Bearcats win 41-31 shootout against Avella
Owen Petrisek scored three touchdowns and added a safety on defense and Bentworth rode a big second quarter to a 41-31 win over visiting Avella in a Tri-County South shootout on Thursday night.
The Bearcats (3-3, 3-3) won for the second week in a row while dealing the Eagles’ playoff chances a severe blow.
Petrisek, who last week went over the 4,000 mark in career all-purpose yards to break the school record, carried the ball 27 times for 132 yards against Avella. Bentworth quarterback Seth Adams completed 14 of 22 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
Trevor Richardson kicked two field goals for the Bearcats and was three for three on extra points.
Richardson booted a 23-yard field to open the scoring with 3:40 left in the first quarter but Avella took a 7-3 lead on a 5-yard touchdown run by K.J. Rush and Robbie West’s extra point late in the quarter.
The Bearcats took control by out-scoring the Eagles (4-2, 4-2) 26-0 in the second quarter.
Adams began the barrage with scoring passes of 41 yards to Trent Cavanaugh and 7 yards to Caleb Peternel, and Petrisek added two more points to make it 19-7 when he sacked Rush in the end zone for a safety with 7:16 left in the half.
Just 16 seconds after that Petrisek scored again, this time on a 25-yard touchdown run, and Richardson added a 37-yard field goal with 3:38 remaining to make it 29-7 at intermission.
The Eagles got a 1-yard touchdown run by Noah Markle and an 80-yard TD pass from Rush to Tanner Terensky sandwiched around Petrisek’s 13-yard scoring run to set the score at 35-19 through three quarters.
Petrisek all but put the game away when he scored his third touchdown on a 4-yard run with 3:12 remaining to give the Bearcats a 41-19 advantage.
Avella got two late touchdown passes from Cole Joworowski of 36 yards to Matt Kidwell and 13 yards to Terensky.
Rush completed 8 of 18 passes for 186 yards but was intercepted three times. Adams and Gavin Cevarr each picked off a pair of passes for the Bearcats.
Bentworth travels to Mapletown next Friday while the Eagles host Carmichaels.