Ashton Kiebach, defense lead Conrad Weiser past Cocalico for Section 3 title
2024 Berks football coverage presented by
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(This story was produced by LNP/Lancasteronline, and published in partnership with MikeDragoSports.com.)
By Jeff Reinhart — LNP/Lancasteronline
DENVER — Ashton Kiebach has spent his entire senior football season making big sticks and bone-jarring tackles for Conrad Weiser.
He had the biggest hit of his entire career Friday night.
Kiebach, crashing off the edge, stuffed Cocalico’s Dane Horning for no gain on the Eagles’ must-have fourth-and-3 call at the Scouts’ 20 with 3:12 left to play.
Weiser got the ball back on downs, and iced a come-from-behind 24-21 victory over Cocalico in Denver, giving the Scouts (6-0, 9-0) the outright Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3 championship.
“I’m just looking for the ball,” Kiebach said. “If I can get past their lineman and make the tackle, that’s what I want to do. And that’s what I did. I’m just rushing the C gap off the end and looking for someone to tackle. I shedded off a block … but with their option game, they can do so many different things.”
Kiebach ended up beating Horning to the spot, and stopped him in his tracks before he could get his legs churning.
“He’s had a heck of a year for us,” Weiser coach Alan Moyer said about Kiebach. “(Cocalico) has such a great offense, and it’s so hard to defend. We bent but we didn’t break. In the end we came up with the big play.”
Kiebach saw to that. And earlier in the game, Weiser’s Adam Williams made a big stick, thwarting Cocalico on fourth-and-goal at the Scouts’ 6.
The Scouts have a non-league game next week. They handed Cocalico (4-1, 6-3) its first section loss, snapping the Eagles’ five-game winning streak in the process.
That’s 11 league titles for Weiser, and it’s first as members of the Lancaster-Lebanon League. The other 10 came in the Berks Football League, the last in 2020. They’ll hoist the Section 3 hardware this season after rallying past Cocalico.
“Huge,” Kiebach said. “We came through and we played Weiser football. Just amazing. Unimaginable. If you would have told me we’d do this at the end of last year, I would have told you that you’re crazy.”
Weiser, which was 5-15 in its previous 20 games coming into this season, was minus three top playmakers Friday; the Scouts’ two leading rushers and leading receiver were out with injuries, making the victory even more sweeter.
“Amazing performance, because we came into this game so banged up,” Moyer said. “We knew what we were up against, and we made some adjustments and we huddled around some kids who maybe weren’t getting the ball all that much. Hat’s off to our kids. They’re all fighters.”
Cocalico had a 21-10 lead at the half thanks to three second-quarter touchdowns, including a nifty blocked punt and ensuing TD turned in by the McArdle brothers; Nick blocked it, Jerry recovered it. Later, QB Josh Myer had a 75-yard TD run and the Eagles had a 21-3 cushion.
But Weiser had two unanswered scores in the second half, both on TD strikes from Donovan Gingrich to Davis Keppley, and then Kiebach’s big stick iced it.
Gingrich’s 27-yard TD strike to Keppley cut Cocalico’s lead to 21-17 early in the third quarter. Later, Gingrich lobbed an 11-yard TD toss to Keppley for the go-ahead score with 9:09 to go in regulation.
Cocalico went to work, riding its hot rushing attack deep into Weiser territory. But Cocalico stalled at the 20. After a timeout, the play call was a handoff to Horning, who rumbled for 172 yards on 29 carries. The Scouts were having a tough time curtailing him on that drive, so the Eagles fed the hot hand.
Kiebach had other ideas.
“They made a couple of really big plays,” Cocalico coach Bryan Strohl said. “They had a goal-line stand early on, and the fourth-down play late. They reacted and made plays. Tip of the cap to them. It wasn’t a lack of effort on our part. I’m proud of our effort. We battled and we fought. They were down a couple of guys, so credit to them. They deserved to win.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Conrad Weiser | 3 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 24 |
| Cocalico | 0 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Conrad Weiser | Malone, 38 FG | |
| 2 | Cocalico | Myer, 11 run (Popolis kick) | |
| 2 | Cocalico | Myer, 75 run (Popolis kick) | |
| 2 | Cocalico | McArdle, fumble recovery (Popolis kick) | |
| 2 | Conrad Weiser | Parr, 5 pass from Gingrich (Malone kick) | |
| 3 | Conrad Weiser | Keppley, 27 pass from Gingrich (Malone kick) | |
| 4 | Conrad Weiser | Keppley, 11 pass from Gingrich (Malone kick) |
Team statistics
| Conrad Weiser | Cocalico | |
| First downs | 19 | 18 |
| Rushes-yards | 27-170 | 29-172 |
| Passing yards | 179 | 0 |
| Total yards | 349 | 172 |
| Passes | 16-28 | 0-1 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 2-54.5 | 2-26 |
| Penalties-yards | 3-25 | 6-55 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Conrad Weiser: Miller 13-97, DePrince 6-57, Gingrich 6-10, McGarigle 2-6.
Cocalico: Myer 13-162, Horning 26-159, Eppinette 4-40, Zimmerman 1-2.
PASSING
Conrad Weiser: Gingrich 16-28-0–179.
Cocalico: Myer 0-1-0–0.
RECEIVING
Conrad Weiser: Keppley 6-107, DePrince 4-42, Parr 4-23, Leed 1-8, Miller 1-0, Leonard 1-(-1).
