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Friday Night Leftovers: Horn's return keys Crest


Recapping Week 9 Lebanon County football action in this week's edition of Friday Night Leftovers.

Horn returns from injury, big night for Cedar Crest D

It's been talked about ad nauseam how the injury bug has plagued the Falcons the last few weeks.

It spread to sophomore quarterback Logan Horn, who returned under center Friday, leading his team to dominating 27-0 bounce back at E-Town, snapping a three-game skid.

And Horn came out guns-a-blazing, spreading the ball around to seven different receivers, while completing 67 percent of his passes, and accounting for two of the four Cedar Crest touchdowns.

"We took what was there, we were smart, and Logan was efficient. That put them in a bad position," Falcons coach Rob Wildasin said. "He did what we expected him to do. He made plays, and he organized and ran the offense well."

The Falcons QB also praised the dominating play of his defense, which was flying around the football all night, not allowing the Bears to move the ball virtually at all while allowing only 84 yards of total offense - seven yards rushing and 77 passing. The Cedar Crest 'D' also prevented a first down until late in the second quarter.

"That was definitely big. They've been good all year. They had a couple of tough games, but they still kept us in a lot of games," Horn said. "Remember at the beginning of the year, we weren't scoring many points and they kept us in it. They just played amazing."

Now the Falcons are one win away from finishing above .500 for the first time in over a decade, hosting Lampeter-Strasburg next week.

"We have some momentum, but they're good and have momentum too. It's going to be a good game," Wildasin said.

Annville-Cleona with a shot at Section 3 title

The showdown has been officially set.

A win at home against Donegal next week and the Dutchmen will become Section 3 champions.

The stage was set after the Dutchmen took care of business in a 55-16 rout at Pequea Valley, helping set up a three-way tie for first in the section, after Lancaster Catholic beat Donegal Friday.

Donegal can win the section with a win and a Lancaster Catholic loss. The Crusaders can take the section with a win and an A-C loss. Catholic is at Northern Lebanon next week.

Dutchmen quarterback Noah Myers just picked apart the Braves' defense, throwing for 234 yards, and finished with six total touchdowns - five passing and one rushing.

A-C pulled away with 35 unanswered with the game tied at six, leading to a 41-6 halftime advantage.

Success through the air certainly came as a change-up for the Dutchmen, usually a run-first team.

But in any case, a win like this after a lackluster performance against NL two weeks ago came at the right time, heading into next week's big game.

Palmyra defense not as dominant, but still tough

After notching shutouts in three of its first four games and allowing a mere 54 points in its first seven contests, the Palmyra football team's defense developed a well-earned reputation as a dominant unit.

The last two weeks, though, the Cougars have struggled on that side of the ball, allowing 224 rushing yards to running back Onasis Neely in a 34-24 loss at Eastern Pennsboro last week, then getting gouged at times on Friday night in a 35-24 win vs. Trinity.

So what's wrong with the Cougar 'D'? Not that much, really.

"They got the job done," Palmyra coach Chris Pope said of his defense after the Trinity win. "Sometimes I wonder if we're not kinda spoiled. We were so used to giving up nothing, now that we're giving up something it feels like the world's coming to an end. But we've gotta tighten some things down."

Fighting for a District 3 5A playoff berth, the Cougars will need a big effort from their defense in a regular season finale matchup against an explosive Milton Hershey squad on Friday.

Vikings' Smith a true unsung hero

He doesn't get many carries and even fewer headlines, but Northern Lebanon senior running back Noah Smith got some well-deserved recognition from head coach Roy Wall following the Vikings' 42-0 Homecoming victory over Columbia on Friday night.

After the victory, Wall paid tribute to Smith's willingness to do the little things that often go unnoticed but which have contributed greatly to NL's success over the last three seasons.

""Noah doesn’t get his props, but he has blocked for 3 1000-yard rushers the last three years. He’s just a selfless player," Wall said to correspondent Julie Beidler. "It doesn’t show up in the stat line, but he’s very valuable to us. We wouldn’t have had the success we had the last two years and even this year without him leading the way and doing all the little things that need to be done in football. It’s not always about the 1000-yard rushers or catching the passes there’s a lot of blocking and he gives us 100 percent every play."