FIGHTING FOR YARDS — Catholic Central's Tommy Pergi fights for yardage while being wrapped up by Conotton Valley defenders during Saturday night's game at Harding Stadium. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — Going to the fourth quarter, Catholic Central was locked in a battle with visiting Region 27 foe Conotton Valley.

In that fourth quarter, though, the visiting Rockets fired off for 20-straight points to pull away for a big 47-26 victory inside Harding Stadium.

Conotton Valley was clinging to a 27-26 lead after three quarters following a Central rally. While the Rockets high-powered offense got most of the attention coming in, with the game and a lot of playoff points on the line it was their defense that made the difference, intercepting three passes and holding the Crusaders off the scoreboard in the final 12 minutes while that offense put things away.

“It was a really good small school football game until the end,” Central head coach Eric Meek said. “Give (Conotton Valley) credit, they have an outstanding team. I thought our kids played really hard, maybe the final score doesn’t show it, but that was two good small school football teams playing very hard.

“They’ve got an incredible passing attack and their defense was good, I was impressed with it.”

Both teams are now 6-3. Central, which entered the game in third place in the region, dropped a spot to No. 4, while the Rockets jumped from No. 6 to No. 5 in the region, according to Joe Eitel’s unofficial rankings on Saturday night.

Eitel did have Central having clinched at least one playoff game at home, where they had a nine-game winning streak snapped with the loss. The Rockets also clinched a home playoff game with the victory.

“We’ll be OK, we’ve got senior week next week and our kids will get back to work and be ready,” Meek said. “We’ve got another game here next week and chances are at least another one after that, so we’re not done. We’ve got more football to play and we’re going to be OK.”

Conotton Valley quarterback Zach Putnam, a senior four-year starter, continued his strong season with 365 passing yards in going 26 of 44, throwing four touchdowns to four different receivers and rushing for two more scores. He also had another long passing score negated by a holding penalty.

Gavin Haney hauled in nine passes for 152 yards and a score and ran for 105 and another TD for a 250-plus yard night. Brooks Bower also went over the century mark receiving with 130 on eight grabs.

The Rockets totaled 488 yards of offense.

The Crusaders running game had its big moments as well, racking up 295 yards and all four Central scores. Tommy Pergi broke a 74-yard scoring run and finished with 123 on 10 carries, Matthew Sprochi gave Central two 100-yard rushers with 108 on nine carries, including a 78-yard score, and Jimmy Hernon found the end zone twice.

On defense, Central did come up with four sacks, two from Peyton Rauch, totaling 50 yards in losses and had several other plays where they got to Putnam a hair too late. The problem, was, though, when he got the passes off, they found speedy targets.

After a bit of a slow start, Putnam hit Haney for a 25-yard score to open the scoring midway through the first quarter, which was answered by a Hernon 4-yard scoring run on the ensuing Central drive.

Putnam found Kam Wright for a 26-yard score late in the opening quarter to lead 14-6 after one. Putnam had 126 yards and two scores in that opening quarter.

The lead grew to 21-6 when he fired a 62-yard strike to Bower with 4:40 to go in the first half.

Central started its rally by putting together a long scoring drive to end the half, capped by a 2-yard Hernon plunge into the end zone followed by a Pergi conversion run to make it 21-14 at halftime.

After the defense held to force a turnover on downs in their own end, the Crusaders got within a point when Sprochi broke his long scoring run two plays later, a missed kick leaving the Rockets in front 21-20.

Putnam, who had 222 yards at halftime, extended the lead again, crossing from a yard out after hitting a 64-yard pass the play prior, but the kick was blocked to leave the margin at seven.

Pergi then broke his long scoring run with no time left on the third quarter clock, a conversion pass attempt for the lead on a fake kick falling incomplete to leave the Rockets again ahead by a point.

That, however, was as close as the Crusaders would get to taking the lead.

In the fourth quarter Putnam hit Garrett Reiter for a 6-yard score, ran for a 3-yard score, and Haney broke a 31-yard scoring run for the only Rockets TD that Putnam didn’t factor into, the last two coming after Kaden Leggett interceptions. Reiter picked off another pass in the final minute to wrap things up.

UP NEXT

Conotton Valley: Heads back to Bowerstown to host another local team when 6-2 Madonna, which is fighting for a playoff spot in West Virginia, makes a visit on Friday night.

Catholic Central: Wraps up the regular season back at Harding Stadium next Saturday night hosting Pittsburgh City League team Carrick (3-5), likely needing a victory to stay in the top four in the region.

Conotton Valley 47, Catholic Central 26

CV 14-7-6-20 – 47

CC 6-8-12-0 – 26

SCORING PLAYS

First Quarter

CV: Haney 25 pass from Putnam (Hott kick) 5:56

CC: Hernon 4 run (pass failed) 2:37

CV: Wright 26 pass from Putnam (Hott kick) 1:10

Second Quarter

CV: Bower 62 pass from Putnam (Hott kick) 4:40

CC: Hernon 2 run (Pergi run) :21

Third Quarter

CC: Sprochi 78 run (kick failed) 8:10

CV: Putnam 1 run (kick failed) :44

CC: Pergi 74 run (pass failed) :00

Fourth Quarter

CV: Reiter 6 pass from Putnam (Hott kick) 8:01

CV: Haney 31 run (pass failed) 5:38

CV: Putnam 3 run (Hott kick) 1:59

RUSHING: Conotton Valley 28-123-3TD (Putnam 17-16-2TD; Wright 2-2; Haney 9-105-TD); Catholic Central 38-295-4TD (Pergi 10-123-TD; Sprochi 9-108-TD; Hernon 19-64-2TD)

PASSING: Conotton Valley 26-44-365-4TD (all by Putnam); Catholic Central 5-14-36-3INT (all by Sprochi)

RECEIVING: Conotton Valley 26-365-4TD (Bower 8-130-TD; Wright 5-69-TD; Haney 9-152-TD; Reiter 3-19-TD); Catholic Central 5-36 (Hough 2-11; Pergi 1-13; Hernon 2-12)

FIRST DOWNS: Conotton Valley 20; Catholic Central 11

PENALTIES-YARDS: Conotton Valley 5-40; Catholic Central 8-90

FUMBLES-LOST: Conotton Valley 1-0; Catholic Central 0-0