Shomper’s late TD lifts Vikings past Nativity
Photo by Danie Mae Photography
SAINT CLAIR — Passion. Perseverance. Heart.
All three words can easily sum up Friday’s night’s Schuylkill/Colonial Blue Division showdown of unbeatens between Williams Valley and Nativity at Saint Clair Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Both teams battled and fought for a complete 48 minutes and in the end, the Vikings remained unscathed.
In what can easily be described as one of the most dramatic high school football games three weeks into the season, Williams Valley held off Nativity 34-31 before a packed stadium.
The Vikings put together an amazing 13-play, 99-yard drive that capped by Brady Shomper’s second rushing touchdown — a 6-yard run — with 20 seconds remaining for the win.
“Fantastic game,” Williams Valley head coach Stephen Sedesse said with a smile.
“It’s impressive because we’re on the kids all the time to make plays and lots of kids came through on the last drive to make plays for us.”
With three minutes and 20 seconds remaining in the game, Nativity punter Noah Dolbin dropped a beauty of a kick that was downed at the Vikings’ 1.
For most of the fans attending the game, it’s probable most thought there was no way Williams Valley was going to get out of this hole. The first three plays looked that way as Shomper came up empty with three incomplete passes.
On a fourth-and-10 with 3:04 left in the game, Sedesse told his special teams to go out and punt the football back to the Green Wave.
The snap to punter Evan Achenbach was solid, but the 6-foot-1 junior decided not to kick it away.
Achenbach zigged his way right, then cut back to his left down the Williams Valley sideline for a 35-yard gain and a fresh set of downs. More importantly, it gave the Vikings a spark they desperately needed.
“It was just one of those things where (Achenbach) made a play. And he knew if something was there to take it,” Sedesse explained.
Achenbach did just that.
From there, Shomper and his teammates battled.
The junior gunslinger completed an 11-yard pass to tight end Brayden Crisswell, then followed up with back-to-back completions to Kian Krzyzanowski of 6 and 11 yards, respectively, as the Vikes moved to the Nativity 36.
A 6-yard run by Krzyzanowski forced Sedesse to call a timeout with 1:21 left in the game.
Shomper gained 9 yards on the next play, misfired on a pass attempt and again hooked up with Krzyzanowski for 8 yards.
Despite the fact the completion got the pigskin to Nativity’s 13, Williams Valley had to use its final timeout with 33 ticks on the clock.
That’s when Shomper decided enough was enough.
The 5-11, 180-pounder busted off a 7-yard run to the 6, then came right back with another burst off the left side to put the Vikes ahead for good, 34-31 with 20 seconds left.
“He had poise,” Sedesse said. “Not many kids that throw three interceptions want to stay in the game. He said to us, ‘Give me the ball.’ He wanted to make that play at the end and we just let him do it.”
To start the game, things did not go very well for Williams Valley.
On the Vikes’ first set of offensive plays, Shomper was picked off by Nativity senior linebacker Sam Spolski, who returned the interception 38 yards for a touchdown to give the Green Wave a 7-0 lead with 10:44 remaining in the first quarter.
It was Nativity’s fourth pick-6 of the season.
Both teams’ offenses then got things in gear.
Williams Valley answered with an 11-play, 56-yard drive as Shomper threw a dart to Krzyzanowski in the back of the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown to tie it 7-7 with 4:54 left in the first quarter. It came on a fourth-and-goal from the Nativity 12.
Back came Pat Mason’s Green Wave.
Spolski (10 carries, 65 yards) reeled off a 20-yard gain and the Vikes were assessed a 15-yard personal foul on the next play as Nativity’s Sam Walborn sustained a late hit on his rush. Three plays later, Michael Stank took a counter from right to left and breezed into the end zone on an 11-yard touchdown to put Nativity back in front 13-7 with 2:03 left in the quarter.
“We battled right from the start,” Nativity head coach Pat Mason said. “That’s a game we should have won and I thought we did everything we needed to do to win. That’s two years in a row we lost to them basically on the last play of the game.”
The Vikes had another answer.
Again it was the Shomper/Krzyzanowski show as the duo hooked up on a 36-yard pass and catch as Krzyzanowski caught the ball 10 yards off the line of scrimmage and raced down the Nativity sideline. He provided his best Superman impersonation as the dove into the end zone for a 14-13 Williams Valley lead as the quarter ended.
The Vikes looked as if they were going to pull away as they forced a Nativity punt on the next set of Green Wave downs.
Williams Valley put together another time consuming 6-minute drive as the Vikes drove 74 yards in 10 plays as freshman Fletcher Thompson got in the groove.
The 5-9, 165-pound waterbug busted off four pivotal runs, two of which went for 19 and 12 yards, respectively.
On a third-and-goal at the Nativity 7, instead of catching a pass to score, Krzyzanowski took a pitch to the right, cut back against the grain and spun his way into the end zone as Williams Valley built a 20-13 lead with 4:21 left in the half.
“Those kids (Williams Valley) don’t quit,” Mason said about the Vikes. “I told our guys that they’re going to come here and play four quarters of football.
“I’m proud of our kids and what they did tonight and they battled, too.”
Back came Nativity. Stank hauled in a 24-yard reception from quarterback Ben Kreitzer on a third-and-13 at the Nativity 31 and Sam Walborn busted off a six-yard rush to the Vikes’ 39.
A loss of two yards set the Green Wave back to the 41, but then Kreitzer threw a solid pass to Walborn, who actually pulled the ball out of Williams Valley defensive back Blazer Lords’ hands and raced 41 yards to paydirt. The TD slice the deficit to 20-19.
“We made plays and there were two really good football teams that battled tonight,” Mason said. “We have to re-focus and go get ready for Tri-Valley this week. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We gotta regroup and get ready to play.”
Late in the third quarter, the Vikes’ Shomper was picked off by Nativity defensive back Nick Wagner at the Williams Valley 11.
Two plays later, Walborn scored his second TD on a 6-yard blast through the Williams Valley defense and Nativity led 25-20 with 1:25 to play in the third quarter.
Over the next seven minutes of the game, however, both teams answered each other with touchdowns.
The Vikes’ Shomper scored his first rushing TD of the game on a 5-yarder with 11:46 left in the game, and Nativity used a 12-play, 53-yard drive that was all Spolski.
The workhorse busted off carries of 18, 5, 4 and the final carry — a 13-yard touchdown run that gave Nativity a 31-27 lead with just over 6 minutes left in the game.
Both teams punted and that set up the Vikes’ incredible, 99-yard drive.
“They (the coaches) called three straight plays for me,” Shomper explained. “And I just had to go out and make a play.
“We did not want to give up. We had to dig deep, but we were able to make our plays and win this game.”
Game Summary
Williams Valley 34, Nativity 31
