Gruber powers Barons over Mounts
- 12 October 2007
The Mounts hosted Manheim Central on Friday night. The game, played at Cocalico due to the light standard situation at Ephrata, was a near "must-win game" for the Mounts as they try to get back into the Section II race. Breaking into the open field on a simple off-tackle play, Manheim Central's Joe Gruber kind of looked around as if to say, "where is everyone?''Instead of being hit from three different sides by Ephrata tacklers, he was running free and was a little surprised by it.
"I guess they (Ephrata) didn't think I had the ball,'' Gruber said. "I looked to my left and to my right and the corners were standing there.''
Ephrata's Blake Crowther caught Gruber at the 1 after the 64-yard gallop but Gruber was only too glad to finish the drive with a one-yard plunge for the touchdown.
That score was decisive because it turned an eight-point Baron lead into a 15-point bulge as Manheim Central defeated the Mounts 30-15 at Eagle Stadium at Cocalico High School.
The game was originally scheduled for Ephrata's War Memorial Field but was moved to Cocalico due to a downed light pole in Ephrata. The light pole, at the south end of the stadium, fell into a parking lot. Safety concerns prompted the move to the neutral field.
The Barons won for the second straight week, pushing their record to 3-1 in Section Two (4-3 overall). They are tied with Solanco for second place in Section Two, a game behind frontrunner Elizabethtown.
Gruber finished with two touchdowns. He gained 100 yards, thanks mostly to that 64-yard fourth-quarter run, and more than doubled his rushing total for the season, which was 92 yards heading into the game.
"We had real good practices this week,'' Gruber said. "The offense and the defense clicked. It was fun.''
For Ephrata, the season's theme continued. The Mounts (1-3, 1-6) pile up yards but cannot score enough points. Ephrata averaged 323 yards per game entering the game -- second-best in Section Two -- and gained 374 Friday night, 74 more than the Barons.
But something generally stops them.
"Our guys always give 100 percent but we're not making the big plays,'' said Ephrata's Ken Grove. "We seem to make the little mistake that puts us in a hole.''
Crowther, Ephrata's all-everything quarterback/defensive back was responsible for many of those yards. He rushed for 106 yards and completed 11 of 22 passes for 106 yards.
But it wasn't enough.
Aided by a 46-yard return of the opening kickoff by Dan Trafford, the Barons took a 6-0 lead (the PAT was blocked) on Gruber's 5-yard crash off right tackle into the end zone.
Central took a 14-0 lead when Trafford (seven carries, 93 yards) took a toss to the right, headed down the sideline and then cut to the middle, covering 71 yards for the TD right before the end of the first quarter.
A Justin Myer 27-yard field goal gave the Barons a 17-0 lead at halftime.
Ephrata forced a Manheim punt to start the second half and then put together a 14-play scoring drive, finishing with fullback Woody Miller's (18-108) 11-yard TD run.
A halfback pass by Curt Kolp off of a reverse was good for 37 yards to Derek Carbaugh and led to Crowther's one-yard TD run. Joel Yoder ran in the two-point conversion and the Mounts crept to within eight, 23-15.
Enter Gruber, whose run to daylight removed any end-of-game drama.
"A couple of weeks ago, we were down and out,'' said Manheim Central coach Mike Williams. "Injuries have hurt but the kids are fighting and scrapping.''
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.