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Friday Night Leftovers: Week 8


Behind an offensive performance that featured 300 rushing yards, Cedar Crest did more than steam roll McCaskey over its 25-7 road win Friday night. The blue and white paved its way to a chance at the district tournament.

While the Falcons' 3-5 overall record may appear deceiving, they entered Friday's game having lost to five teams that suffered a combined six defeats themselves, a fact that boosted their district power ranking. Now, having topped the Red Tornado, Cedar Crest has set itself up nicely with a pair of winnable home games to close the season against Conestoga Valley and Penn Manor. For five wins, matched with five favorable defeats, should get the job done. Key word: should.

If the Falcons reel off three straight wins and finish at 5-5, that streak would wash out the three-game losing skid they halted Friday. Those losses were bound together by a couple common themes, namely close margins down the stretch and untimely, self-inflicted wounds that blew open those margins. History seemed ready to repeat against the Red Tornado, when Cedar Crest trailed 7-6 at halftime following a Logan Horn interception that led into the break.

"It was a miscommunication," senior Evan Horn said of the pick. "It was my fault. (Logan) made the right read."

Moving forward, Falcon miscommunications figure to be at a minimum. For now the message is clear: win and you're in.

LANGAN, FOX HEROIC IN DEFEAT FOR A-C >> Lost a bit amid the brilliant play of Northern Lebanon quarterback Isaac Wengert (448 total yards, 4 TD passes, 3 TD runs) in the Vikings' 58-36 smackdown of Annville-Cleona on Friday night were a pair of heroic efforts in defeat from A-C's Will Langan and Adam Fox.

Though their performances weren't enough to keep the Little Dutchmen from their third defeat of the season, Langan and Fox certainly left their mark on the contest.

Langan, a hard-charging senior running back, had the best game of his career against the defending Section Three champs, rushing for 217 yards on 24 carries and scoring two touchdowns, including a 76-yard scoring jaunt on the first play from scrimmage.

Fox's numbers weren't as gaudy, but his production was top-notch. The senior QB scored three touchdowns while carrying 12 times for 54 yards and also completing a pair of passes in A-C's run-oriented attack.

HORST A HORSE AGAIN FOR ELCO>> Elco junior running back Tyler Horst continued his emergence as the Raiders' go-to workhorse on Friday in a 31-20 win at Columbia, piling up 239 yards on 31 carries.

Horst scored on three of those carries — on TD runs of 2, 4 and 35 yards — as Elco improved to 4-4 overall and 4-1 in Section Three.

With two games left, Elco remains in the hunt for a share of the section title and a postseason berth, and Horst's development as the feature back has been a big reason why.