by The Holy Name Green Wave came into Friday needing a win to return to the playoffs, while the Valley Forge Patriots needed a win to have a chance at hosting a playoff game. It was wet and wild, but in the end, it was Holy Name securing playoff seeding with a 30-16 victory.
It was a wild first half with plenty of scoring as both teams had little issue finding the endzone. Despite the bad weather, both teams stuck to the run and found openings to score. Andrew Cole did the majority of the work on the ground with two rushing touchdowns in the first half, to spark the Green Wave to a 14-13 lead with under five minutes to go in the half.
The Patriots received both of their first half touchdowns on the ground as well. The first coming from Dan Kiewel on a 44-yard scamper. The second from Ben Farson. Down 14-13 with time winding down in the first half, the Patriots put together a beautiful two-minute drive to capitalize with a 31 yard field goal to take a 16-14 lead into the half.
Except, there was just one problem with that, despite having less than 45 seconds, Holy Name decided to try for one more score, and they got it! A monster 51 yard passing strike from Andrew Cole to Jawan Bryant found paydirt as Bryant was wide open to give the Namers a 21-16 halftime lead.
The Namers failed to gain momentum to start the second half as an early turnover near midfield, returned the ball back to the Patriots. Valley Forge was unable to take advantage of the early turnover however, and had to punt it back to Holy Name. The quarter ended by that same score with the Namers still on top 21-16.
A promising drive by the Patriots was snuffed out to start the fourth quarter when Aidan Butler picked off a Kiewal pass and brought it all the way back, 70 yards to score and extend the Green Wave lead to 28-16 and pretty much punch their ticket to the playoffs. The Namer tacked on a safety in the closing seconds to seal the 30-16 victory.
Player of the game
Holy Name DB Aidan Butler with a 70 yard pick six.
