After championship season, Ephrata off to fast start
2024 Berks football coverage
presented by UECU
(This story was produced by LNP/Lancasteronline, and published in partnership with MikeDragoSports.com.)
By Kyle Morgan — LNP/Lancasteronline
RED LION — How do you follow up the most successful season in program history?
Ephrata faced that question ahead of its opener Saturday at Red Lion, just nine months after a run to the District 3 Class 5A final. Head coach Kris Miller posed a different question to his team before kickoff:
Who are you guys gonna be?
“(We talked about) being resilient and showing grit,” said Miller, “because at the end of the day, that’s all we can be. We have to show up and play football.”
If Saturday’s result is any indication Ephrata may have something special on its hands again. The Mounts surged strongly out of the gate and clamped down on both sides of the ball in the second half for a 35-14 non-league victory over the Lions.
“I was really happy to see our kids mature throughout this game,” Miller said. “There were a couple of big plays we gave up, but we just kept on bouncing back.”
Ephrata has a new quarterback, and with it comes a new dimension for their play-calling. Caleb Grant is a different kind of player than graduated Sam McCracken, bringing both deep ball accuracy and dynamic running skills.
The Mounts paired him with stud running back Brayden Brown on their first drive, splitting six carries between the two before Brown took a swing pass 44 yards to the house. Grant showed some nice improvisational talent on a botched PAT snap as well, scrambling around before finding Nick Keller for a two-pointer.
To their credit the Lions hung around in the first half. An Evan Honberger punt to start off the second quarter pinned them at their own 2 but Mason Hollingshead didn’t blink, lofting a long ball to a wide-open Zyaire Selby for a 98-yard TD.
The ensuing Ephrata series showed just how dangerous the Mounts’ scoring attack can be. Faced with a fourth-and-2 on their side of the field, the Mounts gambled and went for it, with Grant converting for the first.
In a flash they struck. Nate Conover reeled in a juggling catch for 42 yards before Brown rumbled 24 yards to the 1, scoring on the next play.
Red Lion fought back, with Hollingshead hitting Octavious Thompson out of the backfield for a 36-yard TD, followed by an inside 2-point reverse from Jackson Harris to tie the score midway through the second.
Dustin Hoover then gave the Mounts great field position with a 40-yard kick return. They initially saw a QB keeper on a fourth-and-short brought back by a holding penalty, but Grant was undeterred, fitting in a tight throw to Keller on the following fourth-and-long. Conover ran a 20-yard screen pass in for six a couple of plays later, and Grant added another 2-pointer to put Ephrata up 22-14 before the break.
While Grant did fumble on a long run early in the third, he recovered nicely on the next Ephrata series, evenly splitting eight carries with Brown on a productive drive. Brown finished things off with a 13-yard TD run. The Mounts broke the game open for good in the final minute of the quarter after Grant connected with Keller for a 65-yard TD.
Ephrata’s defense played well for most of the second half, forcing a couple of Red Lion three-and-outs. On the second, Brown followed a Wright Young pass breakup with a third-down tackle for loss. Early in the fourth, run stops from Hoover and Dominic Pugh derailed a long Red Lion possession that ended in a turnover on downs.
Though Hollingshead finished with 169 yards through the air, the Mounts defense gave up just 5 passing yards in the final two periods and held the Lions to just over 3.3 yards per rushing attempt for the entire game.
“(Red Lion’s) offensive coordinator does a great job of putting defenses in a bind with different shifts,” Miller said. “It’s hard to replicate what they do in practice, and I think you saw us being kind of off-kilter early. We calmed the kids down at halftime, and they relaxed and played their style after that.”
Despite running plays far outweighing pass attempts, their offense wound up being balanced in terms of yardage (232 on the ground, 214 on 9-for-12 passing), thanks to multiple big-time throws from Grant; he completed four passes for 20 yards or longer, also adding 120 yards on 17 carries.
Brown was productive as usual with 13 carries for 80 yards, plus three total TDs. Keller (four catches, 98 yards) and Conover (three catches, 64 yards) had the bulk of Ephrata’s receiving yardage. The Mounts averaged just under 5.4 yards per carry and had 21 total first downs.
“What’s nice now is that Caleb can run the ball and be very physical,” Miller said. “We’re not just gonna turn and hand the ball off to (Brayden) all the time. We’re gonna make teams stay honest … we have that big-play ability with Keller and Conover on the outside. When we do throw the ball, we have to take advantage. We want to be able to settle Caleb in and let him do what he does well.”
With a win under its belt, Ephrata will now prepare for its home opener next Friday against Manheim Central in what’s sure to be one of the games of the week in the L-L League.
“Our goal is always to get better each day,” Miller said. “We’re not at the point where we can start looking ahead. We have a lot of guys back, but there are kids in new roles where every day is gonna be a learning experience for them. So we got to be ready to play at home in a huge game on a Friday night.”
