RIMERSBURG — Brockway Rovers seniors Blake Pisarcik and Raiden Craft had combined for 41 career carries going into Thursday night’s game against Union/A-C Valley.
In the Rovers’ 41-20 win over the Falcon Knights, the duo put together a combined 35 carries for 230 yards, leading a balanced offensive approach with a strong defensive performance to bounce back from last week’s 63-0 loss to unbeaten Central Clarion and improve to 5-3.
Pisarcik, still the team’s top receiver, ran for 137 yards on 19 carries with touchdown runs of 3 and 63 yards in the second half while Craft went for 93 yards on 16 carries with a 3-yard TD run in the first half.
Pisarcik also caught an 11-yard TD pass from Aiden Patton in the first half, finishing with three catches for 37 yards. He had 16 career carries going into the game.
“We’ve kind of been in no-man’s land without (lead ball carrier), but we do think eventually we’re going to have to play in a cold game and hand the ball off a ton of times,” Rovers head coach Jake Heigel said. “And obviously he’s the guy we feel is gonna be able to do it. We’re really happy with Raiden Kraft coming in and running hard.
“It has been by committee, but I think we have enough bodies up front that if we want to get a run game going, you hand it off to Blake, and you saw at the end, he’s able to pop one and take it to the house.”
Pisarcik’s 63-yarder was part of the Rovers’ strong finish that finally did put away the Falcon Knights. After the Rovers built a 27-6 lead after Patton’s 77-yard TD pass to Aiden Snowberger three plays into the second half, the Falcon Knights scored twice to get within 27-20 after Owen Bish’s 21-yard TD pass to Trent Fleming on a fourth-and-19 play with 31.3 seconds left in the third quarter.
Pisarcik was the feature back in the ensuing 13-play, 41-yard drive that was capped by his 3-yarder with 7:04 left in the fourth quarter. Then after stopping the Falcon Knights on downs at the Rovers’ 37, Pisarcik dashed to the end zone for the 63-yarder two plays later to set the final with 3:14 remaining.
“I’m happy with our offensive line, and really happy with our defense,” Heigel said. “I still think there’s some stuff we got to shore up when we get a lead like that. For some reason, this team always seems to make it more interesting than we want it to be, but I’m proud of those guys.”
Patton was efficient as well, completing 14 of 20 passes for 163 yards and three TDs. He threw first-half TD passes to Caleb Daugherty covering 26 yards — Daugherty broke a few tackles, then used good footwork to stay in bounds to finish of the first Rovers drive of the game — and an 11-yarder to Pisarcik to put the Rovers up 20-0 with 4:13 left in the first half. It was third TD in as many drives to start the game with Craft’s 3-yarder coming with 3:26 left in the first quarter.
But the Falcon Knights didn’t go away. After Colbin Elliott sacked Patton for a 9-yard loss on fourth-and-14 at the Rovers’ 43 with 38.9 seconds left in the half, the Falcon Knights needed two plays after an illegal block penalty to find their first points when a short Bish pass to Aidan Fox turned into a 46-yard TD play with just 11.7 seconds remaining before halftime.
Up 20-6 to start the second half with the ball, the Rovers scored quickly on Patton’s deep pass to Snowberger for their 77-yard hookup at the 10:53 mark.
“Aiden is good for one of those a game I think and he is a nice vertical threat to have at a given time,” Heigel said. “If that’s our identity, that we need to ground and pound and then take a shot over the top with him, hey, it if it works.”
The Falcon Knights cashed in on Pisarcik’s fumbled punt on the ensuing possession with Bish connecting with Max Gallagher for a 34-yard TD pass to make it 27-12 at the 8:04 mark of the third. After forcing a Rovers punt, the Falcon Knights went 65 yards on 15 plays, getting a pass interference call against the Rovers along the way, to score on Bish’s 21-yarder to Fleming.
But that was it for the Falcon Knights as the Rovers’ defense did a good job containing the slippery Bish and stuffing the running game to 62 yards on 27 attempts, which included two sacks of Bish who rushed for 40 yards on 12 carries.
Bish completed 13 of 25 passes for 150 yards with three TDs and a late interception as the Rovers’ Xavier Schwenter hauled in a deflected pass to allow Brockway to run out the clock.
“(The defense) thought they could get home, and they did, unfortunately (Bish) got the ball out a little early,” Heigel said. “He’s a heck of an athlete, and our guys did a good job of getting home, and sometimes it was an incomplete pass, but I think he felt it when we got there.”
The Rovers wound up running for a season-high 234 yards on 44 carries as Brockway outgained the Falcon Knights, 397-212.
“They came out in double tight formation, which might have been a little bit surprising, but they’ve done something a little bit different each game,” said Falcon Knights head coach Dan Reed, whose team dropped to 5-3. “So we were kind of ready for something. I don’t think it was necessarily the formation that come out and gave us trouble. It’s just a lot of missed tackles, a lot of missed assignments.”
Brockway hosts DuBois next Friday.
