Bishop Shanahan comes back to beat Valley View in state quarterfinals
The Bishop Shanahan football squad advanced to the PIAA 4A state semifinals for the first time in program history with a 35-25 comeback victory against host Valley View Friday evening in the PIAA 4A state quarterfinals.
The temperature at kickoff was 16 degrees, snow was falling and field was icy, but that didn’t cool the passion of the Eagles (11-3) against Valley View, a team that came into Friday’s contest with only one loss, had scored 40 points six times this fall and had shut out three opponents.
Bishop Shanahan held Valley View, a team that relies on a power running game, to one first down in the first half but trailed at halftime 21-13 thanks to a handful of big plays by the hosts. Meanwhile, the Eagles were moving the ball consistently, and held a time-of-possession advantage of 15:41 to 8:19 in the first half.
“We were moving the ball, we just weren’t finishing our drives,” said Bishop Shanahan head coach Paul Meyers. “I told our team at halftime that we had been here before, that we were stopping them on defense – they had no long drives on us – and that we knew we could move the ball. We made a few adjustments at halftime, and our seniors – we have 28 of them – really did a good job for us tonight.”
The first quarter ended in a 7-7 tie. Bishop Shanahan scored first, on a 5-yard touchdown run by Colin McGrory with 1:26 left in the period. Just 21 seconds later, Valley View star running back Connor Hilling broke free for an 80 yard TD run to tie the score.
The Eagles took a 13-7 lead three minutes into the second quarter on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Cooper Jordan to Nicholas Romano, who was crossing in the back of the end zone.
Valley View’s Hilling took the ensuing kickoff 71 yards all the way down to the Shanahan 8-yard line. Three plays later, the hosts scored on a 4-yard TD pass to AJ Kucharski. The extra point gave the hosts a 14-13 lead.
With just 1:22 left in the second half, Valley View’s Jordan Rebar picked up a fumble and ran 10 yards for a touchdown, to give the hosts a 21-13 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Shanahan began to slow its offensive pace, using a huddle more frequently. On the Eagles’ opening drive of the second half, Jordan hit McGrory on a screen pass for a 49-yard gain, all the way down to the Valley View 22 yard line. On 4th-and-2 at the Valley View 4-yard line, Jordan hit McGrory on a touchdown pass to cut the host’s lead to 21-19. The Eagles succeeded on the two-point conversion attempt on a pass from Jordan to Brandon Choi to tie the score at 21-21.
“We were moving the ball with an attack of both thunder and lightning,” said Meyers. “Colin McGrory and Simmi Whitehill are the thunder, grinding out the yards up the middle, and Cooper Jordan is the lightning.”
Bishop Shanahan’s defense came up big on the next series, stopping Valley View after the hosts had advanced the ball for a first down at the Eagles 1-yard line.
Shanahan soon was forced to punt deep in its own territory, and a fumbled snap gave Valley View a safety and a 23-21 lead with 2:02 left in the third quarter.
Following the free kick, Valley View’s offensive drive was stopped when Romano made an interception at the Shanahan 2-yard line. It was the first of three Shanahan interceptions. But a few plays later, an Eagle punt was blocked through the back of the end zone for another safety and a 25-21 Valley View lead with 10:38 left.
The hosts received the free kick, and Choi recorded an interception at the Valley View 33-yard line with 8:13 left.
“We had scouted Valley View, and we noticed that on third down their quarterback likes to roll to the right and throw a deep out,” said Meyers. “Brandon Choi was right there at the correct spot [on defense] to make the interception.”
Six plays later, Jordan scored on a 2–yard third-down quarterback sneak to give Shanahan a 28-25 lead with 4:48 left.
Valley View made one final effort to score, advancing the ball to the Eagles’ 26 yard line with 51 seconds left.
With just 16 seconds left, Shanahan’s Sean Bracken grabbed a tipped Valley View pass and ran 75 yards for the clinching touchdown.
“We hit their quarterback with a rush, one of our defensive linemen tipped the ball, and Sean got it,” said Meyers. “There was no one in front of Sean, so he ran it all the way in.”
PIAA Class 4A quarterfinals
Bishop Shanahan 35, Valley View 25
Bishop Shanahan 7 6 8 14 — 35
Valley View 7 14 2 2 — 25
Scoring
First quarter
BS – McGrory 5 run (Domsohn kick). 1:26
VV – Hilling 80 run (Cole kick). 1:05
Second quarter
BS – Romano 21 pass from Jordan (bad snap). 9:01
VV – Kucharski 4 pass from Memo (Cole kick). 7:56
VV – Rebar 10 fumble return (Cole kick). 1:22
Third quarter
BS – McGrory 4 pass from Jordan (Choi pass from Jordan). 8:05
VV – Safety. (Jordan falls on fumbled snap in end zone). 2:02
Fourth quarter
VV – Safety (Rudalavage blocks punt through back of end zone). 10:38
BS – Jordan 2 run (Domsohn kick). 4:48
BS – Bracken 75 interception return (Domsohn kick). :16.1
Team statistics
BS VV
First Downs 14 9
Rushing-Att-Yards 40-126 33-204
Comp-Att-Int 10-12-0 3-11-3
Passing Yards 130 8
Total Yards 256 212
Punts-Average 1-32.0 3-0.0
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties-Yards 2-18 4-35
Individual statistics
Rushing: BS – C.Jordan 17-61, 1 TD; C.McGrory 10-30, 1 TD; S.Whitehill 7-23; B.Choi 4-8; T.Barbadora 2-4. VV – C.Hilling 20-177, 1 TD; D.Memo 3-16; C.Skeen 7-8; D.Randle 3-3; Team – 0-0.
Passing: BS – C.Jordan 10-12-0, 130, 2 TDs. VV – D.Memo 3-11-3, 8, 1 TD.
Receiving: BS – C.McGrory 3-58, 1 TD; N.Romano 3-35, 1 TD; E.Kapczynski 2-13; B.Choi 1-7; S.Whitehill 1-17. VV – S.Mackinder 1-14; C.Skeen 1-(-10); A.Kucharski 1-4, 1 TD.
