Cedar Crest team captain Steve Galbraith (56) hoists the Cedar Bowl trophy as his jubilant teammates celebrate around him after the Falcons ended a string of frustrating performances against crosstown rival Lebanon with an emphatic 67-0 victory on Friday night at Lebanon s Alumni Stadium. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG )
Mercy (rule), mercy (rule), this Cedar Bowl sure looked and felt a lot different than the last two.

Or three of the last four. Or five of the previous seven.

With absolutely stunning ease, Cedar Crest reversed a demoralizing trend of absorbing Cedar Bowl beatdowns on Friday night, instead unleashing an epic, unforgettable pounding of crosstown rival Lebanon en route to a 67-0 - yes, you read that right - rout at stuffy, stunned Lebanon Alumni Stadium.

Wrecked by a combined 82-20 count in the last two Cedar Bowls in which it could have counted its positive moments on one hand, Cedar Crest, which now leads the all-time series 26-14-1, was in control from start to finish on Friday.

It rolled up 341 yards on the ground behind four combined touchdowns from backs Grant Boehler and Erickson Gonzalez.

It lead 50 - yes, 50 - to nothing at halftime, allowing the 35-point mercy rule to be in effect for the entire second half.

It constantly harassed, battered and bruised highly-regarded Lebanon quarterback Mark Pyles all night, either pressuring or sacking him for much of the four quarters and also intercepting him three different times.

Who were those masked men?

If the happy, yet angry, demeanor of Boehler was any indication, they're a bunch of proud, passionate young men who've gotten pretty sick of being kicked around and underestimated.

"All I gotta say is last year we came out as a team and honestly got slaughtered," Boehler said, the memory of last year's 47-13 drubbing from Lebanon still burned into his memory bank. "All I gotta say about this is it's so sweet to see a zero on that scoreboard under the home section. Who's next? Who do we got next week?"

The answer to that question, which Boehler was well aware of, is Lower Dauphin, on Crest's home turf of Earl Boltz Stadium.

But that's next week. For now, the Falcons will, at least they should, spend a little time enjoying what appears to be a return to relevance

Lebanon quarterback Mark Pyles is swarmed by a gaggle of Cedar Crest defenders, including Erickson Gonzalez (27), Steve Miller (1), Dalton Kalbach (2) and Gage Ocker (5). (LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG)
after back-to-back 1-9 seasons.

"I'm so happy for my players, my coaching staff and our school," said Falcons boss Tom Waranavage, his raspy voice partially concealing his obvious pride in his team's performance. "Everything just went our way, everything. I know every coach says their kids deserve to win, but our kids have worked hard. Our kids have worked real hard. This is important."

Cedar Crest wasted no time in their bid to make sure Cedar Bowl XLI would be remembered positively by the faithful, stripping Pyles on the second play from scrimmage - Dalton Kalbach recovered the fumble - to the only score it would need, Gage Ocker's eight-yard TD run around the left side with just 2:41 gone in the first quarter.

The Falcon defense, which was absolutely porous the last few years, then forced Lebanon into a three-and-out on its next possession, and with 5:52 still to go in the opening quarter made it 14-0 via a scrambling four-yard scoring run by QB Nick Cascarino and the second of Kevin Bonalle's eight extra points on the night.

The Cedars nearly answered on the ensuing possession, but a Pyles-led drive that started at Lebanon's 21 fell short at the Crest goal line after Taj Cintron was ruled down on the Falcon 1 after an 18-yard toss from Pyles on fourth down.

That was as good as it would get for Lebanon. The revitalized Crest defense, combined with the aforementioned TD runs from Boehler and Gonzalez and one apiece from freshman Evan Horn and sophomore

Lebanon's Jose Gonzalez loses his helmet as he tries to tackle Cedar Crest's Erickson Gonzalez during Friday's game. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG)
Luke Eisenhour, put a stranglehold on the proceedings.

"That's been our Achilles' heel," Waranvage said of the previously much-maligned Crest defense, which forced five Lebanon turnovers with the help of two Denzel Pierre interceptions. "They obviously forced five turnovers and gave us a couple short fields. I thought we did a nice job of getting after (Pyles). We had to be physical with him, because he's a stud. I thought we never let him get going."

"Football's all about stopping the run and being able to run the ball," Boehler said. "And that's exactly what we did tonight. That's it, that's honestly it. We ran the ball so good, and I guarantee they didn't even have 150 yards on offense."

The Cedars actually churned out - if you want to call it that - an extremely hard-to-get 136 total yards, while Crest's platoon of backs picked up huge chunks of real estate seemingly every time they touched the ball.

On the way to the 50-0 halftime lead, Boehler tallied TD runs of 7 and 59 yards, while Gonzalez bulled his way to touchdown jaunts of 4 and 25 yards, and Cascarino connected with Damon Edwards for a 42-yard scoring strike to close out the first half thrashing.

In the second half, Horn blasted in from two yards out midway through the third, Bonalle booted a 23-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter, and Eisenhour put the cherry on top of the sundae by roaring 56 yards for the game's final TD.

Geez, maybe they oughta give the Falcons a bye week just to fully enjoy the well-deserved fruits of their labor.

"I'm so happy for our kids," Waranavage said. "We'll enjoy this for a while and then start getting ready for our next one.

CEDAR BOWL XLI

CEDAR CREST 67, LEBANON 0

Cedar Crest 14-36-7-10 - 67

Lebanon 0-0-0-0 - 0

First Quarter

CC - Gage Ocker 8 run (Bonalle kick)

CC - Nick Cascarino 3 run (Bonalle kick)

Second Quarter

CC - Grant Boehler 7 run (Bonalle kick)

CC - Boehler 59 run (Bonalle kick)

CC - Erickson Gonzalez 4 run (Bonalle kick)

CC - Gonzalez 25 run (Kalbach pass from Lebo)

CC - Edwards 42 pass from Cascarino (Bonalle kick)

Third Quarter

CC - Evan Horn 2 run (Bonalle kick)

Fourth Quarter

CC -Bonalle 23 FG

CC - Luke Eisenhour 56 run (Bonalle kick)

CC - L

First downs 14 - 7

Rushes-yards 41-373 - 19-34

Passing 4-7-0 - 13-25-3

Passing yards 101 - 102

Total yards 442 - 136

Punts 0-0.0 - 5-25.8

Fumbles-lost 2-0 - 3-3

Penalties-yards 5-40 - 3-40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing:CC - Yost 7-83, Boehler 4-79, Gonzalez 13-67, Eisenhour 1-56, Horn 4-46, Edwards 1-18, Ocker 2-17, Cascarino 4-12, Lebo 5- (-5). L - Pyles 13-15, Castrillon 3-7, De La Cruz 2-3, Negron 2-2.

Passing:CC - Cascarino 4-7-0-101. L - Pyles 12-24-3-106, Martin 1-1-0-(-3).

Receiving:CC - Edwards 1-42, Lebo 1-30, Horn 1-28, Gonzalez 1-1. L - De La Cruz 4-30, Rodriguez 4-24, Cintron 2-19, Gonzalez 1-25, Norman 1-8, Castrillon 1-(-4).