Blazers will have top play-maker back against state-ranked Pioneers
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Daniel Boone will need everything its got to compete with state-ranked Lampeter-Strasburg Friday.
The good news for the Blazers is that they’ll have junior play-maker Haydn Moyer back behind center. He was knocked out of last week’s game against Octorara with a possible concussion but was cleared to play following an evaluation Saturday.
Moyer was cleared to return to the game Friday, but was held out for precautionary measures. He was back at practice Monday.
“You don’t get many kids like Haydn,” said Boone coach J.D. Okuniewski. “He’s a special player.”
Moyer was knocked out of the game late in the third quarter with the Blazers trailing 10-6. They got a fourth-quarter safety but couldn’t generate another scoring drive and lost 10-8, falling to 0-4.
With one of the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s top passers on the field the Blazers would’ve had a better chance of pulling out the game.
“That’s a killer not to have him (in that situation),” Okuniewski said. “(Sophomore quarterback) Dom Stoudt did a nice job, threw for over 50 yards, made a nice play to spike the ball when he needed to and he got us into position. . . but not having a Haydn Moyer – that’s a killer.”
Moyer threw for 292 yards, ran for 78, threw a pair of touchdown passes and ran for two scores in a 31-27 Week 2 loss to Schuylkill Valley.
The following week he completed 17-of-28 passes for 359 yards and four TDs in a 40-29 loss to Muhlenberg.
He ranks second in the league in passing with 856 yards.
Not bad for a converted running back in his first year at quarterback.
“He executes the offense,” Okuniewski said. “(In the summer) were thinking we were gonna run the ball 75 percent of the time (this season). Then, watching him in practice, we said: ‘This kid can play,’ and we changed things.”
The Blazers are one of six winless teams in the league, along with Penn Manor, Lebanon, Elizabethtown, Columbia, and Kutztown.
Lampeter-Strasburg is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The Pioneers are 4-0, ranked No. 6 in the state in Class 4A, and have outscored their opponents 139-30.
