HEGGINS - Jim Thorpe's back was up against the wall numerous times against Tri-Valley. Despite some sloppy play and critical mistakes, the Olympians always found a way to answer the call when adversity struck.

After an unusual sequence of events in the third quarter, Ryan Carroll hauled in a 37-yard pass from Shane Snisky in the fourth quarter to help seal the deal for Jim Thorpe, 20-14.Jim Thorpe went into intermission clinging to a 7-6 half-time advantage thanks to a Snisky 75-yard run to the house. However, it felt like the wheels were about to fall off of the Jim Thorpe wagon in the beginning of the third quarter.The Olympians were forced to punt on its first possesion of the second half. Tri-Valley's Chase Schaeffer blocked the punt which resuted in a safety and a 8-7 Bulldog lead.Next, Jim Thorpe forced a Tri-Valley three-and-out and held possession in its own territory. On a third and long, Jericho Zemencik picked off Shane Snisky and took it 12 yards the other way for a 14-7 advantage."I thought we played Jim Thorpe as hard as we could," said Tri-Valley head coach Mike Ulicny. "We took advantage of some of their mistakes and kept it close for a majorityof the game."Aside of the turnovers, the Olympians committed two crucial holding calls which would have resulted in two separate Carroll touchdowns. The mistakes gave Tri-Valley a ton of momentum at this point. Although Jim Thorpe committed seven penalties for 85 yards, the score reamained just 14-7 in favor of the home team."It's getting frusterating," explained Jim Thorpe head coach Mark Roesenberger. "We need to clean some stuff up. The lopsided amount of penalties tonight is what killed us. We need to stop losing touchdowns due to these mistakes."On the immediate Olympmian possession, Ryan Carroll capped off an eight play four minute drive on a 13-yard scamper to the house which tied the game at 14 apiece. Carroll and fullback Robert Heller combined for 206 yards on the ground.Rosenberger said, "Carroll had some huge runs and catches for us. He's a great athlete and I think we exploited their defense tonight using him. We had a nice wildcat package which worked well with Ryan and Heller in the backfield.With the score 20-14 in favor of Jim Thorpe, Ulicny elected to punt the ball back to the Olympians with 4:44 on the clock to make Rosenberger's squad prove that they could sustain a drive to put the game away. Jim Thorpe moved the chains three times on the possesion, which chewed up the rest of the time on the cock and preserved the win."We're proud of our record but we know we need to get better," said Rosenberger. "It definitely wasn't our best performance tonight, but we did what we had to do to get the victory."