Bears sneak past Mounts in Triple OT
- 02 November 2009
Jared Danneker claimed he had nothing left. After battling Ephrata for four quarters, Elizabethtown's running back said he was flat-out of gas.He can do a lot on fumes.
The senior scored touchdowns on a pair of grinding runs to the goal line in overtime periods, and blocked an extra point that sealed a thrilling home win for the Bears.
E-town (3-3 L-L, 4-5 overall) outlasted the Mounts, 35-34 [boxscore], in three overtimes, after Danneker broke through Ephrata's offensive line and blocked Chris Fassnacht's kick that would have tied it.
Trailing most of the game, Ephrata (1-5, 1-8) tied it at 14-14 with 2:47 left in regulation to force overtime.
"Honestly, I think we were just playing on adrenaline and heart," Danneker said afterwards, in between breaths. "We weren't going to give up and we knew it."
Brendan Kain, another of the Bears' senior backs, ran for 144 yards, and scored two regulation touchdowns on runs of 69 and 33 yards.
Danneker scored the first overtime touchdown on a six-yard run for a 21-14 lead. Ephrata answered right back when Jeremy Franck found Stephen Hendrickson wide open in the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown.
Franck ran in a touchdown for a 28-21 lead; E-town Mitch Bright caught Andy Breault's 6-yard pass to make it 28-28.
Danneker's second score came on a 1-yard fight across the goal line. Frank then connected with Lance Kopp inside the 1-yard-line, and Kopp reached over for the score.
That set up Fassnacht's fifth extra-point try of the night.
"It seemed like that's how the game was going to end. On something like a missed snap, or a fumble, because both teams just wouldn't be denied," Ephrata coach Jim Vieland said. Vieland said it was the longest game he's ever coached in 15 years on the sidelines.
Danneker said he raced off the end, unblocked, to smother the kick, and seal the win. Vieland said the snap was a bit high and the kick team's timing was thrown.
"It was nerve-racking, but we knew we had a job to do, and we got it done," Danneker said. "It was probably one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever had. That's how you want to go out."
With the echoes of his team's victory yelps bouncing off the locker room walls behind him, E-town coach Mike Cottle used an old football cliche. But it never seemed more appropriate than after Friday's battle at Thompson Stadium.
"It's a shame for a team to lose that one," he said. "I know how they feel because I know how I'd have felt.
"It was just a shame that one of us had to lose that game."
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.