Hawks ‘Pierce’ Eastern York in record-setting fashion

Pierce Mason thought about not playing football this season.

Eleven touchdowns later the Hamburg Hawks are glad he did.

The senior running back continued his early season assault Friday, scoring four touchdowns and matching the school record for rushing yards in a 54-34 non-league win over visiting Eastern York.

Mason rushed for 292 yards and ran for TDs of 51, 45, 12 and 37 yards. He had an early 85-yard TD run called back by a procedure penalty.

The Hawks (3-0), who are unbeaten after three games in back-to-back seasons for just the second time in program history, needed every one of Mason’s yards to shake off the Golden Knights (1-2).

Eastern York led 12-7 and 20-14 in the second quarter before the Hawks took the lead for good with three scores over the final minutes of the first half.

Derek Ruiz, who scored earlier in the second period on a 78-yard interception return, tied it 20-20 with a 39-yard TD run. Eli Blatt’s PAT made it 21-20 with 5:02 left in the half.

The Golden Knights were within 34-28 early in the fourth quarter before Mason put it away with two TD runs.

His 292 yards tied the program mark set by Bryan Wagner in 1996 against Kutztown. He came within one TD of matching the program record shared by Wagner, Iggy Reynoso and Vreeland Woods.

Overall, the Hawks rushed for 370 yards on 32 carries.

Xander Menapace threw for 103 yards and TD passes to Cohen Correll and Alex Bentz late in the first half.’

Hamburg, with 177 points in three games, is on a record scoring pace. It is averaging 59 points per game, nearly double the program record of 34.5 set in 2020.

Jersey Shore, at 62.6 points, and Danville, at 59.6, are the only Pennsylvania teams averaging more points than Hamburg.

The Hawks make their Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 5 debut next week at Annville-Cleona, which improved to 2-1 Friday with a 42-14 win over Littlestown.

	1	2	3	4	Final
Eastern York	7	27	0	20	54
Hamburg	6	14	0	14	34

Scoring summary

1	Hamburg	Mason, 51 run (Blatt kick)	11:30
1	Eastern York	Ayala, 24 run (conversion failed)	5:12
2	Eastern York	45 pass (conversion failed)	11:52
2	Hamburg	Ruiz, 78 interception return (Blatt kick)	8:59
2	Eastern York	Vega, 70 pass (two-point conversion pass)	6:48
2	Hamburg	Ruiz, 39 run (Blatt kick)	5:02
2	Hamburg	Correll, 20 pass from Menapace (Blatt kick)	2:52
2	Hamburg	Bentz, 24 pass from Menapace (run failed)	:19
4	Eastern York	Ayala, 3 run (two-point conversion)	11:56
4	Hamburg	Mason, 45 run (kick failed)	10:44
4	Hamburg	Mason, 12 run (Blatt kick)	5:12
4	Eastern York	7 pass (conversion failed)	2:59
4	Hamburg	Mason, 37 run (Blatt kick)	2:00

Team statistics

	Eastern York	Hamburg
First downs	18	16
Rushes-yards	32-370	40-125
Passing yards	103	286
Total yards	473	411
Passes	7-16-0	14-31-1
Penalties-yards	10-100	6-65

Individual statistics

RUSHING

Hamburg: Mason 19-292, Ruiz 5-67, Menapace 7-9, Shuey 1-2.

PASSING

Hamburg: Menapace 7-16-0–103.

RECEIVING

Hamburg: Bentz 2-31, Correll 2-26, Brady 1-20, Werley 1-18, Mason 1-7.

INTERCEPTIONS

Hamburg: Ruiz.