PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (D9Sports) — Keaton Kahle ran for two touchdowns and Clint Thurston broke the school’s single-season touchdown record with a 1-yard run and kicked a 27-yard field goal as Redbank Valley gave head coach Ed Wasilowski his 100th career win with a 33-7 victory at Punxsutawney.
Kahle ran seven times for 92 yards, including a beautiful 62-yard scoring run at the start of the third quarter that put the Bulldogs (5-3) up 17-7, while Thurston was the workhorse rushing 28 times for 115 yards with a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter for the final score of the game.
Thurston’s score, which was set up by a Chase Wiles interception of a Dylan Ishman pass at the Punxsutawney 15-yard line that he returned to the 1-yard line, was the 24th of the season for the senior running back breaking Mark Strother’s school record of 23, which Thurston tied last week, set in 2013.
Hunter Wiles added a 5-yard scoring run for the Bulldogs, who also scored on a safety, while Kahle was also 8 of 17 passing for 59 yards and an interception.
Redbank Valley ran 65 plays to Punxsutawney’s 34 and outgained the Chucks (4-5) 320-129.
Ishman was 9 of 13 passing for 76 yards, an interception and a touchdown. Tyler Richardson caught four passes for 33 yards and a score with his 20-yard touchdown giving the Chucks a 7-3 lead in the second quarter.
But Kahle scored on a 6-yard run in the final seconds of the half to put Redbank Valley up for good, 10-7, at halftime.
After the safety made it 19-7 in the third quarter, Redbank Valley overcame two touchdowns called back by penalty — one by Brock Barrett on the free-kick return and another on a 30-yard run by Thurston — and four penalties for 35 yards (not including the one on the free kick) to put the game away with a 16-play, 53-yard drive that ended with the Wiles’ run and included a 25-yard Kahle to Ethan Hetrick pass when the Bulldogs were facing second-and-a-country-mile from the 30-yard line that saw Hetrick catch a ball intended for Barrett that was broken up but found Hetrick.
With the win, Wasilowski, who is in the sixth year of his second stint as the Redbank Valley head coach — he was also a long-time assistant with the Bulldogs, is 100-72.
