Muhls not ‘tough enough’ in lopsided loss to Mounts

By Logan Moyer Last updated Oct 11, 2024

2024 Berks football coverage presented by

Utilities Employees Credit Union

By Logan Moyer — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent

EPHRATA — Muhlenberg football coach Rob Flowers said that he thought his team turned a corner after fighting hard in a loss to Exeter last week.

Re-evaluating after the Muhls’ 32-0 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 loss at the hands of Ephrata Friday night at War Memorial Field Flowers said that his team isn’t quite there yet.

The Mountaineers (2-2, 4-4) gashed the Muhls (1-4, 3-5) for 200 yards on the ground at almost seven yards per carry while limiting league-leading rusher Cameron Small to 66 yards.

“(Ephrata) did an excellent job of just beating us up in the box on both sides of the ball,” Flowers said. “Kudos to them for figuring out how to get it done and doing it for 48 minutes.”

For Flowers it simply boils down to physicality. He was impressed with his team’s performance against the heavily-favored Eagles last week, but not so much on Friday.

“We’re not tough enough yet,” he said. “We’re not physically violent. You have to be physically violent to play this game.”

It wasn’t all physical errors. Mistakes – most notably the nine penalties for 78 total yards – also played a huge factor. The Muhls chewed over seven minutes off the clock on their first drive and looked primed to score but a holding penalty killed their momentum and halted their drive.

A personal foul against the Muhls on Ephrata’s ensuing drive put the Mounts in prime position to score but Zavier Otero bailed them out by blocking a 27-yard field goal attempt after a bad snap.

“There were a lot of penalties that were just not good for us,” Flowers said. “You have to make sure that you’re staying ahead of chains and being in positive spaces.”

Despite the lopsided final score the Muhls were trailing just 8-0 at halftime. A 12-yard keeper by Ephrata signal-caller Caleb Grant was the only score of the first half.

Grant found the end zone twice more in the second half, both through the air. He found Dominic Pugh for a 16-yard connection in the third quarter after a 38-yard field goal by Evan Honberger and later tossed a perfect 26-yard pass to Nick Keller, who made a spectacular catch over a defender to haul in the touchdown.

“We have to get to the point where we are physically violent,” Flowers said. “We’ll get there; we’re just not there yet.”

Jayden Artis closed out the scoring, tumbling for a 6-yard score with under three minutes left in the fourth quarter. Artis led the game in rushing with 80 yards; teammate Brayden Brown was just behind with 73.

With Small kept mostly in check, the Muhls turned to freshman quarterback Adriel Baez for offensive production. He played fairly well, passing for 64 yards on five completions and running for 59 more on the ground before going down with an injury in the fourth quarter.

Despite the loss, Muhlenberg still has the opportunity to finish .500 and win as many as four games in a single season for the first time since 2017; the Muhls will play at Academy Park in a non-league contest next week before finishing out the season at Conestoga Valley.

“I want to make sure that we have a very successful week of practice, starting on Monday,” Flowers said. “We have to take it literally one day at a time to make sure that we’re all in a good space, to make sure everything’s good.”

	1	2	3	4	Final
Muhlenberg	0	0	0	0	0
Ephrata	0	8	10	14	32

Scoring summary

2	Ephrata	Grant, 12 run (Brown run)	6:14
3	Ephrata	Honberger, 38 FG	8:56
3	Ephrata	Pugh, 16 pass from Grant (Honberger kick)	4:13
4	Ephrata	Keller, 26 pass from Grant (Honberger kick)	4:07
4	Ephrata	Artis, 6 run (Honberger kick)	2:39

Team statistics

	Muhlenberg	Ephrata
First downs	15	18
Rushes-yards	47-160	35-200
Passing yards	69	169
Total yards	229	369
Passes	6-17-1	11-17-0
Fumbles-lost	0-0	1-0
Punts-average	3-47.7	1-51
Penalties-yards	9-78	5-45

Individual statistics

RUSHING

Muhlenberg: Small 20-66, Baez 14-59, Lacey 4-30, Miller Jr. 4-18, Ortiz 4-(-1), Team 1-(-12).

Ephrata: Artis 7-80, Brown 13-73, Grant 11-26, Conover 1-20, Keller 1-3, Team 2-(-2).

PASSING

Muhlenberg: Baez 5-10-0–64, Coley 1-6-1–5, Team 0-1-0–0.

Ephrata: Grant 10-15-0–159, Martin 1-1-0-10, Team 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING

Muhlenberg: Lacey 1-49, Buzydlowski 1-6, Ortiz 1-6, Miller Jr. 1-5, Cruz 1-5, Small 1-(-2).

Ephrata: Conover 2-59, Keller 4-47, Pugh 3-43, Bryant 2-20.

INTERCEPTIONS

Ephrata: Riley.

MISSED FIELD GOALS

Ephrata: Honberger 27.