Cougars can’t blunt Crusaders’ offensive assault
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 Joel Schreiner — LNP/Lancasteronline
LANCASTER — Talk about offensive efficiency.
Lancaster Catholic ran just 25 offensive plays Friday night, but scored on eight of them — and you can throw in a kickoff return for a touchdown for a ninth score.
Of the eight Crusaders scoring drives, none were longer than five plays and five were two plays or less.
That explosiveness added up to Catholic’s 58-21 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 5 football win over visiting Kutztown.
“We got the ball into the hands of our big-play guys,” Crusaders head coach Chris Maiorino said. “We have some home run hitters and we got them into good situations, in the second half especially.”
Catholic (4-1, 7-1) broke open what was a 26-21 game at halftime by scoring 32 unanswered points.
Crusaders running back Elijah Cunningham rushed for 234 yards and five touchdowns on 12 carries. His touchdowns included runs of 74, 50 and 55 yards.
Cunningham now has 25 rushing touchdowns this season and is closing in on the 1,500-yard mark.
Brandon Way added a 76-yard touchdown run and wideout Josh Acker hauled in a 30-yard scoring pass and had another catch go for 71 yards.
The Crusaders ran only 25 offensive plays and gained 508 total yards, while the Cougars (1-4, 2-6) ran 76 plays for 243 yards.
“Obviously, we want to run more plays, but we take what we can get,” Maiorino said. “We have some pretty special guys on offense and we did a good job of getting them the ball in space.”
The Crusaders’ defense stuffed Kutztown’s offense with 14 plays that resulted in negative yards.
The Crusaders head to Pequea Valley next Friday, while Kutztown heads home to pay Columbia.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Kutztown | 14 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| Lancaster Catholic | 20 | 6 | 25 | 7 | 58 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Lancaster Catholic | Warren, 11 pass from Stefanow (O’Malley kick) |
| 1 | Kutztown | Lafferty, 8 run (kick missed) |
| 1 | Lancaster Catholic | Fields, 78 kickoff return (kick missed) |
| 1 | Kutztown | Undercuffler, 5 pass from Mathias (Mathias run) |
| 1 | Lancaster Catholic | Cunningham, 74 run (O’Malley kick) |
| 2 | Lancaster Catholic | Cunningham, 6 run (kick missed) |
| 2 | Kutztown | Lafferty, 1 run (Kimpland kick) |
| 3 | Lancaster Catholic | Cunningham, 50 run (run failed) |
| 3 | Lancaster Catholic | Cunningham, 55 run (pass failed) |
| 3 | Lancaster Catholic | Acker 40 pass from Stefanow (kick missed) |
| 4 | Lancaster Catholic | Way, 76 run (O’Malley kick) |
Team statistics
| Kutztown | Lancaster Catholic | |
| First downs | 15 | 13 |
| Rushes-yards | 61-276 | 18-339 |
| Passing yards | 67 | 169 |
| Total yards | 343 | 508 |
| Passes | 5-15 | 6-7 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 2-28 | 0-0 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-32 | 2-20 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Kutztown: Ackley 21-146, Lafferty 21-102, Bates 9-68, Swoyer 2-0, Gruber 1-0, Schlappich 1-(-3), Mathias 4-(-19), Stoess 2-(-18)
Lancaster Catholic: Cunningham 12-234, Way 1-76, Gonzalez 2-33, Stefanow 3-(-4).
PASSING
Kutztown: Mathias 3-11-1–20, Stoess 2-4-0-47.
Lancaster Catholic: Stefanow 6-7-0–169.
RECEIVING
Kutztown: Schlappich 1-46, Underkoffler 2-16, Bates 1-4, Swoyer 1-1.Lancaster Catholic: Acker 2-101, Warren 2-53, Crawley 1-12, Way 1-3.
