A lot of high school teams break down their huddles before or after games with the word, but how many really think of their teams as a family?

On Saturday at Jack Keeney Memorial Field in Panama, the Gowanda/Pine Valley football team was truly a family.

And Brett Ebling needed every member of that family.

The third-year Panthers head coach arrived five minutes before kickoff after saying goodbye to his father at his funeral service at St. Johns Community Church in Eden on Saturday morning.

Brett Ebling is pictured on the Gowanda/Pine Valley sidelines on Saturday. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

“It means so much. Family is really important to me obviously right now, and these boys are my family,” an emotional Ebling said following the Panthers’ 51-24 loss. ” … We might be a team, but we’re a family.”

Stephen “Steve” Ebling, a Thruway maintenance supervisor, was killed while working along Interstate 90 near Hanover on Monday morning. He left behind a wife, Belindie; two sons, Brett and Joel; his mother, Sharon; and four siblings.

“This has been, I’m not going to lie, the worst week ever,” Ebling said. “But at the same time, the amount of support I’ve had from the community of Gowanda has been unreal. I thank everyone from the community of Gowanda, the team … everyone.”

According to his obituary, Steve enjoyed attending his son’s Gowanda/Pine Valley football games. He certainly would have liked the first half Saturday in Panama.

Gowanda/Pine Valley looked like it was on its way to a monumental upset of the New York State Sportswriters Association’s top-ranked team in Class D.

A blocked punt by Camryn Slade gave the Panthers their first drive start at their own 45-yard line and 10 plays later, quarterback Carter Capozzi threw a 32-yard touchdown to Brayden Smith for a 6-0 lead.

In the second quarter, a 12-yard touchdown pass from Capozzi to Winter Mentley-Peters started a crazy sequence of events. On Clymer/Sherman/Panama’s next play from scrimmage, Mentley-Peters intercepted a Tate Catanese pass and returned it 38 yards for a score to give Gowanda/Pine Valley an 18-7 lead.

The Wolfpack then fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Panthers’ Jayden Fish recovered at the 17-yard line. But Gowanda/Pine Valley’s fortunes began to turn from there and the Panthers’ lead at halftime was just 24-22.

“I’m kind of at a loss for words with how impressed I am with, not just their effort on the field, but with Coach Ebling as a person for everything that he’s had to endure this week,” Clymer/Sherman/Panama head coach Ty Harper said. “There are things that are certainly a lot bigger than football. I can’t imagine the range of emotions that he felt today. To have his team ready to play like that was one of the more impressive things I’ve ever seen.”

Clymer/Sherman/Panama played more like the No. 1 team in the state in the second half, outscoring Gowanda/Pine Valley 29-0 to win going away.

As the Panthers gathered for their postgame huddle, tears were in most of the players’ and coaches’ eyes. That’s common after the final game of a season, even more so when seniors play what could be their last game of organized football.

But the tears being shed Saturday felt like they had more meaning as the Panthers, even several surrounding communities to Gowanda, felt the loss of Brett’s dad.

“I know I can lean on these kids whenever I need them and they can lean on me too,” Ebling said. “That’s how family works.

“My dad was my everything. My dad was my role model,” Ebling added. ” … He means the absolute world to me. I wouldn’t be who I am today without him.”