When Pleasant Valley needs to make something happen on the football field, it looks to get the ball in the hands of one person inparticular.
That person is Robert Getz.
Getz had his hands on the ball for four of the Bears' six touchdowns last Friday night and helped his team to a 40-37 victory over Honesdale. The senior tailback did a lot of everything, as he carried the ball 23 times for 211 yards, caught three passes for 140 yards, and made a key interception in the fourth quarter that sparked Pleasant Valley's comeback. Getz had scoring runs of 8, 1 and 3 yards, with the latter coming with just under a minute to go in regulation to essentially win the game for his Bears. He also took a swing pass, made a couple of defenders miss, and out-raced the rest of the Hornets' defense 50 yards down the right sideline for yet another score.
Thanks to Getz's heroic performance, he has been awarded the TIMES NEWS Football Player of the Week award.
"I have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line," said Getz, who also won the award as a sophomore. "When we watched the film, you could see that they really opened up some holes. The 'Power' was hitting hard and was working really well.
"It's a team effort. You can't just look at me and say I did everything. When it comes down to it, great teams find a way to win at the end. We went down with 1:42 left and won the game."
The game was back-and-forth throughout and came down to the waning seconds. After Honesdale scored to take a 37-33 lead, the Bears found themselves at their own 20-yard-line with 1:42 to play. As if Getz hadn't done enough already, he was about to put his team on his back and shine once again.
Getz took the handoff on the first play from scrimmage and raced 32 yards to get things rolling. After a short two-yard completion from Troy Verway to Andrew Romeo, head coach Jim Terwilliger called another play for Getz. The Bears ran a delayed screen and hit Getz in the middle of the field. The quick, elusive back juked and jived his way through the defense and eventually broke out down the far sideline. He would be pushed out at the three, but punched it in on the very next play to give Pleasant Valley the lead with 42 seconds to go. Getz accounted for 78 of the 80 yards on the drive.
"I knew in my mind, and the same with Troy and all the other leaders, that we were going to score," Getz said. "Our offense was scoring all night. We felt good and we weren't nervous.
"There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to score. I wanted the ball. I knew I had to take it down and score for the team. I had to do anything I could to win that game. I couldn't let us lose our home opener."
Getz is also the Bears' primary kick returner. He returned a kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown in week one against Nazareth and would have had a 61-yard punt return for a score last week had it not been called back on a penalty. After that the Hornets learned their lesson and made sure to kick it away from him. Not only does Getz affect the game on both offense and defense, but he does so on special teams as well.
"I take an ownership in it," said Getz. "I have 'KR' on my varsity jacket too and people laugh at me, but I am proud of my special teams. There aren't many guys out there that run, receive and return kicks. I have fun doing it. It is just another opportunity for me to have the ball in my hands.
"It's one of my favorite plays in the game. It's the first offensive play in a sense. It's a big play in the game and you can't overlook it."
Terwilliger has been around a lot of football players in his time. While he has seen some outstanding players, he has yet to see one that does as much as his current tailback.
"I don't think I have seen anybody as versatile as Robert has been to our football team," said Terwilliger. "I have seen some pretty great players. I have seen some guys do some different things, but in terms of workload - he has an impact in every phase of the game. Whether its offensively, defensively or special teams.
"It is special when you get a player to be able to do that because usually you have a guy who is huge offensive threat, will maybe play some defense, but will not do much on special teams. Robert does it all and that's a special deal because not many guys can do that."
