Indians beat Mounts

A power outage in War Memorial Stadium eight minutes after kickoff couldn’t slow down the big plays Friday night in a high-scoring battle between Ephrata and Donegal.

In the end, the Donegal offense proved too much for the Mounts to keep up with, and the Indians prevailed 61-25 [boxscore], dealing Ephrata (0-6 Section Three, 0-10 overall) its 31st straight loss.

Donegal (4-2, 6-4) started fast as Tyler Shirk (13-208-4) capped a six-play, 63-yard drive with a 15-yard touchdown run to open the scoring. After the 20-minute delay, Tyler Amspacher (6-92-1) erupted with a 51-yard touchdown run.

Ephrata, however, provided some fireworks of its own. Charles Warden (6-86-1) got the Mounts on the board, taking a sweep around the end and sprinting 79 yards down the left sideline.

Later in the half, Shirk tore off a 85-yard kickoff return and a 48-yard touchdown run.

Ephrata added a big play in the second half when quarterback Brendan Holbritter lofted a 71-yard scoring pass to Alex Rummel.

Turning point: Ephrata successfully recovered an onside kick after cutting its deficit to 28-12, as the ball slowly trickled 10 yards and the Mounts pounced on it.

Two plays later, however, Donegal’s Nick Kentner intercepted a pass and returned it to the Ephrata 41-yard line. It took Donegal three plays to score and extend its lead to 34-12 when Derek Mohr found Amspacher in the end zone.

Star of the game: Shirk scored five touchdowns, three of which covered 48, 85 and 72 yards. He and his teammates on offense ran through gaping holes and right over would-be tacklers all night — Donegal did not punt the ball once all night.

Key statistic: 12.5. The Indians averaged this absurd amount of yards per rush, led by Shirk, Amspacher and Mario Marshall.

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