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There was plenty of excitement across the northern tier last fall, and the Oswayo Valley volleyball team, as well as the Port Allegany football team led the way, both reaching the PIAA Class 1A semifinals.
The OV volleyball team knocked off two-time defending state champion Clarion in the D9 semifinals, and followed that up by beating Elk County Catholic for their first-ever district title and won a pair of PIAA playoff matches over Serra Catholic and Conemaugh Township before falling to eventual state champion Maplewood in th semifinals.
With the 3-1 win over Clarion (25-22, 24-26, 25-22, 25-15), the Green Wave ended the Lady Cats’ run of four consecutive D9 titles. The four-year run included a streak of 35-straight sets won in D9 playoff competition covering the last four seasons. With the win, the Green Wave also avenged a loss to the Lady Cats in the D9 title match a season ago. Olivia Cook had 21 kills and Avaree Kellert 18 for OV, while Trinity Lundy had 37 set assists to go along with seven digs, five aces (three in a row in the fourth set), and two kills and Praylan Perkins finished with 17 digs, six kills, three aces, and one block.
The D9 title victory was in straight sets over ECC, 25-23, 25-23, 25-17. It was a dominating performance by the unbeaten and second-seeded Green Wave who were appearing in only the second-ever title game in school history. Kellert and Cook both had 17 kills, while Perkins had eight kills and 15 digs and Lundy 35 set assists and 11 digs.
The win over Serra Catholic in the first round was a dramatic one for the Green Wave’s first-ever PIAA playoff win in five sets, 26-24, 25-12, 22-25, 15-25, 15-13). Serra Catholic had all the momentum after rallying from a 2-0 deficit, but the Green Wave (23-0) gathered themselves, jumping out to an 11-4 lead after kills from Avaree Kellert and Makenna Manning. The Eagles (18-3) battled back, getting within 14-13 before Olivia Cook slammed home the last of her 23 kills to send the Green Wave to the quarterfinals. Kellert also had 21 kills and 27 digs and Lundy 48 set assists.
It was a sweep in the quarterfinals, as OV knocked off Conemaugh Township, 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-22). Cook had 15 kills, nine digs, two blocks, and a set assist. Kellert added 14 kills, 15 digs, and two set assists, and Perkins had 11 kills, 12 digs, and a block.
The historic run came to an end with a 25-22, 25-23, 25-23 loss to Maplewood, but it was a run that won’t soon be forgotten.
The Port Allegany football team, meanwhile, advanced to the PIAA semifinals for the second time in program history, and did so with defense. The Gators went 12-2, with their only two losses (Clarion in Week 2, Union-New Castle in the PIAA semifinals) accounting for the only two times they gave up more than 14 points in a game.
The Port Allegany football team receives its D9 title trophy.
After an 18-6 win over Keystone in the D9 semifinals in which Noah Archer ran for 161 yards and also caught a 25-yard touchdown pass, the Gators found themselves toe-to-toe with a talented Brockway squad in the district title game, which was ultimately a 21-14 win for the Gators.
Trailing by seven going into the fourth quarter against Brockway, Archer had a pair of touchdowns runs over the final 12 minutes to help send the Gators to the title. Brockway, which trailed 7-0 midway through the second quarter took a 14-7 lead on a 44-yard Jendy Cuello touchdown run with 3:15 to play in the third quarter.
But Port Allegany answered on the subsequent drive with a 6-yard Archer scoring run with 10:30 to play. The Gators elected to go for the lead and took it on a trick play with Archer taking the direct snap and doing a jump pass to Peyton Stiles to give Port Allegany a 15-14 lead. Archer scored on a 57-yard touchdown run with 6:20 to play, and the Gator defense stood tall from that point forward. Blaine Moses scored on a 38-yard option pitch to get the scoring going for the Gators, who won their first D9 crown since 2012.
There was no such drama in the PIAA quarterfinals, as the Gators rolled past District 10 champion Reynolds, 42-8.
Moses had a pair of rushing touchdowns, including the first and last score of the game, and caught another, while Evens threw for two TDs and ran in a third. Noah Archer caught one touchdown pass and had a rushing score as well, and the Gators racked up 448 yards of total offense.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Gators held the high-powered Reynolds offense to its lowest output of the season and surrendered just 189 yards of total offense. The mercy rule went into effect with 6:30 to play in the third quarter after an Archer touchdown run.
The dream season came to an end a week later, 46-36 (despite a 30-point fourth quarter) against Union-New Castle, but the Gators, led by head coach Justin Bienkowski, had a season for the ages.
