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Cedar Crest 'D' dominates in bounce-back win


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ELIZABETHTOWN – Things just haven’t gone the way of the Cedar Crest Falcons football team the last three weeks – especially by way of injuries.

But as they have all season, the Falcons have continued to fight through it.

After finally getting back some reinforcements this week, Cedar Crest took advantage by absolutely taking it to Elizabethtown in a 27-0 victory Friday at Thompson Stadium, spoiling the Bears’ Senior Night.

The tone was very much set by the Falcons defense, who shut the door on the E-town, allowing only 84 yards of total offense, and also didn’t give up a first down until the 5:42 mark of the second quarter. The Cedar Crest front four also made life extremely difficult for Bears senior quarterback Micah Garber.

“We were in tough games, but we weren’t far off in those games, either," Cedar Crest coach Rob Wildasin said. "Someone’s going to win and lose every night. But I’m really proud of them. They all bounced back and played their hearts out tonight.”

The most notable Falcon to return was sophomore quarterback Logan Horn, who came out red-hot, distributing the ball to seven different receiver. He finished 16-of-24 for 134 yards and a touchdown, along with 36 yards rushing on five carries - including a five-yard touchdown to open the scoring in the first quarter.

Horn said, “We definitely played our best game this week. Everything was working. It worked well in practice, putting in new plays. We worked on them and executed."

And that energy certainly came from the itch to return under center.

“I was definitely really anxious last week sitting out and not playing. But I had two weeks to prepare for E-town basically. I was ready to go and it went well,” he said.

The Falcons (5-4, 3-3) increased the lead to 14-0 on Horn’s only touchdown pass of the game, to Greyson Williams from 20 yards out, with 9:43 left in the half.

Then after a fumble by the Bears (5-4, 2-4), Cedar Crest took advantage, as Justice Belleman made it a 20-0 game on a one-yard touchdown run with 6:50 left in the half.

The Falcons carried the momentum into the second half, set up at the E-town 37 on a 60-yard return by Williams on the kickoff. That drive was capped off by an 11-yard connection from Horn to Tate Seyfert to make it 27-0 in the third quarter.

A bounce back like this, however, only confirmed what Wildasin knew about the character of his team.

“They proved what I thought I knew already, which is that they are a tough group of kids," he said. "They’ve been proving that all year.”

With the win, the Falcons put themselves in prime position to finish above .500 with a win over Lampeter-Strasburg – something that hasn’t been done in over a decade.

Wildasin said, “That’s it. I said we got to get this one if we’re going to get to have a shot at 6-4, which is something that hasn’t been done since 2004, I believe. That’s our goal now.”

Cedar Crest 27, Elilzabethtown 0

Cedar Crest _ 7 _ 13 _ 7 _ 0 _ — _ 27

Elizabethtown _ 0 _ 0 _ 0 _ 0 _ — _ 0

First Quarter

CC — Logan Horn 5 run (Chad Ryland kick)

Second Quarter

CC — Greyson Williams 20 pass from Horn (Ryland kick)

CC - Justice Belleman 1 run (kick failed)

Third Quarter

CC — Tate Seyfert 11 pass from Horn (Ryland kick)

Team Statistics

_ CC _ Eliz

First downs _ 13 _ 5

Rushes-yards _ 39-73 _ 29-7

Passing _ 16-24-0 _ 6-14-1

Passing yards _ 134 _ 77

Total yards _ 307 _ 84

Punts _ 3-114 _ 7-222

Fumbles-lost _ 1-0 _ 1-1

Penalties-yards _ 4-30 _ 2-10

Individual Statistics

Rushing — Crest: Justice Belleman 22-79, TD; Tate Seyfert 6-53; Alonzo Apple 3-11; Logan Horn 5-36; Neisso Dorvil 3-(-6). E-town: Scott Fox 12-30; Cayden Livingston 5-5; Devyn Clair 2-10; Micah Garber 10-(-38).

Passing — Crest: Horn 16-24-0-134. E-town: Garber 6-14-1 for 77 yards.

Receiving — Crest: Seyfert 4-25, TD; Dorvil 2-18; Nathan French 2-23; Adam Loehr 1-8; Devin Shay 1-5; Greyson Williams 1-20, TD; Brody Dunlop 5-35. E-town: Jonathan Jones 1-32; Logan Yohn 3-39; Fox 1-(-5); Anthony Funck 1-11.