ORWELL — Three touchdowns in the span of four and a half minutes without running a single offensive play is enough to beat a good number of teams.

The Grand Valley football team pulled off the feat and used it to run away from Mathews, 45-21, Friday night at Grand Valley Stadium.

With the win, Grand Valley (6-3, 3-0 in Northeastern Athletic Conference) will host Ledgemont next Friday with a chance to win its first league championship since 1997.

Mathews (1-8, 0-3) took a 14-7 advantage with 46 seconds to play in the first quarter after a Grand Valley fumble. Alex Bagaglia scored from the 5. That would be the high-water mark for the Mustangs.

Jason Hart returned the ensuing kick 87 yards to paydirt, knotting the score, 14-14.

“That was very big,” GV coach John Glavickas said. “It couldn’t have happened at a better time to a better person. Jason had just fumbled and was down in the dumps. The kids blocked it well and he took it all the way back.

“That sparked the whole team. That was the momentum swing for tonight’s game.”

Less than a minute into the second quarter and just three plays after the kick return, Jake Vormelker picked off a pass and raced 60 yards to the end zone. The kick was blocked and GV led, 20-14.

Six plays and three minutes later, Vormelker struck again. This time he intercepted a pass at the 32 and zig-zagged his way to another score. The kick failed and the Mustangs held a 26-14 advantage with 8:02 to play in the half.

“Jake is a tremendous athlete,” Glavickas said. “It was just a matter of time before he started doing things like that, especially the second one. He went to the sideline, then cut it back across the field.

“The best offense is a defense running the ball back.”

The interceptions changed the entire complexion of the game for Mathews.

“The turnovers we had were for points,” Mathews coach Mike Palumbo said. “We can’t have that. It was 26-24 at the half and they had a special teams TD and two defensive TDs.

“You can’t win football games like that.”

Grand Valley went three and out to start the second half, before Mathews went to work. The Mustangs held the ball for eight minutes, but bogged down at midfield and turned the ball over on downs.

“The offense we run, we want long, sustained drives,” Palumbo said. “We want to keep their offense off the field. We can’t afford penalties or be down a lot (of points). That depicts how the game is going to be played for us.”

Vormelker struck again.

On GV’s fourth play of the possession, he raced 34 yards to the end zone and a 33-14 advantage.

The play was a direct result of a well-run series of plays for the Mustangs. Stanley Sirrine had pounded away on the inside with three carries for 13 yards before Vormelker struck from the outside.

“Tonight, it worked the way we thought it should work,” Glavickas said. “Stanley ran the ball well. He had a bit of what we call giddy up in his step. Then the outside was able to get going with Jake and Kyle (Orgovan).”

Sirrine carried 10 times for 98 yards. Vormelker ran twice for 40 yards and Orgovan had four carries for 19 yards.

Grand Valley stayed mostly to the ground in the second half in putting the game away.

“We’ve lived behind the line the whole season,” Glavickas said. “When we have to go to that tight formation and run straight ahead, you can see the linemen’s eyes spark up. The kids love it.”

Grand Valley netted 244 yards on 29 carries.

“It means so much to (the linemen to have a night like that),” Glavickas said. “We preach tradition and the tradition of Grand Valley is to run the football. Their fathers and uncles have the pride of Grand Valley.

“I told them at the half, if the line was going to block the way they were blocking, anybody could run behind them.”

Sirrine added a 34-yard scoring run with 8:25 to play in the game and Cody Freeman later scored from 42 yards out to put the game away.

Freeman had 73 yards rushing on five attempts in mop-up duty.

Mathews scored on the opening possession of the game on a 42-yard scamper by Austin Arnal after Grand Valley Had roughed the kicker on a punt attempt to take a 7-0 lead a little more than three minutes in.

Sirrine knotted the score, 7-7, with a 6-yard plunge off tackle with 5:18 to play in the quarter.

Bagaglia then put Mathews up, 14-7, with his 5-yard run.

Arnal led Mathews with 88 yards on 13 attempts and Bryan Leipply had 71 yards on 18 carries.

Ettinger is a freelance writer from Ashtabula.

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