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The Wellsboro Varsity Football team scored 32 unanswered points in a 32-7 win over Sayre on Friday, September 25.

Sayre controlled the ball for the majority of the first quarter after Wellsboro won the coin toss and deferred their choice to the second half. The Redskins ran the ball 13 times on their opening drive and got the ball to the Wellsboro 21-yard line where the Hornets’ forced them to attempt a field goal on fourth down. A bad snap was picked up by Sayre’s Gavin Lundy-McCutcheon, who heaved a pass down field that bounced off a Sayre receiver and into the hands of Michael Ward for a 14 yard touchdown. Mitchel Ward’s extra point split the uprights and Sayre led 7-0 with 4:26 left in the opening quarter.

“We came out a little flat to start out tonight and we had to play with more emotion,” said head coach Matt Hildebrand. “We were getting squeezed down a lot and just had to do a better job controlling the line of scrimmage. We knew they were going to try and run the ball down our throats, so we loaded the box to match their size up front.”

From that point on it was all Wellsboro. Sophomore Alex Kozuhowski returned the following kick 75 yards to the house and the Hornets trailed 7-6 after a missed extra point.

The Wellsboro defense adjusted on Sayre’s next drive and forced them to turn the ball over on downs at their own 42-yard line. From there it only took the Hornets three plays as sophomore Quinn Henry and senior Nick Tremper each ran the ball before Henry found a wide open Parker Mann in the end zone from 30 yards out to put the Hornets up 12-7 with 55 seconds left in the first quarter.

The Hornets stopped Sayre again and went right back to work. The Hornets put together an eight play drive that ended with a 23-yard Henry run with 5:10 left in the first half to put Wellsboro up 19-7 following sophomore Nic Ingerick’s extra point.

Sayre’s next possession ended with a fumble after three plays, setting the Hornets up with a first-and-10 on the Sayre 44-yard line. Henry found Tremper for an 8-yard gain before Tremper ended the drive on a 13-yard scamper into the end zone with 1:03 remaining to Wellsboro up 26-7.

Wellsboro and Sayre traded possessions for the majority of the third quarter with the visiting Hornets finding the end zone with 38 seconds left. Wellsboro recovered a fumble by Sayre’s Chris Ray and four plays later senior Anthony Cooper found the end zone on a 32 yard carry down the Wellsboro sideline to give Wellsboro the 32-7 win.

Henry finished the night 6-for-11 through the air for 63 yards and a touchdown. Mann led the Hornets with 2 receptions for 31 yards and a touchdown and Henry led the ground game with 89 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Tremper carried the ball 14 times for 62 yards and touchdown and Cooper finished with 38 yards and a touchdown on 3 attempts.

“I’m very happy with how the offense performed,” Hildebrand continued. “We spread the ball around to a bunch of different guys tonight and that’s always good because it makes us that much harder to defend. We lost a little intensity in the second half and we didn’t push as much as we could have and we need to improve on that and clean up the penalties.”

The Hornets were penalized 13 times for 115 yards on the night.

“We’ll watch film, get back to the drawing board and clean things up. Everything is all there, we just have to put it together,” concluded Hildebrand.

Defensively, junior Parker Jones led the Hornets with 13 tackles and a sack. Tremper added 12 tackles, sophomore Collin Pietropola had 8 stops, and Henry had an interception.

Next week, the Hornets return home for a NTL Division 1 matchup with Athens on Friday, October 2 at 7:00 p.m.

View Wellsboro vs. Sayre game stats from WellsboroFootball.com.