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Camp Hill strikes early to take down Rockets, 46-0


The first quarter of Friday’s non-league high school football game at Rocket Stadium turned into the Bill Williams Show.

See Bill throw. See Bill run. See Bill kick. See Bill score.

It spelled bad news for host James Buchanan.

The Camp Hill star running back accounted for four first-quarter touchdowns, helping the Lions take control early in a 46-0 mercy-rule victory over the Rockets, who never got going after falling behind 32-0 after 12 minutes.

Williams said, “My freshman year we took these guys lightly and we thought we would crush them … and we ended up losing that game. Ever since then we never took this team lightly. If you let a team hang around too long, it can become a dogfight.”

The 5-foot-6 senior back totaled 228 all-purpose yards in only a half of work, mixing in nine rushes, three catches and a pair of punt returns. He even mixed in two punts and tired out his right leg after kicking the ball off after each touchdown.

“When we were in the backfield and got penetration, we were able to corral him like we’ve seen other teams do,” Rockets coach Andy Stoner said. “The tough part is you can do that for two plays, but if you don’t do it the third play, off to the races he goes. That is what makes him so special.”

The first touchdown of the game came in the most surprising of fashions.

With Camp Hill (3-1) facing a fourth-and-12 at the Rocket 21, Williams took a pitch right and stopped in time to launch a perfect spiral to Luke Newman for a 6-0 Camp Hill lead.

“Everybody has been flying to Bill and we had to get them off him,” Lions coach Frank Gay said. “He always throws a pretty ball and I just thought, ‘Don’t overthrow him, don’t overthrow him’ because he tends to get overexcited. But it was a perfect strike.”

The ball switched hands an incredible 11 times in the first quarter alone, as the Rockets mustered just 17 yards, punted three times (a fourth one was blocked), turned the ball over once and had trouble shutting down the Camp Hill attack.

On the night, JB gained just 63 yards, turned the ball over five times and never got closer to the end zone than the Camp Hill 38. Running back Cormac Houpt gained 43 yards on 14 carries for the Rockets and Cody Straley hauled in a pretty 33-yard catch.

Stoner said, “It makes it tough when you’re on a short field all the time because your offense isn’t moving and if your defense gives up one big play, it’s a touchdown.”

Williams followed up the opening score with touchdown catches of 17 and 40 yards and also rushed one in from 25 yards out. Camp Hill quarterback Quinn Buffington scored the fifth score of the opening period.

But Williams couldn’t stop smiling about that first score.

“My teammates make fun of me because I have more interceptions than touchdowns throwing the ball,” he said. “That one made me pretty happy.”

NOTES: Owen Stoner had an athletic interception for the Rockets (0-3), who also got second-half sacks from Evan Stoner and Austin Fravel … JB’s Logan Spoonhour blocked the opening PAT … Coach Stoner said, “We need to keep believing what we are doing and get better at it. We have guys in the right spots, now we have to keep building on what we’re doing well.”

Camp Hill 46, James Buchanan 0 

Camp Hill _ 32 _ 7 _ 7 _ 0 _ — _ 46

J. Buchanan _ 0 _ 0 _ 0 _ 0 _ — _ 0

First Quarter

CH — Luke Newman 21 pass from Bill Williams (kick blocked), 8:22

CH — Williams 17 pass from Quinn Buffington (pass failed), 5:17

CH — Buffington 28 run (kick failed), 2:46

CH — Williams 40 pass from Buffington (Jacob Perry kick), 2:23

CH — Williams 25 run (Perry kick), 0:36

Second Quarter

CH — Buffington 60 interception return (Perry kick), 6:23

Third Quarter

CH — Nicholas Perry 1 run (Perry kick), 5:34

Team Statistics

_ CH _ JB

First downs _ 11 _ 3

Rushes-yards _ 24-117 _ 31-16

Passing _ 6-14-1 _ 4-15-4

Passing yards _ 103 _ 47

Total yards _ 220 _ 63

Punts _ 2-35.0 _ 6-30.5

Fumbles-lost _ 0-0 _ 1-1

Penalties-yards _ 3-20 _ 2-15

Individual Statistics

Rushing — CH: Williams 9-88, Buffington 4-25, Jordan McHugh-Moore 1-5, N.Perry 4-2, Gregory Labine 6-(-3). JB: Cormac Houpt 14-43, Evan Stoner 6-1, Owen Stoner 7-0, Sebastian Wise 4-(-28).

Passing — CH: Buffington 4-10-96-1, Labine 2-3-7-0, Williams 1-1-21-0. JB: Wise 4-15-47-4..

Receiving — CH: Williams 3-75, L.Newman 1-21, Nikolas Newman 1-6, N.Perry 1-1. JB: Cody Straley 1-33, Colby Bradshaw 2-6, O.Stoner 1-8.

Interceptions — CH: Buffington, L.Newman, Jonathan Shuster, N.Newman. JB: O.Stoner..