Mounts Suffer First Defeat

Reed Gruber said he didn’t see anything in front of him. Just the sweet, sweet goal line, and the six points that came with crossing it.

The Garden Spot senior defensive end never scored a touchdown in his high school career. Before Friday night, that is. And when Gruber jumped a route, picked off a pass and sprinted 25 yards for a second-quarter score against Ephrata, it helped open the floodgates for the Spartans.

Garden Spot scored four second-quarter touchdowns in all, its defense came up big with Gruber’s pick-six, two other interceptions by A.J. Hurst, plus five turnovers on downs, and the Spartans topped Ephrata 42-22 in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Three football showdown in New Holland.

“I saw him chuck it, and I grabbed it,” Gruber said about his game-changing pick and score. “First time I’ve ever held a football during a game, and I ran it down and scored the first points ever in my life. I never ran so fast. I saw nothing. I didn’t see my players. I didn’t see the sideline. I just saw the blue (turf in the end zone). It felt amazing.”

“Our kids are quick up front, and we brought some inside pressure there,” Garden Spot coach Matt Zamperini added. “Sure enough, I look up and (Gruber’s) jumping for the ball.”

The Spartans (3-0 L-L, 6-0 overall) remained in a first-place tie with Twin Valley (3-0, 6-0), which fended off Solanco on Friday. Garden Spot is 6-0 for the first time since 2012. Ephrata (2-1, 5-1) was 5-0 for the first time since 1995, and the Mountaineers threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Spartans.

But the three picks and the five turnovers on downs were too much to overcome. Oh, by the way, Garden Spot is at Twin Valley next Friday for another Section Three first-place bash.

“We talked about how big of a game this was going to be on Monday,” Zamperini said. “And then we didn’t talk about it anymore. We talked about what Ephrata does on offense and what they do on defense. Fundamentals. We got back into that. We focused on football. We didn’t want our guys getting too caught up in the moment. Line assignments. Adjustments. Execution. Same as always.”

Garden Spot indeed stuck with the script, and never trailed.

Neither team scored in the first quarter here Friday, and Gruber’s interception and ensuing TD return was part of Garden Spot’s four-TD onslaught in the second quarter. Ephrata added a second-quarter TD for 35 points between the teams, but the Spartans had a 28-7 lead at the break.

Kye Harting had a hand in four of Garden Spot’s five offensive touchdowns. The Spartans’ dual-threat QB opened the scoring with a 3-yard keeper with eight minutes to go in the half, and after Garden Spot held Ephrata on downs, Harting flipped a 12-yard TD toss to Jace Conrad, and it was 14-0.

On Ephrata’s ensuing drive, Gruber picked off Sam McCracken and took it to the house for a 21-0 edge, and Harting capped the half in fine fashion for the Spar-tans with a 7-yard TD flip to Trenton Hoober.

“He jumped the route and made a really nice play,” Ephrata coach Kris Miller said about Gruber’s pick-6. “We didn’t make plays tonight, and they capitalized and made plays when they needed them. That was the difference.”

Garden Spot iced it with a pair of third-quarter scores: Gabe Martin barreled 52 yards for a TD run, and Harting capped his big night through the air and on the ground with a 33-yard TD strike to Hurst.

McCracken had a TD keeper and two TD passes for Ephrata: His 24-yard toss to Quintin Pfautz kept the Mounts in it just before halftime, and his 25-yard dart to Jeremiah Knowles — who made a beautiful, sprawling catch in the end zone — capped the scoring.

In between, Garden Spot’s quick-strike offense took care of business.

“I thought the difference in the game ended up being the first quarter,” Miller said. “I thought we did a nice job getting some stops, and we had opportunities. But we fumbled in the red zone. We didn’t covert on a couple of other occasions. We had some chances to convert early but things kind of snowballed on us in the second quarter.”

Ephrata will look to bounce back next Saturday with a Section Three game at Fleetwood.

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