By HUNTER O. LYLE
CORRY, PA – Staring up at a scoreboard with just six seconds remaining, Port Allegany’s season rested on one final play.
Over the past four minutes, they had been at war. Not just with their PIAA quarterfinal opponents Greenville, but with the clock, which relentlessly ticked away. Trading touchdowns over the last several possessions, the pressure now fell on the Gators, who found themselves backed into an eight-point deficit. Lining up on the Trojan’s three-yard line, they went to their time-tested weapon, Aiden Bliss. Bliss and the Gators had been here before, standing just a few feet from the endzone, and on the vast majority of those occasions, they had forced their way inside. However, on this particular night, fate chose to go another way.
Taking the ball in his hands and the team on his shoulders, Bliss charged ahead, but across the line, he faced a swarm of defenders who knew exactly what was coming their way. Crashing back down to the field, the Gators’ season came to an end just one yard shy.
“I got nothing but love for our players. These guys have given us everything we’ve asked for. As I told them in the huddle, this game does not define us. This sport does not define them,” said Port Allegany head coach Justin Bienkowski. “They’re a bunch of great kids that work their tails off for us. That should define them. Their grit, their ‘never quit’ attitude, what they’re willing to do for their teammates, what they’re willing to do for their coaches and their community. That’s pretty much where my heart’s at right now. I don’t want to say the words, but it’s over. These guys gave us everything they had.”
After defeating Redbank and claiming the District 9 Class A title – Port’s second consecutive and third in four years – the Gators went from being large fish in a small pond to being one of several big fish chasing after the same worm. Drawing District 10’s champions, Port caught the Trojans as they rode the momentum of a revenge.
A season prior, Greenville had narrowly missed out on a state tournament berth after losing to Wilmington in the D10 finals. However, drawing the same opponent in the title match again, the Trojans retaliated with a redemption win, holding a team that had averaged 36 points a game to just 22. Making it to the PIAA stage, their defense then turned its attention to the Gators.
Going with Bliss out of the gates as usual, Port found themselves slogging through the trenches where they were met with a bend-don’t-break Trojans line that clogged up the middle. While the Gators initially found relative gains on their first drive, Greenville ultimately weighed them down with a two-yard tackle for loss on third-and-six before a sack one play later ended Port’s drive.
“(Greenville’s) size wasn’t necessarily beating us, it was just their athleticism and their quickness up front that kind of got us,” said Bienkowski. “We went (Bliss). We know what we’ve got with No. 31, we know what he’s capable of but they just slowed him a little bit.”
In turn, the Trojans handed the ball off to their tandem running back duo of Rudy Gentile and Kaysom Materia, who swept and reversed their way downfield for yards in bunches. After seven snaps, Greenville was in the endzone, becoming the first team to put up points before the Gators in over a month.
Although Port’s next drive opened on shaky ground, backed into a fourth-and-five before being bailed out by a highlight reception from Bliss downrange, the Gators found a way downfield. Diversifying the run game with touches from Kellen Veilleux, Port responded with six points at the top of the second quarter, albeit, missing the 2-point conversion and still finding themselves down one.
Then it was their turn to showcase their defense. Forcing the Trojans to stay on the ground with a gridlocked secondary, which nearly produced two interceptions, Port stunted and stalled Greenville’s second drive of the night with a tackle behind the line from Jackson Young on fourth-and-10. Taking over on their own 33-yard line, Port crossed the gridiron before taking the lead a second consecutive score – Bliss came away with the final punch, a one-yard carry before scoring the 2-point conversion to make it 14-7.
Although the Trojans were quick to respond, evening the scoreboard once with a 41-yard breakaway touchdown from Gentile, Port closed out the half with the upper hand. Having under two minutes to repeat their feat, the trio of Bliss, Veilleux and quarterback Brennan Fillhart quickly moved the chains with a variety of strikes downfield. Reaching the goal line with just four seconds left, Bliss put the Gators back on top with another one-yard touchdown.
Entering the second half, the momentum was still up for grabs. Facing their closest halftime margin of the playoffs, Port’s defense had the opportunity to set the tone.
Despite giving up a first down on the first snap of the third quarter, the Gators shut down Greenville thereafter, producing the first punt of the night following three quick stops. However, their offense struggled to follow suit. Continuously facing an exploding defensive line, the Gators were forced to the sidelines, where gains rarely broke through double-digit yardage. Coming two yards short of a fourth down conversion, Port turned the ball for the second time.
The next Trojan drive would jump start an arms race. Not to be denied again, Greenville covered 63 yards in under three minutes, getting large swaths of yardage from a 30-yard reception and a final 20-yard carry into the endzone. Following the score that evened the game at 22, they then forced Port to punt for the first time all evening before opening the fourth quarter with their fourth touchdown of the night.
Bliss responded personally, finding his largest run of the night with a 50-yard gain that put the Gators in prime position for their subsequent touchdown. Yet, with just eight and a half minutes remaining and the score once again locked at 28-28, the Gators defense couldn’t contain Greenville, allowing them to steadily inch up field before a 12-yard carry from Gentile put them atop the scoreboard once again.
“We just had some holes that we couldn’t really fix up. The kids played hard, it sure as hell wasn’t a lack of effort, we just had some guys out of position but that’s football,” said Bienkowski. “I’m not here to make excuses about injuries. We had some guys that were dinged up but we just had some mishaps and some missed assignments, but I was very proud of the coaches and the assignments they put together. It just didn’t go our way.”
Then came the final drive. Starting on their own 31-yard-line, Port hurried through their offense as the clock continued to drain. With three minutes left, they had crossed midfield. With under two minutes, they were on the opposite 34-yard-line. With 52 seconds left, they were converting on a clutch fourth-and-nine to put them in the red zone and with just six seconds remaining, they sat just three yards away from what could be a season-extending score.
But that’s where it all came to an end. The Gator’s final play of the game was met with Trojan wall, one that refused to concede.
In the final game of his football career, Bliss ended with 252 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 43 carries. Veilleux came away with 51 rushing yards and 29 receiving yards, while Fillhart threw for 61 yards on 5-for-8 passing.
“I’m very grateful that I’m in (Port’s) hallways where I can still see these guys every day. This is the winningest class in school history and they’ve left such a legacy of how you carry yourself, of how you prepare, of how you work, of how you get coached and how you win in life,” said Bienkowski. “It just didn’t go our way tonight.”
