Penns Valley boys reaches .500 mark with win over Bellefonte

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: October 1, 2019

Photo by Tim Weight

In an early back and forth battle, the Penns Valley Rams were looking to get back to .500 and their opponent, Bellefonte was eyeing up getting back on the winning side.

But the night would belong to the Rams as they gave their home fans a lot to cheer about, taking the contest in a hard earned 3-1 victory.

Penns Valley opened up the scoring on a Zach Heckman goal. The assist came from Caleb Narber at 7:31.

Bellefonte battled back an tied things on a Shane Cronin unassisted goal at 10:29.

As the first half came down to under the last 10 minutes Penns Valley’s Zach Heckman took back to lead at 2-1 thanks to an assist by Caleb Narber at 34:25.

Penns Valley added an insurance goal when Aidan Culver found the back of the net on an assist by Connor Martz 43:29.

The Rams outshot the Red Raiders 20-17.

In goal, Bellefonte’s Quin Tooker had 17 while Penns Valley’s Dristen Wolfe tallied 16.

Corner Kicks were led by Bellefonte by a 6-5 margin.

“This was a really big match for us with some potential post-season implications. We came into the match at 4-5overall and really needed to get back to .500 – but still had the memory of the OT loss at Bellefonte in early September in mind,” said Penns Valley coach Ken Gore. “I told my guys that we need to win this one in regulation – no OT tonight! We struck early in the 1st half with a nice finish from Zach right in front of the goal off a cross from Caleb. We were feeling pretty good about the early lead until Bellefonte struck a few minutes later. As it turned out, that would be Bellefonte’s only score as we marked another goal from the same Zach/Caleb combination a few minutes before half and added the 3rd early in the 2nd half from a beautiful throw-in from Michael Johnson – to a Connor Martz header – to an Aidan Culver finish. Since we’re now in round two on the rotation, we knew what to look for in the Bellefonte attack and defense and made some adjustments and improvements that paid off this time. It was an excellent win on a damp and foggy night in Spring Mills – but we can only enjoy the win for a short time as we prepare for a big match with Tyrone on Wednesday and another away match at Hollidaysburg on Thursday.

With the win, Penns Valley improves to 5-5.

Next game Penns Valley travels to Tyrone, Wednesday 10/2 5:00 pm.