Penns Valley boys survive OT thriller over Huntingdon

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: October 16, 2020

(Image caption) Penns Valley Junior midfielder Ryan McFeely (blue jersey) collects the ball and beats a Huntingdon opponent in Mountain League Boys Soccer action at Penns Valley on Thursday October 15.

It was a night of “blood, sweat, and tears” in the Valley as the Rams continued their late season surge with their 7th win in a row. Huntingdon came to town Thursday for a rare late evening matchup that needed more than 80 minutes to decide a winner.

“It was a very physical contest as is usually the case with a match against Huntingdon” said Rams coach Ken Gore. “We came out flat at the beginning and they came at us hard right from the opening whistle.”

Just five minutes into the match Huntingdon capitalized on some defensive confusion by Penns Valley and found the net to put Penns Valley’s back against the wall.

“One goal is a huge lead in an intense match like this” said Gore, “It’s been a while since we’ve been down that early in the game and you could see we were a little uncomfortable in that position.”

It took a little time, but Penns Valley regrouped and started to settle back into their game plan. Once the Rams reset it was just a matter of time before they tallied the equalizer in the 31st minute on a beautiful strike from just outside the box by senior Connor Martz.

“Once we finished that first goal to even things up, we finally started playing with more urgency and kept up a relentless attack. I told my guys that if we kept the ball in their box, something was going to happen.”

After a scoreless hard-fought 2nd 40 minutes on both sides, that “something” happened – it just took a little more time than Penns Valley had anticipated.

“At the break before overtime, I told them that we hadn’t played this long and this hard to lose this match – and that we would win this game.” explained Coach Gore. “I said let’s get this done early!”

And that’s precisely what the Rams did. Just 1:39 into OT, Connor Martz took a massive throw from senior Michael Johnson and ended the game with his signature vertical leap and a driving header that rebounded off an unsuspecting Huntingdon defender and into the back of the net.

“Everyone knows that a throw-in from Michael (Johnson) is as good as a corner – and when we got that throw in a minute or so in and had Connor setting up in the middle, I yelled ‘this is it boys – we do this now!'”

And when they did it, they left the blood and sweat behind on the field – and those tears were jumping, cheering, celebrating tears of joy on the sideline and in the stands!

Huntingdon @ Penns Valley

Final – OT

Penns Valley 2

Huntingdon 1

Goals:

Huntingdon – Eli Dunwoody 5:35

Penns Valley – Connor Martz – assist: Aidan Culver 31:15

Penns Valley – Connor Martz – assist: Michael Johnson 81:39 (OT – 1:39)

Shots:

Penns Valley – 13

Huntingdon – 5

Saves: