Twin Valley gets basic, plows past Lower Dauphin
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
(This story was produced by LNP/Lancasteronline, and published in partnership with MikeDragoSports.com.)
By Mike Gross — LNP/Lancasteronline
HERSHEY – Twin Valley’s offense, while very run-oriented, can be varied and creative.
When the game is on the line, though, the Raiders get brutally elemental, hitching their plow to what might be the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s biggest offensive line.
It worked Friday as Twin Valley ran 51 times for 434 yards and held off Lower Dauphin, 24-21 in an entertaining non-league game at Hersheypark Stadium.
A 36-yard field goal by Sam Frey with 8:38 left turned out to provide the winning points, at the end of a long, grinding drive by the Raiders, one of several that boiled down to tough down-and-distance situations, fourth-down and four, fourth-and-a-long two, etc.
On the last of those, on fourth-and-two at the Lower Dauphin 21, after the Falcons had put together a clutch march of their own to make it 24-21, Lower Dauphin burned its last time out, with 2:15 left, and Twin Valley tapped its strength.
That meant short-yardage plugger Ean Winchester, who’s 6-2, 260 pounds, following 295-pound tackle Aris Drake, 295-pound guard Paul McClune and their colleagues.
Winchester pounded for 4 yards, moved the chains and, in effect, ended the game.
Plenty of fireworks preceded all that. Twin Valley had two backs, Evan Johnson and Drew Engle, run for 194 yards each. Johnson had 140, including a 49-yard touchdown run, in the first half.
Engle had an 85-yard scoring run and a 47-yarder, both in the second half.
Lower Dauphin quarterback Carter Burton ran for 141, including a 94-yard TD.
And so it went, back and forth, the outcome very much in doubt until the Raiders and Winchester moved the chains that one final time.
Twin Valley actually looked comfortable early. The Raiders went 81 yards in six plays to score on their first possession, the last 49 yards on Johnson’s big run.
Then they stopped the Falcons and started marching again, until a botched handoff resulted in a lost fumble.
Lower Dauphin didn’t do a ton offensively in the half save for two explosions, a 30-yard TD run by Logan Lutz and Burton’s 94-yarder, an end run that started out like a basic, we’re-pinned-in-our-own-end play.
Suddenly the Falcons had a 14-7 lead.
The Raiders responded by chugging 96 yards on 13 plays, all runs, by four different ball carriers.
On fourth-and-goal from the two, though, the Lower Dauphin defense made a play, winning at the point of attack and smothering Winchester for no gain.
Four snaps later the Falcons made a decisive mistake, Burton looking to throw while pressured and spun around, tossing it straight to Twin Valley middle linebacker Danny Murphy at the LD 6.
Drew Engle scored on the next play to tie it.
Twin Valley (2-0) travels to Conrad Weiser Friday. Lower Dauphin (1-1) stays in the L-L, traveling to Elizabethtown.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Twin Valley | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 24 |
| Lower Dauphin | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 21 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Twin Valley | Johnson, 49 run (Frey kick) | 6:25 |
| 1 | Lower Dauphin | Sanders, 30 run (Fritz kick) | 0:35 |
| 2 | Lower Dauphin | Burton, 94 run (Fritz kick) | 10:55 |
| 2 | Twin Valley | Engle, 6 run (Frey kick) | 1:35 |
| 3 | Twin Valley | Johnson, 3 run (Frey kick) | 6:51 |
| 4 | Twin Valley | Frey, 35 FG | 8:32 |
| 4 | Lower Dauphin | Burton, 3 run (Fritz kick) | 4:12 |
| Twin Valley | Lower Dauphin | |
| First downs | 18 | 14 |
| Rushes-yards | 49-434 | 31-262 |
| Passing yards | 69 | 75 |
| Total yards | 503 | 337 |
| Passes | 4-7-0 | 25-48-2 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-1 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 3-33.3 | 5-12.2 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-35 | 4-20 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Twin Valley: Engle 15-190, Johnson 24-185, E. Myers 5-33, Winchester 5-22.
PASSING
Twin Valley: E. Myers 8-14-0–71.
RECEIVING
Twin Valley: Rose 4-38, Winchester 1-13, L. Myers 1-11, Pinciotti 1-4.
INTERCEPTIONS
Twin Valley: Evan Johnson, Danny Murphy.
