Football: How Minisink Valley's defense shined in bounce back win over Warwick

SLATE HILL — They needed a bounce-back game.

Minisink Valley football defeated Warwick, 48-21, in a league game on Friday night at homecoming at Minisink Valley High School. The win came after a 31-13 defeat to Washingtonville last week, in which the Wizards held running back Ethan Gallo to under 100 rushing yards.

Gallo bounced back with two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown.

“It feels good," Gallo said on the win. "I had to fix up a lot of things from last week, made too many mistakes. We came out here and played hard. Coming off a hard loss, I’m proud of my guys. We have to cut down on the penalties, but I think we can have a great run again this season again.”

And what a night it was for Gallo. He was also named the homecoming king.

“He’s a truck," Minisink Valley coach Kevin Gallagher said on Gallo. "He’s a leader. He leads by example. He leads by his presence. He’s that guy. He’s the homecoming king. He’s unbelievable on the field and a great kid. He’s the full package.”

The Warriors got on the board 23 seconds into the first quarter. James Pendl scooped up a blocked punt and ran it in for a 26-yard touchdown. Just over a minute later, Gallo made it 13-0 Minisink Valley after a six-yard touchdown run on a sweep.

Warwick would storm back as quarterback Joey Krasniewicz hit Skyler Rodriguez who used his speed to score a 74-yard touchdown up the sideline, as they trailed 13-7 nearly three minutes into the first quarter. After Jake Rooney made a tackle on fourth down, which caused a Minisink Valley turnover on downs, the Warriors would get the ball right back as Dan Morgan recovered a fumble.

Gallo would take a pass from quarterback Crew Colon and convert for the 12-yard touchdown.

Josh Thibodeau would pick off a pass for Minisink Valley. At the end of the first quarter, Minisink Valley led 20-7. On a fourth and goal from the 1-yard line, Colon stuffed it home for a touchdown, for a 26-7 lead.

Krasniewicz and Rodriguez would connect again for a 37-yard touchdown making it a 26-14 contest with 9:12 left in the second quarter. Colon would connect with receiver Josh Peguero for a 9-yard touchdown and take a 33-14 lead into halftime and wouldn't look back.

What it means

This was the only regular-season matchup between the two Section 9 Class A teams. Minisink Valley rebounded after a tough 31-13 loss to Washingtonville last week. They are looking to defend their Class A championship. Warwick has dropped two games in a row after falling last week to Newburgh Free Academy.

Player of the game

Ethan Gallo has just been dominant all season on all sides of the ball. He scored three total touchdowns (two rushing and one receiving) and forced his way through the Warwick defense all night on the run, rushing for 209 yards on 23 carries. The senior also ran in a two-point conversion to give his team a 41-14 lead with 8:51 left in the third quarter. He converted 4 of 6 PATs.

By the numbers

Minisink Valley (3-2) — Quarterback Crew Colon went 6 of 9 passing for 85 yards as he threw for three passing touchdowns and had a 1-yard rushing score of his own. Josh Peguero had two receiving touchdowns (9 yards and 47 yards). Quarterback Nick Russo also entered the game toward the end of the contest and went 1 of 1 passing. Defensively, the Warriors had four interceptions, one from Josh Thibodeau, one from Zaire Green and two from James Pindl. Pindl also had a 26-yard blocked punt recovery for a touchdown. Dan Morgan had a fumble recovery as well.

Warwick (4-2) — Quarterback Joey Krasniewicz threw for two touchdown passes, both to Skyler Rodriguez for 74 yards and 37 yards. Dylan Felter added a 1-yard touchdown run with 4:01 left in the fourth quarter. Kicker Drew Borner went 3 for 3 on PATs.

They said it

“The defense really came to play today. We have a very good defense. Coach [Scott] Hendershot, our defensive coordinator, had a great gameplan. We came at them a lot from different areas, so I think we confused their offense a little bit. So that was big. We came to play. It was homecoming and facing Warwick is a big game. We needed a bounce-back game. We didn’t think we played very well last week, so this was a good week. We had a really good week of practice, so I thought coming in we would play well and we did.” - Minisink Valley coach Kevin Gallagher on what went well in the team's win.

What's next

Minisink Valley is slated to host Valley Central in a league game on Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. Warwick is scheduled to host Washingtonville in a league matchup on Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.

MKramer1@th-record.com

Twitter: @MKramerTHR

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Section 9 football: Minisink Valley bounces back, tops Warwick