Second half lifts Bears over Mounts
- 21 October 2006
For a while Friday night, it looked like Elizabethtown was still feeling the effects of last week's shocking 35-33 loss to Garden Spot."This week might have been my toughest week as a coach," said Bears head coach Jeff Polites. "It was tough on the players too."
In the end, the Bears rebounded and scored 26 unanswered second-half points to notch a 26-10 (boxscore ) victory over the Ephrata Mountaineers.
It was all Ephrata (1-4 Section Two, 1-7 overall) in the first half as junior quarterback Blake Crowther and his offense took advantage of poor E-town (3-2, 4-4) tackling.
On the Mounts' second possession of the game, Crowther scrambled for 36 yards to set up first-and-goal from the Bears' 5. Two plays later, junior running back Woody Miller snuck out of the backfield and Crowther hit him on a four-yard touchdown pass to give Ephrata the 7-0 lead with 5:20 to go in the first quarter.
Crowther managed the game well, making the most of the opportunities and openings that the Bears' defense gave him. On his 36-yard run that set up the Mounts' touchdown, E-town went with only three down linemen, and seeing an opening on the right side, Crowther ran to the right for a big gain.
For the game, Crowther had 20 carries for 73 yards and was 17-for-28 for 132 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Late in the second quarter, the Mounts pieced together a 10-play drive to reach the E-town 12. With 50 seconds left, junior kicker Joel Yoder hit a 31-yard field goal to put Ephrata up 10-0 at halftime.
Coming out of the locker room at the start of the second, the Bears knew they needed to come out and play a better half than they did in the first.
"Coach told us (at halftime) that the game wasn't over," said sophomore fullback Shane Rosenberry of his coach's halftime speech.
"We didn't execute in the first -- we didn't tackle and didn't make plays," Polites said. "The interception on the first possession (of the second half) got things started."
That interception came on Ephrata's third offensive play of the second half. Bears junior defensive back Nathan Koach was sitting in the middle of the field and snagged Crowther's pass. Koach ran torwards the right sideline and picked up a couple of blockers on his way to the end zone on a 49-yard return to cut the Mounts' lead to 10-6.
On Ephrata's next possession, Crowther tried to run up the middle and was stripped of the ball and E-town recovered.
On the very next play, the Ephrata secondary bit on a play fake and junior quarterback Preston Faith hit his wide-open tight end Ben Hernley for a 24-yard touchdown strike.
After an Ephrata three-and-out, the Bears quickly struck again. A short five play, 59-yard drive ended with Rosenberry powering through the Mounts' defensive line for a 10-yard touchdown run. With E-town leading late 19-10 late in the third, halfback Jordan Hallman capped the scoring with a 35-yard touchdown run.
E-town now has a couple of days to get ready for Manheim Central.
"We need to play four quarters next week," Polites said about Central. "We didn't play four quarters last week and we didn't play four this week."
Lucky for the Bears, one half was all they needed Friday.
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.