Blazers come up short against Mounts in Section 3 play
(This story will be updated later tonight with additional details and postgame reaction.)
By Matt Hagy — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
Red-zone struggles and missed opportunities again plagued Daniel Boone in a 28-20 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3 loss to Ephrata Friday night at Brazinsky Field in Birdsboro.
Boone (0-2, 1-4) had bad memories of a similar scenario from a week ago against Garden Spot on its first drive when the Mountaineers (1-1, 3-2) stopped running back Ethan Kryman on fourth-and-goal at the 2-yard line.
Ephrata turned the stop into points three plays later when quarterback Sam McCracken found Nate Conover on a slant for a 96-yard touchdown pass to give the Mountaineers a 7-0 lead at the 5:14-mark of the first quarter.
The Blazers slowly worked their way down the field on their ensuing drive and eventually tied the game at 7-7 at the 7:15-mark of the second quarter. Quarterback Dean Rotter snuck across the goal line on third-and-goal to cap a 15-play, 54-yard drive that took 8:01.
The Blazers forced a short punt and took their first lead of the night at 14-7 on a 24-yard scamper by Rotter with 5:20 left in the first half.
It seemed things were starting to fall apart on the Mountaineers’ side as McCracken was intercepted by Robert Burns at the Ephrata 40-yard line to set the Blazers up once again with good field position.
The Blazers were stopped on downs and were bit by the big play yet again on Ephrata’s next drive as McCracken found running back Andre Weidman up the far sideline for a 79-yard touchdown to tie the game at 14-14.
Ephrata took back the lead for good on their initial drive of the second half when McCracken lofted a pass to Weidman over the top of the Blazer defense to go up 21-14.
The Mountaineers took advantage of a 9-yard Blazer punt to open the second half by starting at the Boone 31-yard line. Daniel Boone marched down the field on the Mountaineers once more before red-zone problems reared their ugly head again when the Blazers were stopped on fourth-and-goal from the 1. Rotter failed to score on a quarterback sneak on back-to-back plays for the Blazers.
After struggling to run the ball for the majority of the contest, Weidman broke free for a 27-yard touchdown to extend the Ephrata lead to 28-14 with eight seconds left in the third quarter.
Weidman kept the drive alive on fourth-and-2 from the Blazers 44-yard line by fighting for extra yards after being initially stopped short of the marker.
The Blazers cut the deficit to 28-20 with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter when Rotter found tight end Draven Klick for a 19-yard score, but that would be as close as they would get.
Daniel Boone had one last chance to potentially go for a tying score with just over three minutes left before being stopped on fourth-and-3 from its own 37-yard line.
Kryman paced the Blazers offense with 119 yards on the ground behind 25 carries while Rotter went 11-for-25 for 131 yards through the air with one touchdown pass. He also added 41 rushing yards on 20 carries with two scores.
Weidman totaled 172 all-purpose yards for the Mountaineers and three touchdowns. McCracken went just 6-of-19 through the air but for 244 yards and three touchdown passes. Ephrata held a 329-311 edge in total yards.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Ephrata | 7 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 28 |
| Daniel Boone | 0 | 14 | 0 | 6 | 20 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Team | Scoring | Tiime |
| 1 | Ephrata | Conover, 96 pass from McCracken (Jones kick) | 5:14 |
| 2 | Daniel Boone | Rotter, 1 run (Brown kick) | 7:15 |
| 2 | Daniel Boone | Rotter, 24 run (Brown kick) | 5:20 |
| 2 | Ephrata | Weidman, 79 pass from McCracken (Jones kick) | 1:46 |
| 3 | Ephrata | Weidman, 25 pass from McCracken (Jones kick) | 8:25 |
| 3 | Ephrata | Weidman, 27 run (Jones kick) | 0:08 |
| 4 | Daniel Boone | Klick, 19 pass from Rotter (Brown kick) | 5:29 |
Team statistics
| Ephrata | Daniel Boone | |
| First downs | 10 | 18 |
| Rushes-yards | 25-85 | 50-180 |
| Passing yards | 244 | 131 |
| Total yards | 329 | 311 |
| Passes | 6-19-2 | 11-25-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 1-1 |
| Punts-average | 5-25 | 2-16.5 |
| Penalties-yards | 7-879 | 9-58 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Ephrata: Weidman 20-72, Knowles 2-11, McCracken 3-2.
Daniel Boone: Kryman 25-119, Rotter 20-41, Tolosky 5-20.
PASSING
Ephrata: McCracken 6-19-2-244.
Daniel Boone: Rotter 11-25-0-131.
RECEIVING
Ephrata: Weidman 3-100, Conover 2-132, Knowles 1-12.
Daniel Boone: Heffner 3-48, Kryman 3-34, Burns 2-24, Klick 2-22, High 1-3 .
INTERCEPTIONS
Daniel Boone: Burns, Heffner.
