Beaver Falls, PA - On a perfect homecoming night for football at Reeves Stadium in Beaver Falls, Geneva and Walsh hooked up in a defensive struggle that wasn′t decided until the fourth quarter. Walsh finally broke the ice early in the fourth and ended up sneaking past the Golden Tornadoes 10-0. Geneva fell to 2-3 overall, including an 0-2 mark in the MSFA Mideast League. For 4th ranked Walsh, it moved to 7-0 overall and kept a stronghold on its top five NAIA ranking.
Walsh′s Jeff Tallman scored on a five-yard run with just over 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Cavaliers all the points they would need. Mike Lum′s 24 yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter gave Walsh some added insurance to secure the victory.
Geneva was able to come up with 19 first downs, while holding Walsh to just 11 in the game. However, the Golden Tornadoes once again had trouble running the football and finished the game with just 32 yards on the ground. Justin Sciarro threw for 212 yards on 19-32. Sciarro did, however, toss a pair of interceptions that halted two Geneva drives.
On the defensive end of the field, Zach Feltrop and Brian Hall led the way for the Golden Tornadoes, who surrendered just their sixth offensive touchdown in five games. Feltrop had nine tackles, including 2.5 tackles for loss. Hall, the conference′s leading tackler, added seven in the loss.
Geneva′s only true scoring threat came in the third quarter when the Golden Tornadoes had a chance to draw first blood, but a botched field goal snap ended in disaster and Geneva could not get another scoring opportunity.
Geneva will try to rebound next weekend with another opportunity on its home field. The Golden Tornadoes will host Taylor University at Reeves Stadium next Saturday at 7:00 pm.