Mounts hold off Blazers

BIRDSBORO — Red-zone struggles and missed opportunities plagued Daniel Boone on Friday night in a 28-20 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Three loss to Ephrata at Brazinsky Field.

Boone (0-2 L-L, 1-4 overall) had bad memories of a similar scenario from the previous week against Garden Spot on its first drive when the Mountaineers (1-1, 3-2) stopped running back Ethan Kryman on a fourth-and goal at the 2-yard line.

Ephrata turned the stop into points three plays later when quarterback Sam McCracken found Nate Conover on a slant for a 97 yard touchdown pass to give the Mountaineers a 7-0 lead at the 5:14 mark of the first quarter.

After both teams had "Three and Out" drives, the Blazers slowly worked their way down the field and eventually tied the game at 7-7 at 7:15 of the second quarter. Quarterback Dean Rotter snuck across the goal line on third down to cap a 16-play, 54-yard drive that took 8:01.

The Blazers forced a short punt and took their first lead of the night on a 24-yard scamper by Rotter with 5:20 left in the first half.

It seemed things were starting to fall apart on the Mountaineers’ side as Mc-Cracken was intercepted by Robert Burns at the Ephrata 40-yard line to set the Blazers up once again with good field position. But the Mounts stopped the Blazers on downs and bit Boone again on a big play yet again on their next drive, as McCracken found running back Andre Weidman up the far sideline for a 79-yard touchdown to tie the game at 14-14.

And Ephrata regained the lead for good on its initial drive of the second half, when McCracken lofted a pass to Weidman over the top of the Blazers defense to go up 21-14.

“Last year, we got physically dominated by them and the message all week has been getting revenge,” Ephrata head coach Kris Miller said. “We overcame a ton of adversity in the first half and it felt like the whole first half was on our side of the field. It was a total team win and I am proud of our guys.”

The Mountaineers took advantage of a 9-yard Blazers punt to open the second half by starting at the Boone 31-yard line.

Daniel Boone marched down the field on the Mountaineers once more before red-zone problems reared their ugly head again, and the Blazers were stopped on fourth-and-goal from the 1. Rotter failed to score on a quarterback sneak on back-to back plays for the Blazers.

After struggling to run the ball for the majority of the contest, Weidman broke free for a 27-yard touchdown to extend the Ephrata lead to 28-14 with nine seconds left in the third quarter.

Weidman kept the drive alive on fourth and 2 from the Blazers’ 44-yard line by fighting for extra yards after being initially stopped short of the marker.

The Blazers cut the deficit to 28-20 with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter when Rotter found tight end Draven Klick for a 19-yard score, but that would be as close as they would get.

Daniel Boone had one last chance to potentially go for a tying score with just over three minutes left before being stopped on fourth and 3 from its own 37-yard line.

Kryman paced the Blazers offense with 119 yards on 25 carries while Rotter went 11-for-26 for 140 yards through the air with one touchdown pass. He also added 50 rushing yards on 21 carries with two scores.

Weidman totaled 171 all-purpose yards for the Mountaineers and three touchdowns. McCracken went just 6 of 18 through the air but for 245 yards and three touchdown passes. Ephrata held a 330-325 edge in total yards.

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