News

Vikings ground Falcons

By RYAN KUNSELMAN

Get ready to dust off the age-old nickname of "Comeback Kids," because the Venango Catholic Vikings are about to don the title.

For the second game in a row, the Vikings trailed heading into the fourth quarter only to pull out Tuesday night's Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference victory as they dropped Allegheny- Clarion Valley, 65-62, at Monsignor Antoun Gymnasium to stay unbeaten on the season.

The Vikings (11-0, 8-0) found themselves trailing 45-44 after three quarters, but put the clamps down on the Falcons (6-5, 4-3) early in the fourth. Venango Catholic went on a 13-0 run that ate up nearly five minutes of the clock with eight of those points coming from Maxx Rynd.

Refusing to fade quietly, though, the Falcons' offense went on a 14-4 tear of its own.

Brody Irwin kick-started the run for A-C with a threepointer followed by a field goal from Ryan Bartley.

Rynd countered with a slashing layup down the lane, but Allan Eaton kept the Falcon offense rolling by putting in three points the oldfashioned way.

Ben Guth followed for the Vikings with a pair of free throws before Eaton put the Falcons on his shoulders and scored six unanswered to pull A-C Valley within two at 61-59 with just :21 remaining.

That was as close as the score would get, however, as Venango Catholic hit four clutch free throws, two from Guth and two from Rynd, to keep the Falcons at bay.

Bartley would bank home a triple for A-C as time expired to set the final score at 65-62.

"I think they're learning how to win," Venango Catholic coach Ed McIntyre said. "I think they're continuing to fight through adversity and we saw that against Cranberry and against A-C Valley, and A-C Valley is a pretty good team. The guys know how important it is to make free throws at the end and make good decisions and I'm glad they handled it well."

The pace was fast and furious thoughout the entire game between the KSAC foes leading up to the final showdown with neither team calling a timeout until just two minutes were left in the third quarter.

In the first frame, the Falcons were able to overcome nine turnovers and scratch out a 13-12 lead.

The Vikings snatched the lead in the first minute of the second with back-toback field goals by Garrett Hawkins and held the advantage for most of the frame, but with the score at 29-24 and just under a minute remaining in the half, Irwin popped in a layup and a triple to tie the score at 29-29 midway through.

A-C Valley went on an 8-0 late in the third quarter to take a 45-38 lead, only to see the Vikings answer with a four-point play from Hawkins and a bucket by Rynd to cut the deficit to one point.

Rynd led the Vikings with 18 points and seven rebounds while Guth was close behind with 16. Hawkins knocked down three treys on his way to tallying 12 and Alec Thurau chipped in with 10.

Eaton led all scorers with 27 for A-C Valley and Bartley scored 15 and swiped 19 rebounds. Irwin deposited 13 to round out the double-figure scoring.

Originally published in The Derrick January 20, 2011