McCaskey tops Mounts

Diante Cherry caught a touchdown pass and rushed for another to help lead McCaskey past Ephrata, 22-15 [box score], at War Memorial Field Friday.

The win helped the Red Tornado finish the season on a positive note, winning three of their final four games after a 0-6 start.
 

Ephrata (1-6, 1-9) took a 15-14 lead in the third quarter when quarterback Jeremy Franck (10 for 13, 126 yards) hit Kevin Sollenberger for a 12-yard touchdown. The Mountaineers held that same lead with 6:20 left in the fourth quarter and the ball on their own 33. But Franck's option toss got away from the Mountaineers and the Tornado capitalized on the next play when Johnathan Hulyo hit Cherry in stride for a 31-yard touchdown.

Up five at that juncture, McCaskey added the two-point conversion on a jump-ball pass in the corner of the end zone to Shaki Staten, and went up 22-15.

The Mountaineers started working their way downfield, quickly crossing into Tornado territory and reaching the 30. But on second and 10 from the 30, Franck was dropped for a seven-yard loss. On the next play, Sollenberger pulled in a screen pass from Franck before getting walloped across the middle, fumbling the ball away with just 1:09 to play.

"The turnovers and the injuries, that's really what it comes down to," said Ephrata head coach Jim Vieland.

"The defense played very well," McCaskey head coach Rob Monzon said. "In the second half, they played disciplined as far as their assignments."

Ephrata took a 9-6 lead into halftime, going ahead on a one-yard touchdown run from Franck with 9:32 to go in the second quarter.

The Tornado opened the second half with a seven-play, 55-yard drive to take the lead for the second time. Hulyo hit Cherry (6 catches, 108 yards) for a 35-yard strike that moved McCaskey to the Ephrata 5. Josh Ransing carried it for three yards to the Mounts' 2 before Gregg Jones punched it in to give McCaskey 12-9 lead. Hulyo hit Cherry for the two-point conversion.

The touchdown was the first for Jones, who is listed on the Tornado roster as a 5-feet-10, 282-pound two-way lineman.

"Our running backs are beat up and we've struggled a couple of games with getting short yardage," Monzon said. "Greg is athletic for a big kid plus he's a big body to run behind and we wanted to give him a chance to make a play. I told him if he blocks when I ask him to block, you never know, when we need a yard, I may call on you. He blocked well and he got a little bone thrown his way."