Trending
RURAL VALLEY -- Cambria Heights locked up its share of the Heritage Conference championship with a 42-7 win over West Shamokin on Friday night.
The Highlanders finished the regular season 9-1 and shared the conference title with Marion Center and River Valley. Heights handed River Valley its only loss, and Marion Center beat Cambria Heights and lost to River Valley to create the three-way tie.
"It means a lot," Cambria Heights coach Jarrod Lewis said. "Any time you are competing for a conference championship, it's an honor. That means we have been consistent all year. It means that we have battled adversity and dug down when we had to. Tonight was another example of that. When you are winning a conference title, it's an accomplishment, something to be proud of and something that you never take for granted because it's hard to do."
Nolan Clawson ran for a pair of touchdowns, including a 42-yarder, and Kaiden Ivory threw two touchdown passes, one each to Brayden DeArmitt and Carson Lobick.
The passing game is something Lewis wanted the Highlanders to work on before the postseason.
"You never want to be one dimensional in the playoffs," Lewis said. "You're going to run up against teams that if you can only run the football, they are going to be good at stopping the run or if you can only throw the football, they can key on that. You want to be able to do both, and that's what we have been working on to achieve that balance all year. I thought, especially early, we threw the ball very well. I think that's important. You can see Kaiden getting better each week, and you can see our receivers getting better each week."
DeArmitt also ran for a touchdown, and Colton Strong ran for a fourth-quarter score for Heights.
Tentatively, according to the District 6 rankings after Friday's games, Cambria Heights will host Marion Center in a rematch of the Highlanders' lone loss in the District 6 Class 2A quarterfinals next week.
Five teams in Class 2A went 9-1 or better.
"You want to go out and be playing your best football going into the playoffs," Lewis said. "I thought West Shamokin came in and was a physical football team. We knew that they were big and strong, but we made some plays when we had to. I think it's important to be playing your best going into the playoffs, and we wanted to be as healthy as we could be."
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Cambria Heights 0 21 14 7 -- 42
West Shamokin 0 0 0 7 -- 7
Second Quarter
CH--DeArmitt 10 run (Kutruff kick)
CH--Clawson 5 run (Kutruff kick)
CH--Lobick 25 pass from Ivory (Kutruff kick)
Third Quarter
CH--Clawson 42 run (Kutruff kick)
CH--DeArmitt 67 pass from Ivory (Kutruff kick)
Fourth Quarter
CH--Strong 22 run (Kutruff kick)
WS--Booher 8 run (Stockdale kick)