Thunder blasted by Vikings in season finale
May 22—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — The Flood City Thunder concluded their third Great Eastern Football Association season Saturday afternoon by dropping a 76-0 decision to the visiting Moshannon Valley Vikings at Sargent's Stadium at the Point.
The short-handed Thunder (4-6) were without several key contributors on both sides of the ball and faced a daunting task in keeping up with one of the hottest teams in the league.
Moshannon Valley (8-2) came into the contest having won four of its past five and put up 110 points in a victory last week.
"They're the second-best team in the league for a lot of reasons, and we saw that today," Thunder coach Chuck Kassick said. "They're strong with the ball, they come off the ball hard, they stick with their blocks, they're disciplined and well-coached."
The Vikings clinched the No. 2 seed in the upcoming GEFA playoffs on the strength of a balanced offense and a defense that has pitched two straight shutouts in a league heavily weighted towards scoring.
"Everyone here has the objective of winning a championship," Moshannon Valley coach Thor Marlow said. "We've gradually built up to where we are now, and things are working the way we need them to."
Vikings quarterback Billy Thompson completed 6 of 9 passes for 59 yards and three scores while running for another touchdown, all in the first half. Malik Breon ran for a game-high 37 yards and two touchdowns on five carries, with Wes Ritchey and Rob Albro each catching a pair of scoring passes.
"These guys have completely bought in," Marlow said. "When things click, they make it look easy." "Today, everything was clicking."
Flood City was held to negative net yardage in the game, turned the ball over four times, and mustered only three first downs.
"We never got into a rhythm on offense," Kassick said. "We would make a play and then get a penalty or turnover, but that's a credit to their defense."
Thompson's 8-yard keeper opened the scoring on the game's initial possession, and the Vikings followed that up on the ensuing series with a 6-yard touchdown run by Breon that made it 12-0 at the 8:17 mark of the first quarter.
The Thunder's best opportunity to get back in the game came later in the period when Eddie Simms recovered a Moshannon Valley fumble at the Vikings 7, but Flood City was unable to capitalize. Moshannon Valley's Zach Hoy picked off Zach Sipe's pass on fourth-and-goal and returned it to the Thunder 15.
Thompson hit Rob Albro for a touchdown on the next play, and Antawane Davis then connected with Khalil Bell for the conversion.
Flood City's Shareef Blough was tackled in his own end zone by Jimmy Werner on the ensuing series for a safety to make it 22-0 heading into the second quarter, and Moshannon Valley effectively put the game away with four more touchdowns before the break.
Thompson tossed scoring passes of 5 yards to Rob Albro and 4 yards to Ritchey. Jamal Albro had an 8-yard touchdown run, and Devin Clark found the end zone from 14 yards out.
The third quarter saw Breon add his second touchdown run of the day, a 6-yarder, and Rob Albro took a punt return to the house from 37 yards out.
Ritchey's 1-yard touchdown pass from Davis followed by Breon's conversion reception completed the scoring in the final quarter.
Despite missing the GEFA playoffs, the Thunder have improved their win totals in each of the past two seasons.
"We've gone from three wins last year to four wins this year, and we were a couple of plays away from adding two or three more wins to this year," Kassick said. "We just have to keep pushing, get some more puzzle pieces to fit in the right spots on the roster, and keep driving forward."
