Valley Sports ReportATHENS — Athens raced out to a 42-0 halftime lead, thanks to senior QB Connor Davidson's first-half TDs, on its way to a 49-13 win over Cowanesque Valley here Friday night in NTL Large School Division football action at Alumni Stadium.
The Wildcats piled up 353 yards in total offense in the game, including 262 rushing yards.
"We were still a little sloppy offensively early, then we started to find a groove running some no-huddle stuff ... we're getting better there," said Athens coach Shawn Bradley.
"It was a rough week of practice trying to get over that hangover from last week, but the kids did what they needed to do," he added.
The Wildcats also forced seven turnovers, including four interceptions — two by Connor Davidson and one each by sophomores Jayce Bowman and Eli Wayman.
"The defense has been playing well," said Bradley. "Coach Satterly, coach Yeager and Nick (Bradley) are doing a great job with those kids."
The one drawback for the Wildcats was 85 penalty yards on eight flags.
"We have to be smarter with our tackling technique, take a little better approach to eliminate those helmet-to-helmet," said Bradley.
"We need to clean that up because they are going to bite you in big games like they did last week," he added.
The Wildcats took the lead early on a 9-yard TD pass from Davidson to senior Gage Marmor. Zach Fisher, who was 7-for-7 on extra-point kicks, split the up-rights with his PAT kick to make it 7-0.
Davidson scored on a 6-yard run later in the opening stanza to make it 14-0.
Davidson busted loose on a 58-yard scoring run in the opening minute of the second quarter to extend the lead to 21-0, and Brendan Cooke added a 1-yard TD run just a few minutes later to make it 28-0.
Davidson finished off the first-half scoring with a 27-yard TD pass to junior Kade Rowe, and a 4-yard TD pass to senior Brendan Cooke to make it 42-0.
Davidson finished off the Athens scoring with a 1-yard TD run in the third quarter to extend the lead to 49-0.
Dave Hess returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a TD to put CV on the board.
The Indians added another score in the fourth quarter on a 75-yard TD run by Bo Adams to provide the final margin.
Davidson rushed for 190 yards and three TDs on 15 carries, and senior Brendan Cooke had 52 yards and one TD on nine carries.
Davidson completed 7 of 13 passes for 76 yards and three TDs — all to different receivers.
"Connor does a nice job of spreading the ball around," said Bradley. "And our receives are pretty good.
"Connor was much more efficient today with the football, not trying to take as many shots," he added.
Freshman Elliott Chilson completed 2 of 4 passes for 15 yards.
Rowe led Athens with two catches for 25 yards and one TD, senior Dominic Robbins had one grab for 24 yards, Marmor had two catches for 21 yards, Wayman had one catch for 14 yards.
CV had 161 yards in total offense, with 75 of it coming on Adams' fourth-quarter TD run.
Athens, now 2-1, returns to action next Friday at South Williamsport.
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IN PHOTO 1: Athens junior Kade Rowe hauls in a TD pass. IN TOP PHOTO: Athens senior Connor Davidson. ... PHOTOS BY MATT PATTON.
