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The Raiders still didn't win and finished 3-7, but head coach Chris Dworek and his team - minus the five seniors who played in their final game - are ready to move on.
Dworek had no regrets about saying "the guys are done" after a bunch of players missed practice on Monday and Tuesday. Following his team's 29-12 loss to the Chucks, he said that things turned 180 degrees by Wednesday.
"I have no regrets about saying that, because that's what happened at the time and the guys responded well and proved to me that they weren't down," said Dworek, who in his 14 years as head coach has never been one to not be open with the media.
"The way the week went, it was bad timing when I talked with people," he added. "It got better Wednesday and Thursday."
No noticeable changes were evident in the Raiders' lineup, although Dworek said that special teams were shuffled some. And the special teams actually played pretty well, limiting the Chucks to 18 yards on three kick returns thanks to a couple of nice open-field tackles.
And Dworek's aired concern about the Chucks possibly running it up if they had a chance - Chucks head coach Alan Nichol denied it being an issue - never came to fruition even if the Chucks wanted to because the Raiders put up a good fight.
On the Chucks' sideline, they could have cared less about the Raiders' dirty laundry as the win ended a seven-game losing streak to their county rivals and staked claim to the Route 36 Trophy that was actually given a name - "Herbie" - by the Raiders since they had it so long.
Punxsutawney also claimed a berth in the District 9 Class AAA Championship game against Clearfield thanks to the Chucks winning and Bradford losing to Corry. The Chucks also won a share of the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference title with Karns City after both finished 8-1.
And at 8-2, the Chucks have won eight games in a season for the first time since 1991, also the last year they won a district title. In the four previous seasons, the Chucks won just eight games and were 0-10 in 2005 and 2007.
"Week to week, we focus," Chucks head coach Alan Nichol said. "We knew it was going to be a real hard game. We told ourselves at halftime, this is what we wanted to be in. This is what makes us a better football team. ... They rose to the challenge and did a nice job."
The Chucks led 7-6 at intermission and only led 15-12 going into the fourth quarter, but running back Brennan Niver finished off a four-touchdown night by scoring on long runs of 53 and 35 yards to put the game away.
Niver, who scored the game's first touchdown on a 5-yard run in the first quarter, put the Chucks up 15-6 early in the third quarter with a 3-yard run.
He ended the night with 192 yards on 23 carries, 152 of that on 15 attempts came in the second half.
"If you're going to have a good power game, you just have to have a mentality of keep pounding away," Nichol said. "It seems like the guys up front have been able to wear other teams down. I don't know if that's what happened or not tonight, but there seems to be a fourth-quarter surge in these games and it's from hard work by everybody."
The Raiders, like they did in their last two losses to Keystone and Clarion, hung around and were a stubborn opponent. But in the end, they couldn't make the plays they needed to.
"We had chances again early to make some plays and score on a short field, so the big thing is trying to get over that hump and make a key block, make a big catch or tackle instead of letting someone run through," Dworek said. "Those are things obviously you can't fix now, but it's something for the young guys to remember and work a little harder in the offseason."
After the Chucks scored to start the game, the Raiders took the ensuing kickoff and drove 80 yards on 14 plays, all of them runs. Senior Kyle Galbraith finished it off with a 3-yard run at the end of the first quarter to make it 7-6 after the first of two botched point-after or conversion attempts.
That score lasted until early in the first half when the Chucks cashed in on a Raiders turnover deep in Raiders territory. Galbraith's fumble was recovered at the Raiders' 26 and after the play, Galbraith was ejected for unsportsmanlike penalty. After the penalty markoff to the Raiders' 13, Niver scored three plays later on his 3-yarder. Then his two-point conversion run made it 15-6 with 10:23 left in the third quarter.
The Raiders also turned a Chucks turnover into points a little over three minutes later when Ethan Harmon's interception of quarterback Logan Weaver near midfield gave the Raiders the ball at the Chucks' 35. Three plays later, Harmon scored on a 6-yard run. The end zone play was set up by a nice 26-yard keeper by quarterback Tyler Dombrowski.
With momentum on the Raiders' side, they stopped the Chucks on a fourth-and-one play on the ensuing possession and got the ball at the Chucks' 46. But hard-hitting senior safety Braedon Pennington came up big for the Chucks when his hit of Taylor Heinrich on a 12-yard reception at the Raiders' 30. The hit caused a fumble, which was recovered by the Chucks.
Pennington made several big hits all night, including one that drew the ire of the Raiders sideline late in the first half. After catching a completed pass, Pennington either punched or shoved Raiders linebacker Jared Heschke - depending on who you talk to - and no flag was thrown on a dead-ball play that could have resulted in an ejection.
Otherwise, personal foul calls were made throughout the game, at least two on the Raiders and four on the Chucks.
After Heinrich fumble, the Raiders never crossed midfield the rest of the game.
Punxsutawney made it 22-12 with 7:12 left in the game on Niver's 53-yarder. Later after fumbling away the ball at the 1, Niver scored from 35 yards out with 1:21 remaining.
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Reported by Rich Rhoades, Tri-County Sunday. E-mail: rrhoades@thecourierexpress.com.
