Hempfield uses ground game to rout Central York
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How bad was Friday night for Central York when it hosted Hempfield?
Late in the first half, after the Panthers finally got on the scoreboard and forced the Black Knights to go three-and-out, Hempfield quarterback Sam Kramer tried a quick kick. The punt hit a Knights' lineman, went 5 yards and bounced off a Central player's pad.
Hempfield recovered, and two plays later, Will Blair notched his fourth touchdown run.
That sequence sums up the Panthers' 42-14 loss perfectly.
Central fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and it took all of two plays for the Knights to go up 42-7 when Kramer hit Andrew Green with a 28-yard scoring strike.
The Panthers fall to 1-2 overall heading into Division I play next week. Coach Brad Livingston said it's fair to say his team is trying to rebuild.
"We are definitely a work in progress. I thought our kids gave good effort. That's a good football team over there," he said, pointed to the Hempfield sideline.
The Knights, who improved to 3-0, provided an early omen for the evening, scoring on the first play from scrimmage, when Blair burst up the middle, broke one tackle and went 80 yards.
"The guys up front opened things up," said Blair, who ran for 185 yards on only seven carries. "I saw it right away. It's our base play, and either keep it up the middle, or break it outside. It feels good to start out fast."
The teams traded possessions, but the next Hempfield series started on the Central 36-yard line. Three plays later, Blair took a pitch from Kramer and sprinted 30 yards, making it 14-0, not quite seven minutes in.
Early in the second quarter, Blair followed an 11-yard Kramer run with a 34-yarder of his own. The senior capped that drive with his third touchdown of the game.
One play after the Panthers went three-and-out, Green sprinted 37 yards for a touchdown, and the rout was on.
"It's all seniors up there," Blair said of his team's offensive line. "They've been doing a great job all year. They are making my job easy. We don't change a lot. We love to pound the football."
The Knights accumulated 313 yards rushing on Friday, 259 of which came in the first half. Hempfield emptied its bench during the running clock in the second half, prompting Blair to quip, "Getting a break is great, I'll take it."
Nik Strine connect with Corbin Chevaux for a 33-yard touchdown with three minutes to go in the half. In the fourth quarter, he found Drew Anderson for the final score of the game.
Livingston remained upbeat afterward.
"The question is, whether we can take the lessons we learned here and do something with it," he said.
Hempfield 42, Central York 14
Hempfield142800—42Central York0707—14
First Quarter
Hemp — Will Blair 80 run (Chris Kosmela kick), 11:46.
Hemp — Blair 30 run (Kosmela kick), 5:19.
Second Quarter
Hemp — Blair 6 run (Kosmela kick), 8:27.
Hemp — Andrew Green 37 run (Kosmela kick), 6:36.
CY — Corbin Chevaux 33 pass from Nik Strine (Carter Luckenbaugh kick), 3:00.
Hemp — Blair 35 run (Kosmela kick), 1:00.
Hemp — Green 28 pass from Sam Kramer (Kosmela kick), 0:14.
Fourth Quarter
CY — Drew Anderson 19 pass from Strine (Luckenbaugh kick), 8:38.
HempCYFirst downs1012Rushes-yards26-31334-68Passing2-7-07-20-0Passing yards33144Total yards346212Punts4-33.86-31.0Fumbles-lost0-04-2Penalties-yards4-373-21
Individual statistics
Rushing — Hemp, Blair 7-185, Green 1-37, Kramer 4-25, Jimmy Dizon 1-25, Brendan Flores 3-16, David Martin 2-14, Dillon Powers 5-12, Darnell Lathon 2-3, Mark Himmelsbach 1-(-4). CY, Shyheim Goff 12-64, Noriega Goff 8-40, Brandon Falkenstein 2-9, Elzir Stroman 1-3, Cade Pribula 1-(-3), Strine 10-(-45).
Passing — Hemp, Kramer 2-6-33-0, Himmelsbach 0-1-0-0. CY, Strine 6-16-114-0, Pribula 1-4-30-0.
Receiving — Hemp, Green 1-28, Martin 1-5. CY, Falkenstein 3-61, Chevaux 1-33, Dustin Grim 1-30, Anderson 1-19, Sandy Paulino 1-1.