Published October 20, 1987

GRAHAMSVILLE - For weeks Tri-Valley has been coming up with the big third quarter play that has often turned the tide against their opponents. But not even Bears coach Mike Shea could have planned Saturday's big play against Eldred, which highlighted the 21-0 Western Sullivan League (WSL) laugh over the Yellowjackets.

Trailing only 7-0 coming out of the half, Eldred's Vic Ruscillo booted a long, high kick which landed near the 20, then took an Eldred bounce as it rolled back to the Bear's end zone. It appeared the Bears would be starting the second half deep in their own end, with the ball ending its journey at the Tri-Valley two.

Back for the Bears was senior Phil Rotella, who now realized the ball was not going to roll into the endzone.

“It was a great kick that took an Eldred roll,” said Shea, in remembering the play. “I yelled for the guys to let it go, then after it stopped, I hoped Phil would pick it up and salvage something. Starting at the 10 would be better than the two.”

Just as Rotella picked up the ball, the Yellowjackets defense began to swarm in, ready for the kill. Rotella ran up the middle for five yards, then dashed down the right sidelines. He went past the Yellowjacket's defense, and right past Eldred coach Frank Kean who could only watch in disbelief as Rotella ran back the second half kickoff 98 yards for the Bears second touchdown of the game.

“They thought the ball was in the end zone,” said a frustrated Kean afterwards. His Yellowjackets squad dropped to 1-4 in the WSL, 1-5 overall, and eyes inexperience for many of those defeats.

“I had a gang of inexperienced kids on the kickoff. I call them my ‘Focowee' bunch. It's a name we've had here for years for guys that don't see a lot of action. Maybe it was my fault to have them in there, but you want to give these guys some playing time. They just didn't play for the football,” added Kean.

Scott Allison scored the other two touchdowns for the Bears. The first was a 12 yard run on fourth down in the team's opening offensive drive, then a 10 yard gain in the closing minutes of the third quarter.

Along with shutting out the offensively minded Yellowjackets (coming into the game Eldred was second in the WSL in points scored), Tri-Valley had come up with their biggest offensive day of the season. Kinney passed the ball for 65 yards and ran for another 51, Dan Ritter led the Bears with 67 yards rushing while Allison had 40 yards on the ground. The Bears moved their league mark up to 3-1-1.

“This was one of the few games in which we did everything we wanted to. When our defense is on, like it was today, then nothing surprises me about how well we could play,” explained Shea.

But there were those times of frustration, the most notable coming midway through the second quarter, when Rotella took a handoff from quarterback Darin Kinney for an apparent 67 yard touchdown, which was called back because of clipping on Noah Crispi.

“That was frustrating,” remarked Shea. “You just hope that doesn't come back to haunt you. But we were moving the ball well, and kept their offense off the field, which was our game plan. They have the potential to strike at any time.”

The fear over the Eldred offense was directed from quarterback Jeremy Smyth who threw for over 500 yards in the teams first three games. But as they had done in an upset win against Liberty, the Yellowjackets kept the ball on the ground the entire first quarter, and most of the second half.

“Our ground game really kept us in the first half. We knew we had to get some running attack going before we just passed. But after falling behind, we had no choice in the second half but throw. And that's what got us in trouble,” said Kean.

He added, “Turnovers, turnovers, that's what hurt. We had guys not looking up to catch passes, guys dropping them in the end zone. Those things happen, especially with a young team.”