Bucks Ride Strong Defensive Performance to Win Over Elizabethtown

By Ethan Miller ‘23

Conestoga Valley notched their first win of the season 10-7 over the E-Town Bears Friday night. The scoring began in the first quarter when Cooper McCloud intercepted Bears QB Pat Gilhool and set CV in good field position deep in Bears territory. Kicker Nate Heck nailed a field goal soon after to give the Bucks an early 3-0 advantage. 

The teams settled in after that, with neither team scoring for the rest of the quarter. The Bucks drove into field goal range late in the first quarter, but Heck was unable to make the field goal. 

In the second quarter, CV scored again, this time on a 27-yard interception return for a touchdown by Spencer Gehman. Gehman jumped in front of a screen pass by the Bears QB, and strolled into the end zone uncontested to give the Bucks a 10-0 lead. 

Following the pick-six, neither team was able to score until the start of the 4th quarter. Both defenses prevented the offense from getting deep into their opponents’ territory until the end of the third quarter when the Bears offense moved the ball deep into CV territory. Faced with a 4th and 1 in the CV red zone, the Bears chose to go for the first down. CV stopped the attempt and forced a turnover on downs. 

On the final play of the third, CV fumbled the ball and E-Town recovered. On the second play of the fourth quarter, the Bears punched it in for a touchdown, making it 10-7 CV. 

Throughout the fourth quarter, both teams had multiple stalled drives resulting in the score remaining the same. E-Town was able to start a long, sustained drive midway through the fourth that resulted in nearly 5 minutes going off the clock. With just over 2 minutes left in the game, the Bears running back broke a long run down near the end zone- and fumbled. CV recovered and was able to escape with the win by running out the clock.

Box Score

	1	2	3	4	FINAL
CV	3	7	0	0	10
ETOWN	0	0	0	7	7

Player of the Week

This week’s POTW goes to Spencer Gehman. Gehman proved instrumental in the Bucks win by returning an interception for a touchdown, which would prove to be the deciding factor of Friday’s game. This is Gehman’s first POTW.