Mounts claim George Male Trophy

The streak is history for Ephrata.

Not since 2005 had the Mounts taken down Warwick in the annual battle for the George Male Trophy. It was a stretch of 15 straight losing games for the purple-and gold.

But that ended on Friday night, as Ephrata rallied from a 21-13 halftime deficit, limiting the Warriors to just 81 yards of offense in the second half while scoring 16 unanswered points to pull out the streak-busting 29-21 nonleague football victory at War Memorial Field.

“It’s such a big win for the community and the kids,” said Ephrata coach Kris Miller, shortly after getting warm, congratulatory hugs from his daughters, Breana and Reagan. “We talked about closing the gap and closing the gap, and I thought last year, despite what the score was (42-14), I think it allowed our kids to believe that this night was going to be possible. We realized how close we were despite the score.” Well, it certainly didn’t hurt to have an Angel on their side this night.

Angel Collazo, that is.

With Warwick trailing 22-21 after the Mounts’ Brayden Brown blocked a punt through the end zone for a safety and QB Sam Mc-Cracken ran for a 2-yard TD with 11:18 left in the game, QB Jack Reed drove the Warriors into Ephrata territory.

But Collazo’s interception — the Mounts’ third of the night — at the 10-yard line halted the Warriors’ charge.

“I saw the ball and I had to grab it,” Collazo said. “I messed up in the beginning, and I had to get my get-backs.”

Collazo wasn’t done there. Three plays later, he caught a bubble screen pass from McCracken (13-18-0, 210), broke a tackle or two, and sprinted 92 yards down the left sideline for a backbreaking score to put the Mounts up 29-21 with 6:42 to go.

“I grabbed the ball, I saw the (Warwick defender) coming out, I got a little scared,” Collazo recalled, “and I just busted out of there. I was out.”

From there, the Mounts’ defense made its second fourth-down stop of the half, and then it was Andre Weidman time for Ephrata. The 6-foot-1, 216-pound running back (29-134 rushing, 2 TDs) carried the ball nine times on the final drive, gutting out hard yardage for three first downs to help Ephrata run out the clock.

“The kids made so many plays,” Miller said. “They bought into what we were doing and, man, it’s so good. … To not give up a point in the second half, our defense played lights out, and those kids found a way. It was a huge team win across the board. How many first downs did we pick up on that final drive? That was a huge gut check time for our kids and they kept answering the bell.”

Earlier, the Warriors and Mounts traded scores in the first half, with Warwick passing for one score and running for the other, then Ephrata twice responded with Weidman TD runs of 4 and 6 yards.

Warwick’s blocked PAT allowed it to maintain a 14-13 lead, and then Andrew Mc-Clune’s 1-yard TD dive — going airborne over a pile of players with 2:54 left in the half — sent the Warriors into the half with a 21-13 lead. Overall, they had an excellent average starting position of their own 43-yard line in the opening 16 minutes.

But that set up a second half in which Ephrata made several big plays and reclaimed the George Male Trophy for their showcase.