Late score lifts Garden Spot over Daniel Boone

By Sean McBryan — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent

It was always going to be a tough task for Daniel Boone and head coach Rob Flowers to replace last season’s Berks League Section 1 co-receiver of the year Alex Vassallo.

If finding a silver lining in a loss is one’s forte, look no further than sophomore wide receiver Max Heffner’s 132-yard, touchdown-grabbing, coming-out party in the Blazers’ 19-10 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3 opening defeat to Garden Spot Friday night in Birdsboro.

Heffner and junior quarterback Dean Rotter, who also played well with 52 rushing yards and 160 passing yards, enjoyed a connection throughout the evening.

Even if it resulted in a loss, there’s something to build on for the rest of this season.

Don’t tell the Blazers that.

“We were just connecting,” Heffner said. “We were in the right mindset. But in the end it doesn’t matter. We lost the game.”

The Blazers (0-1, 1-3) were right there in a game that came down to too many missed opportunities. They had a fourth-and-goal from the 2 denied early in the second quarter, settled for a field goal after getting into the red zone later that quarter and missed three field goals in the second half.

“We have to capitalize when we get inside the red zone,” Flowers said. “We score one (touchdown), we win the football game.”

Blake Weaver scored on a 38-yard touchdown run with 1:26 left to propel the Spartans (1-0, 3-1) to the victory.

“I definitely knew throughout the game, something big was going to happen,” Weaver said. “We’ve been a second-half team the entire year so I knew something was gonna happen eventually. I had a feeling it was gonna be us.”

Garden Spot took the first lead on a 38-yard field goal from Nick Gleason with 4:20 left in the first quarter.

Quarterback Kye Harting hit Zac Nagle for a 71-yard screen-pass for a touchdown to push the lead to 10-0 with 8:56 left in the second quarter.

The Blazers responded when Rotter hit Heffner for a beautiful 25-yard back-shoulder TD grab to the pylon on fourth down to make it 10-7 with 6:16 left in the half. Chad Brown’s 27-yard field goal made it 10-10 with 1:30 left before the break.

Then the 6-1, 175-pound Weaver came around on a Jet Sweep and scored the deciding touchdown. He finished with 72 rushing yards. 

“That last drive when I scored the touchdown it was the same formation (we’d been running) and a Jet Sweep for me,” Weaver said. “Seeing it come I knew something was going to happen. I took Jet, saw the hole, took it. I actually didn’t see the guy who came down at first, but I lowered the shoulder, did what my coaches told me to do and just pounded it. I saw some open space in front of me and just went.”

Reed Gruber sacked Chase Domenech, who was filling in for a play after Rotter’s helmet came off, for a safety with 50 seconds left.

The Spartans picked up their first win against the Blazers in four meeting in a series that will now be played every season in the new L-L format. It meant even more that Daniel Boone throttled them 45-17 last season.

“Last year it was different because they came into our field and pounded us,” Weaver said. “So coming back here there was definitely some emotion tied to the game, at least for me.”

Harting’s 136 passing yards and 104 rushing yards were key for Garden Spot as was the defense holding Boone running back Ethan Kryman to 2.5 yards per carry after he was coming off back-to-back 100-plus-yard rushing weeks.

It’s still early and all is not done in Birdsboro as the Blazers believe the Section 3 crown is still there for the taking.

“We’re definitely not going to give up,” Heffner said. “We’re going to keep pushing each other and working hard during practice. It’s not over yet.”

	1	2	3	4	Final
Garden Spot	3	7	0	9	19
Daniel Boone	0	10	0	0	10

Scoring summary

1	Garden Spot	Gleason, 38 FG	4:20
2	Garden Spot	Nagle, 71 pass from Harting (Gleason kick)	8:56
2	Daniel Boone	Heffner, 25 pass from Rotter (Brown kick)	6:16
2	Daniel Boone	Brown, 27 FG	1:30
4	Garden Spot	Weaver, 38 run (Gleason kick)	1:26
4	Garden Spot	Safety, Domenech tackled in end zone	:50

Team statistics

	Garden Spot	Daniel Boone
First downs	11	18
Rushes-yards	27-175	47-153
Passing yards	136	160
Total yards	311	313
Passes	8-19-0	13-24-0
Fumbles-lost	1-0	0-0
Punts-average	5-30.6	2-32
Penalties-yards	9-55	4-35

Individual statistics

RUSHING

Garden Spot: Harting 16-104, Weaver 7-72, Burkholder 3-0, Hoober 1-(-1).

Daniel Boone: Kryman 26-65, Rotter 9-52, Tolosky 10-46, Errington 1-(-4), Heffner 1-(-6).

PASSING

Garden Spot: Harting 8-19-0–136.

Daniel Boone: Rotter 13-24-0–160.

RECEIVING

Garden Spot: Conrad 2-7, Nagle 1-71, Hoober 1-23, Weaver 1-13, Smucker 1-11, Gleason 1-9, Smeltz 1-2.

Daniel Boone: Heffner 8-132, Klick 3-26, High 1-5, Kryman 1-(-3).

MISSED FIELD GOALS

Daniel Boone: Brown 27, 35, 44.