Mounts halt slide, rip Spartans
- 17 October 2009
It was roughly 38 degrees, with a steady, misty rain blowing sideways.In short, not exactly the conditions in which you want to have a huge jug of ice-cold water poured over your head.
Jim Vieland didn't mind all that much.
"It was cold," Ephrata's football coach admitted of the unexpected bath he got with 2:00 remaining in Friday night's game. "I was wishing it was hot cocoa."
No biggie. A bigger wish had just come true.
Powered by senior running back George Murray, who ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns on 31 carries, Ephrata snapped a 16-game losing streak with a 35-7 victory [boxscore] over Garden Spot Friday night at soggy War Memorial Field.
The Mountaineers (1-3 Section Two, 1-6 overall) hadn't won a game since the final week of the 2007 season. Interestingly enough, that win also came against Garden Spot (0-4, 0-7).
Meanwhile, the Spartans' winless streak stretched to eight games with Friday's loss.
"We talked about staying positive and staying together, in spite of where things are at," Spot coach Matt Zamperini said of his postgame talk with his players. "It's not easy to do that, but it's the only way to do it."
Ephrata can relate, as evidenced by the gleaming smile that showed through the dirt and grime on Murray's face as he celebrated afterward.
"It gets old," Murray said of Ephrata's losing streak. "But now we know what it feels like to win. It's a great feeling."
A feeling that Murray had a huge hand in delivering, despite fumbling the ball away on the night's first play from scrimmage.
Garden Spot took advantage of that miscue, putting together a seven-play, 44-yard scoring drive on its first series, which was capped by a 10-yard TD run from Nicholas Rosales that gave the Spartans their only points of the night.
"I liked our toughness, and I liked the way George Murray ran the ball, especially after fumbling on that first play," Vieland said. "He said 'I'm not going to do that anymore. Put the ball in my hands and I'm going to run hard.' And he did."
Murray carried seven times for 41 yards during a 10-play scoring drive that got the Mounts within 7-6 (PAT failed) with 3:10 left in the first quarter.
And when Murray carried nine times for 45 more yards during a 14-play scoring drive -- which he capped with a 1-yard run with 2:44 left in the first half -- Ephrata had the lead for good.
Murray added a ten-yard TD run on Ephrata's first possession of the third quarter to give the Mounts a 21-7 lead, which they were able to expand with a pair of defensive touchdowns in the second half.
"They just handled us physically,'' Zamperini said.
Meanwhile, Spot was having trouble handling the ball. The Spartans turned it over a disastrous six times and had ten fumbles, four of which were recovered by Ephrata. They finished with 69 yards of offense.
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.