5-20.8 6-21.6
Fumbles-lost 2-2 0-0
Penalties-yards 11-99 6-60
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Glendale--Myers 16-105, Skebeck 12-16, Hamilton 3-5, Ammerman 1-(-2). Moshannon Valley--Reifer 5-20, Kephart 5-11, Mital 3-3, Smeal 1-3, TEAM 1-(-1), Mihalko 5-(-46).
PASSING: Glendale--Skebeck 19-26-0-134. Moshannon Valley--Mihalko 9-19-1-139.
RECEIVING: Glendale--Ammerman 7-46, Hoopsick-Bell 2-33, Hamilton 4-30, Dreibelbis 2-14, Myers 4-11. Moshannon Valley--Abernethy 4-73, Moore 4-62, Mital 1-4.