Claysburg-Kimmel Hands Warriors Their First Loss of Season

Allport- After winning their first two games of the season, the Warriors looked like they were picking up right where they left off on Friday night. West Branch received the opening kick and went right to work. The Warriors used an 11 play-59 yard effort, which consisted of 11 rushing attempts, to open the scoring. Quarterback Ayden Gutierrez found the endzone on a three yard rushing attempt on fourth down. Kyle Godin’s extra point attempt made it 7-0 West Branch. The Bulldogs responded midway through the second quarter, but their 2-PT conversion failed. The Warriors lead 7-6.

The Warriors failed to make anything out of their next offensive drive, but Derek Yingling made the Bulldogs pay on defense. On the first play of the drive, Yingling forced a fumble and took it 18 yards to the house. The extra-point snap was botched, but after rolling to his right and reversing to his left, Gutierrez found Sophomore Jake Martin in the back of the endzone, making the score 15-6. Claysburg answered late in the 2nd quarter, but once again failed on the 2-PT. The Warriors led 15-12 going into the half.

Claysburg opened the 2nd half with a scoring drive via an eight minute, 15 play effort that put them ahead 18-15. The Bulldogs failed on every single 2-PT attempt, but from that point on they couldn’t be stopped. They scored 24 unanswered points before the Warriors could respond. In fact, the Warriors couldn’t find the endzone in the 3rd quarter, and it wasn’t until Derek Yingling broke free for a 61-yard run with four minutes left in the 4th quarter that the Warriors scored a 2nd half point. The extra-point, however, was no good, leaving the Warriors trailing 30-21. An onside kick attempt failed, and Claysburg responded with another score less than a minute later which put them back up by two scores. West Branch kept fighting, with Sophomore Noah Hoffner hauling in a Gutierrez pass with less than a minute to play to make it a one possession game. The onside kick failed once again, and the bulldogs ran out the clock.

“Yeah we made some mistakes tonight, but we didn’t quit,” Josh Cantolina said. “We can fix mistakes, but you can’t really fix not having heart, so that’s something to build off of. I went down in the fourth, and to see how the guys fought even harder for me was really cool. We have a great bond as a whole, and if we stick together I think we’re going to be just fine.”

West Branch (2-1) travels to Glendale (1-2) this Friday.

BOX SCORE:

Score by Quarters

Claysburg-Kimmel 0 12 12 12– 36

West Branch 7 8 0 13– 28

Individual Statitstics

Rushing:

Derek Yingling 19-171 (1 TD)

Will Herring 8-29

Hudson Pase 2-4

Ayden Gutierrez 6-2 (1 TD)

Passing: