By Keith Harrington
The Granville-Whitehall football team saw their three-game winning streak come to an end Friday night, falling to Johnstown 45-28 in a Section II Class C matchup.
It was Lights Week, Homecoming, and Senior Night all rolled up into one for Granville-Whitehall, but the Sir Bills came out and put a damper on the celebration.
Johnstown jumped out to an early lead and forced Granville-Whitehall to play from behind all night. The Sir Bills scored on their first possession when Andrew Lake scored on a touchdown run with 9:12 remaining in the first quarter. Jack Miller tossed the two-point conversion pass to Carter Cheney to give Johnstown an 8-0 advantage.
Miller then hooked up with Cheney on a scoring strike to make it 15-0 Sir Bills after the extra point kick with 3:15 to play in the stanza.
Granville-Whitehall got on the board with just under a minute to play in the quarter when RJ Monger connected with CJ Monty on 36-yard touchdown pass. Monger tossed to Nick Powers for the conversion and G-W was within 15-8 and seemed to have momentum.
The burst that G-W received was short-lived as Ryan Hoyt ripped off a long touchdown run 19 seconds later to give Johnstown a 22-8 lead after the PAT kick.
Monty pulled Granville closer with a one-yard touchdown run to conclude the first. The conversion attempt was no good leaving the score 22-12 Johnstown after the first.
In the second Hoyt and Lake both tacked on scoring runs to increase the Sir Bill advantage to 38-14 at the half.
Granville-Whitehall opened the scoring in the third quarter with a Monger scoring pass to Jaxon Torres. It was the first varsity touchdown for Torres. The conversion attempt failed, but Granville-Whitehall was within 38-20.
Lake put the game away for Johnstown with his second touchdown of the game with 3:01 left in the frame. The extra point kick gave the Sir Bills a 45-20 lead.
Granville-Whitehall closed out the scoring in the fourth in a Monger quarterback sneak. Monger passed to Trey Mason for the two-point conversion to make it 45-28.
Hoyt led Johnstown with 127 rushing yards. Lake added 125 more.
Monger had a strong game for Granville-Whitehall, completing 15 of 18 passes. Monger connected with Trey Mason six times for 127 yards, and with C.J. Monty five times for 100 yards.
Monty led Granville-Whitehall on the ground with 86 yards.
The Granville youth football players were on hand and were introduced to the large crowd on hand. Granville-Whitehall coach Kevin Gebo hopes despite the loss, some of those kids will want to play for the team some day.
“When I was a kid watching Whitehall football, I never knew the game score but I knew I wanted to be one of those guys on the field,” Gebo said. “I’m hoping those kids watching the game want to be players for this team someday.”
Johnstown improved to 2-3. Granville-Whitehall dropped to 3-2.
Photo Credit-LaCoste Photography
