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FOOTBALL: Northern Lebanon overcomes mistakes, routs Pequea Valley


KINZERS >> How good and how confident is the Northern Lebanon football team right now?

So good that the Vikings can fumble eight times, lose four of them, commit nine penalties and still win by 25 points.

So confident that they can shrug off the above slew of miscues with casual ease and know that it won't happen again. And even if it does, they know they will still find a way to overcome it.

That's how good and confident Northern Lebanon is right now. Can you blame them?

The defending Section Three champion Vikings continued to serve notice that taking their crown away won't be easy, overcoming their own sloppiness and horrendously rainy and raw weather conditions to batter Pequea Valley, 42-17, on Friday night.

Still unbeaten at 5-0 with the stretch drive beckoning, visiting Northern Lebanon (2-0 Section Three) never trailed despite the bout of the fumbles, opening the scoring on Dylan Weaver's two-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter and never looking back despite giving the Braves (2-3, 0-2) ample chance to make a game of it.

"At least we got it in," said NL coach Roy Wall, meeting with reporters in a bone-chilling rain that led to a number of postponements across the region. "We're a pretty good team, we're the defending section champions and we want to make sure we defend our section championship against all comers. It was a lousy night, lousy conditions, but the kids played pretty well.

"Pequea played hard, came in with a nice game plan and we still scored 42 points. So that (the fumbles) is not a big concern."

Thanks to a stellar defensive effort that included stout play from linemen Dustin Motter and Matt Vines and an interception from defensive back Corey Teasdale, the Vikings were never harmed by the numerous short fields the first-half turnovers gave the Braves in the first half.

The closest Pequea came to making its presence felt came when Weston Doutrich booted a 37-yard field goal that made it an 8-3 game with 3:48 left in the first half.

But Luke Funck responded by running the ensuing kickoff back 88 yards for a touchdown to continue the Vikings' season-long dynamic play on special teams and were never threatened again.

"We have so many guys, so many weapons that can score," Wall said of his team's ability to hurt opponents a variety of ways and in all phases of the game. "We were out of sorts a little bit, and (Funck's return) got us focused again."

Funck, a junior fullback, added a four-yard TD blast in the third quarter to push the lead to 22-3, and teamed with backfield mate Dylan Weaver and quarterback Isaac Wengert to total five of the Vikings' six touchdowns and 220 of their 236 rushing yards. Noah Smith notched Northern Lebanon's final score on a one-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.

The Braves scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to make the final score semi-respectable. Chad Mullen accounted for one TD with an 11-yard scoring run, and Jason Stoltzfus hauled in a 57-yard touchdown from Jordan Lapp with 45 seconds left to close out the scoring.

Northern Lebanon 42, Pequea Valley 17

Northern Lebanon86820—42Pequea Valley03014—17

First Quarter

NL — Weaver 2 run (Wengert run)

Second Quarter

PV — Doutrich 37 FG

NL— Funck 88 kickoff return (run fails)

Third Quarter

NL — Funck 4 run (Weaver run)

Fourth Quarter

NL— Wengert 3 run (Funck pass from Wengert)

NL— Wengert 5 run (pass fails)

PV — Mullen 11 run (kick blocked)

NL — Smith 1 run (kick failed)

PV — Stoltzfus 57 pass from Lapp (Fisher pass from Lapp)

NLPVFirst downs128Rushes-yards51-23630-29Passing2-9-010-25-1Passing yards60123Total yards296152Punts2-41.05-10.2Fumbles-lost8-44-1Penalties-yards9-714-25
Individual statistics

Rushing — NL: Funck 14-87, Wengert 22-75, Weaver 12-58, Thompson 1-9, Teasdale 1-6, Smith 1-1. PV: Mullen 2-44, Fisher 3-4, Stoltzfus 2-(-1), Allgyer 12-(-3), Lapp 11-(-15)

Passing — NL: Wengert 2-9-0-60. PV: Lapp 10-25-1-123.

Receiving — NL: Weaver 2-60, PV: Stoltzfus 4-94, Allgyer 3-11, Mullen 2-3, Fisher 1-15.