Young Scouts experience growing pains in one-sided loss to Garden Spot

By Matt Gaffney — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent

Any time a football team has to replace a record-setting quarterback there are sure to be growing pains

Conrad Weiser coach Alan Moyer expected as much coming into this season, knowing he had to replace not only all-league passer Logan Klitsch but six other offensive starters, including dynamic wide receiver Aanjay Feliciano.

Last year the points came in bunches with Klitsch running and passing his way into the Conrad Weiser record book. This year with a younger team playing in the rugged Section 4 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League, the offense is going to need some time to jell.  

Moyer’s hunch about his young team was accurate as the Scouts struggled to find an offensive rhythm Friday, falling in their season opener to Garden Spot 31-6 at Robesonia.

Spartans junior quarterback Kye Harting passed for 329 yards and three touchdowns and senior receiver Zac Nagle had seven receptions for 191 yards and two touchdowns. 

“We had some growing pains today, a lot of kids out there playing their first varsity ballgame,” said Moyer. “When you play a decent team, it’s going to show early on. I think the kids hung in there and did some good things as well. But no excuses, we have to be prepared every Friday night to play this level of football.”

After a slow start Garden Spot’s Harting, who completed 14-of-26 passes, had the Spartans offense clicking in high gear as he, Nagle and Blake Weaver carved up the Scouts defense with big passing plays and a physical running game.

Moyer tipped his cap to Harting and the Garden Spot offense.

“He was very accurate, his receivers caught the ball well and he had plenty of protection,” he said. 

Trailing 6-0 midway through the second quarter after two field goals by Conrad Weiser standout Adam Noll, Harting and the Spartans put together an efficient nine-play, 94-yard scoring drive to take a 7-6 lead on a Harting 13-yard touchdown pass to Nagle with 2:06 left in the first half.

Moments later, after the Scouts had driven deep into Garden Spot territory, the Spartans’ Nathan Eberly picked off a Donovan Gingrich pass and returned it inside Conrad Weiser’s 10-yard line with 1.3 seconds left in the half.

Garden Spot promptly took advantage of the turnover with a 25-yard field goal by Nicklas Gleason as time expired for a 10-6 halftime lead. 

Harting and his teammates made sure this wasn’t a close game for long in the second half as they scored two touchdowns in the first five minutes of the third quarter.

After receiving the second half kickoff they scored on a 46-yard pass from Harting to Blake Weaver for a 17-6 advantage with 9:13 left in the third quarter. After forcing Weiser to punt after three-and-out early, Garden Spot quickly struck again. On the second play of the drive, Harting connected with a streaking Nagle for an 87-yard touchdown with 7:12 left in the third quarter to extend their lead to 24-6. That play proved to be the backbreaker for the Scouts as their offensive struggles continued. 

The Spartans defense made things miserable for Gingrich all night (11-for-31 for 123 yards), especially senior defensive end Tyler Hurst. Hurst and his defensive linemates spent almost as much time in the Scouts backfield as Gingrich did, forcing the sophomore to run for his life. Garden Spot’s pass rush forced Gingrich out of the pocket time and time again, leading to rushed throws and incompletions. 

“Garden Spot is very physical up front defensively and No. 66 (Hurst) is a quality ballplayer,” said Moyer. “We couldn’t find him all night.”

Despite the loss Moyer was impressed by his team’s grit and knows from previous experience his quarterback and young team will learn from the setback and get better. 

“Everybody goes through that as a 10th-grade quarterback. The guy who just left us (Klitsch), went through a lot of growing pains as well. More and more reps will help us. Donovan’s a smart kid. He will be fine.”

	1	2	3	4	Final
Garden Spot	0	10	14	7	31
Conrad Weiser	3	3	0	0	6

Scoring summary

1	Conrad Weiser	Noll, 22 FG	24.9
2	Conrad Weiser	Noll, 20 FG	6:07
2	Garden Spot	Nagle, 13 pass from Harting (Gleason kick)	2:06
2	Garden Spot	Gleason, 25 FG	:00
3	Garden Spot	Weaver, 46 pass from Harting (Gleason kick)	9:13
3	Garden Spot	Nagle, 87 pass from Harting (Gleason kick)	7:13
4	Garden Spot	Burkholder, 3 run (Gleason kick)	7:50

Team statistics

	Garden Spot	Conrad Weiser
First downs	18	13
Rushes-yards	25-91	25-85
Passing yards	329	123
Total yards	420	208
Passes	14-26-1	11-31-1
Fumbles-lost	1-1	1-1
Punts-average	2-84	4-156
Penalties-yards	8-75	4-20

Individual statistics

RUSHING

Garden Spot: Harting 11-45 Burkholder 3-6 Campbell 3-18 Weaver 4-20 Portales 2-21 Team 2-(-19)

Conrad Weiser: Parham 4-9 Conde 1-7 Dianna 1-14 Gingrich 1-1 Dianna 1-14 J.Miller 4-14 Britting 10-27  Kiebach 2-4 Team 1-(-5)

PASSING

Garden Spot: Harting 14-26-1-329

Conrad Weiser: Gingrich 11-31-1-123

RECEIVING
Garden Spot: Nagle 7-191 Burkholder 1-1 Weaver 2-88 Portales 1-12 Smucker 1-6 Conrad 1-15 Gleason 1-16

Conrad Weiser: Parha 1-30 Dianna 4-60 Rittle 1-1 Huertas 1-0 J. Miller 4-32

INTERCEPTIONS
Garden Spot: Eberly 

Conrad Weiser: E. Miller 

MISSED FIELD GOALS
Conrad Weiser: Noll 33