Keystone Oaks scores twice in 4th quarter to rally past Valley

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, September 1, 2017 | 11:42 PM

Through three quarters of Friday's season-opening Allegheny Conference clash with Valley at Dormont Stadium, Keystone Oaks had just three points on its side of the scoreboard.

A Deonte Ross 6-yard run midway through the third quarter put the visiting Vikings in the lead.

But the fourth quarter became the Michael Daure show.

The Keystone Oaks junior tailback morphed into a wildcat quarterback over the final 12 minutes, and his TD runs of 2 and 3 yards helped lift the Golden Eagles (1-0, 1-0) to a 16-6 victory.

“I couldn't have done it without the help of everyone blocking for me, including my linemen,” said Daure, who had 57 of his 116 rushing yards in his team's final two drives.

“At the end of the day, it was just a great team win.”

Daure scored from 2 yards out with 4:50 left to put Keystone Oaks in the lead. The drive started at the Valley 29 after the Golden Eagles' defense stuffed a Vikings fake-punt attempt.

A Daure interception on the first play of the ensuing Vikings' drive put Keystone Oaks back in business at the Valley 33.

Daure capped the drive with a 3-yard scamper with 1:55 left.

Keystone Oaks converted a fourth and 8 on the play right before the final touchdown as Daure found T.J. Harris for 9 yards down to the 3.

Ross finished with 102 yards on 25 carries for the Vikings. Valley took the opening kickoff of the second half and drove it 74 yards in 16 plays while taking nearly seven minutes off the third-quarter clock.

The Vikings only committed one penalty on the drive. They overcame a holding call at the Keystone Oaks 27.

But Valley committed 14 other penalties — including several offsides infractions and four personal fouls — that either snuffed out drive opportunities or aided Keystone Oaks' offensive efforts.

“I don't know what to say,” frustrated Valley coach Muzzy Colosimo said after the game. “We just had too many penalties. We have a lot of talent, but we were very undisciplined. Keystone Oaks is a good football team, and they took advantage of our mistakes.”

Both the Vikings and Golden Eagles moved the ball over the first 16 minutes, but first-game miscues halted drives and kept both teams from putting points on the board.

Another play on special teams was the genesis of the Keystone Oaks' scoring drive midway through the second quarter.

A high snap on a Valley punt put the Golden Eagles at the Vikings 40.

The Golden Eagles caught a break on a first-down pass completion from quarterback Logan Shrubb to Noah Hindes.

Hindes hauled in the pass but coughed up the ball at the 16. C.J. Morrow was right there to scoop up the loose ball, and he took it down to the 4.

A short run by Daure, an incomplete pass by Shrubb, an illegal motion penalty on a scoring run by Daure and a third-down loss of 5 yards stalled the drive.

But Nate Taylor came on to boot a 30-yard field goal for the first points of the game.

Shrubb, a freshman making his first start for the Golden Eagles, completed 11 of 26 passes for 103 yards and an interception.

“I told the kids after the game that a win is a win, and we'll take it, but that was an ugly win,” Keystone Oaks coach Greg Perry said. “We had some scores called back and missed some other opportunities with miscues, but we battled through the adversity.”

Valley signal-caller Tyler Green, a junior, completed 7 of 18 passes for 98 yards. He was intercepted twice.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.

Tags: Keystone Oaks, Valley