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Home Fall Sports Football Recent News Mounts Drop Daniel Boone

Mounts Drop Daniel Boone

23 September 2023
Written by Daryl Simione — LNP

The Ephrata Mountaineers defeated visiting Daniel Boone 48-7 in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Three football game Friday night at War Memorial Field.

Mounts QB Sam McCracken threw three touchdown passes and added a rushing score, and in the process set the program record for career passing yards.

Several big passing plays sparked the Mounts’ offense. Ephrata’s first touchdown came after a 37-yard pass from McCracken to Angel Collazo down the far sideline, and McCracken took it in from there on a 2-yard run.

The Mounts added to their lead on an 18-yard touchdown pass from McCracken to Jeremiah Knowles on the final play of the first quarter.

McCracken threw a 34yard touchdown pass to Quintin Pfautz midway through the second quarter to set the career passing mark, and added a 10-yard touchdown to Collazo just before the half to give Ephrata a commanding 35-0 lead at the break.

Ephrata improved to 2-0 in league play and 5-0 overall, and sets up a battle of undefeated teams when the Mounts take on Garden Spot next week.

Turning point

Facing fourth-and-2 from the Ephrata 45 early in the second quarter, the Blazers ran a quarterback sneak to try to pick up the first down. But Ephrata’s Brayden Brown and Charlie Lydamore were there to make the defensive stop and give the Mounts possession.

On the next play, Mc-Cracken connected with Knowles on a nifty, 50yard screen play, setting up Knowles’ 9-yard TD run.

Stars of the game McCracken finished 15-of-17 passing for 288 yards. Knowles and Collazo combined for 10 receptions and an even 200 yards.

Daniel Boone’s Fred Lacey rushed 12 times for 80 yards and the Blazers’ lone TD early in the fourth quarter.

Quotable “We had to make sure our kids were ready to go because all this is new,” Ephrata coach Kris Miller said. “We’re not used to being in this situation, so you always worry with what’s looming next week, are we going to come out flat? Is it going to be a letdown game after what we’ve done? Our focus was this had to be the most important thing in our minds, and I was really happy the way the kids came out.”