Cedars slip by Mounts

Lebanon rallied for nine unanswered points to come from behind and defeat host Ephrata 30-24 [boxscore] in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Three contest Friday.

Turning point: After leading most of the night, Lebanon (4-3 L-L, 4-4 overall) found itself trailing 24-21 in the fourth quarter. But the Cedars drove to the Ephrata 4-yard line and kicked a 22-yard field goal to tie the game.

After the Cedars defense force a three-and-out, Lebanon’s explosive rushing attack moved down the field to set up Isaiah Rodriguez’s third touchdown pass of the game, this one the game-winner to Jahlil Young.

The Cedars’ Christian Manzolillo shut the door on Ephrata’s last-ditch effort with an interception near midfield with two minutes remaining.

Back-and-forth: A back-and-forth first half saw the Mounts (3-4, 3-5) and the Cedars trade blows like heavyweight fighters.

Lebanon delivered repeated knockout blows using jet sweeps around the edge, but the Mounts counterpunched with a plethora of rollout passes delivered under pressure.

The Cedars opened up the scoring when Joseph Mejias Rios sprinted around the edge and found 57 yards of daylight, thanks to a crushing block by Jenner Beckley.

Ephrata, however, bounced right back as quarterback Caden Keefer lofted a long pass down the left sideline that narrowly eluded the outstretched hand of a defensive back into the waiting arms of wideout Samuel Knowles. A few plays later, Kai Mast booted a 26yard field goal.

In the second quarter, the teams traded a pair of touchdowns. Lebanon used its rushing attack to march down the field and punched it in twice on touchdown throws by Rodriguez to Leighton Rivera and Alexander Rufe.

Ephrata answered the bell both times though, led by two long kickoff returns by Tucker Parmer.

Keefer followed each up with amazing athletic plays. Each time, under heavy pressure, the junior quarterback scrambled to his left and threw back across his body, finding Parmer once and Sam Knowles once to set the Mounts up in goal-to-go situations.

Brandon Walton finished the first drive with a 6-yard run while Keefer scored himself from 2 yards out for the final score of the half.

The defenses for each team came up with some clutch plays as well. Ephrata’s Zach DaBella executed a 12-yard sack to keep Lebanon from tacking on another score when the Cedars were on the doorstep.

Star of the game: Skyler Sattizahn, Lebanon’s sophomore linebacker, was a tackling machine, accounting for big stops on both special teams and defense all night long.

• Prev
• Next