DANVILLE-It’s no secret Danville has a dangerous passing game led by the arm of Madden Patrick. On Friday night, the Ironmen proved they can also run the ball pretty well. Bo Sheptock rushed for a career-high 316 yards and four touchdowns, as Danville pulled away from Loyalsock in the fourth quarter for a 40-7 win to capture its fourth consecutive District 4 championship. Danville (12-1) will travel to face the survivor of today’s West Perry-Wyomissing game next weekend in the PIAA Class 3A state playoffs.
“I want to first say that I wouldn’t have went anywhere without the O-line, for sure,” Sheptock said. “I feel like in past games when we pass a lot, it really opened it up for me in this game. The O-line — phenomenal game. I was able to run behind them, and read their blocks really well. It was a great game for everybody.”
The running game got going early for Danville. Sheptock broke loose for a 48-yard run on his team’s second offensive play. Two plays later, he would cross the goal for the first time from six yards out. After Loyalsock answered with an 11-play drive of its own that saw Tyler Gee connect with Jaylen Andrews on a 24-yard touchdown pass, Sheptock went right back to work. He carried the ball seven times on Danville’s next possession, and gave the Ironmen a lead they would never relinquish, when he found the end zone on a 5-yard run early in the second quarter.
“Our offense really stepped it up tonight with the the running attack,” Danville coach Carl Majer said. “Bo had over 300 yards rushing, that’s just awesome. One night it might be (Aaron) Johnson, one night it might be (Cameron) Kirsch. Bo excelled tonight. The line blocked very well. Madden made some nice plays, and it was just a great team win to get our fourth straight district title.”
Loyalsock (9-4) did have some chances keep things interesting, and maybe even grab a halftime lead. Late in the first half, Gee extended the ball out inches from the goal line on a quarterback sneak. The ball was knocked out of his hands, and while Gee was over halfway to the sidelines celebrating what he thought was a touchdown, one of his teammates recovered a fumble for a loss of three yards. Two plays later on fourth down, the drive came up empty, as Kiersch intercepted a pass and returned it 55 yards.
“They played us great,” Majer said. “Loyalsock, it was a great game for them, even though the score didn’t show that. They’re a tough, well-coached team. Our defense has been really playing hard.”
After halftime, it was time for the Danville defense to really assert itself. The Ironmen held Loyalsock to minus-5 yards on only six plays in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Patrick threw a strike down the middle to Carter Raup for a 26-yard touchdown that extended the lead to 19-7, helping complement a running game that was owning the time of possession battle.
“Our defense has been getting better every week,” Sheptock said. “We’ve been striving to get better every week, day in, day out. We’ve just been playing our game and doing our assignments. It was just a great team win tonight.”
Midway through the fourth quarter is where Danville put the game away. Sheptock hit pay dirt on another 5-yard run to cap off an eight-play, 86-yard drive that was aided by a 37-yard run from Johnson. Less than a minute later, Johnson made a huge play on defense by scoring on a 55-yard interception return. Even with the game well in hand, Sheptock, who also intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter, continued to get a steady workload. He capped off his huge night by sprinting 47 yards to the house with 1:22 left to play, setting up a road trip to somewhere in District 3 over the holiday weekend.
“You expect four quarters of hard-nosed, smash-mouth football this time of year,” Majer said. “We’ll go down and see them play (today). We’re not too shabby of a football team ourselves. We’ll see who comes out on top, we’ll start getting ready on Monday, cook Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and have a lot of fun with these guys.”
Loyalsock 7 0 0 0-7
Danville 6 7 6 21-40
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
D-Bo Sheptock 6 run (kick failed) 7:09
L-Jaylen Andrews 24 pass from Tyler Gee (Chris Cooley kick) 4:25
Second Quarter
D-Sheptock 5 run (Garrett Hoffman kick) 11:19
Third Quarter
D-Carter Raup 26 pass from Madden Patrick (run failed) 4:01
Fourth Quarter
D-Sheptock 5 run (Hoffman kick) 6:20
D-Aaron Johnson 55 interception return (Hoffman kick) 5:34
D-Sheptock 47 run (Hoffman kick) 1:22
Team Statistics
…………………………L…………………………D
1st downs………….18……………………….20
rush-yds………..28-70…………………..42-418
comp-att-int….19-36-3………………..5-12-0
pass yds………270…………………………88
total yds……….340………………………506
fumb-lost…….2-0…………………………1-0
pen-yds………….7-50………………..10-80
Individual Statistics
Rushing-Loyalsock: Tyler Gee 12-47; Logan Bastian 7-20; Dolan Harman 5-13; Jaylen Andrews 3-5; Team 1-(-15). Danville: Bo Sheptock 30-316, 4 TDs; Aaron Johnson 7-85; Madden Patrick 5-17.
Passing-Loyalsock: Gee 19-36-3, 270 yds., TD. Danville: Patrick 5-12-0, 88 yds., TD.
Receiving-Loyalsock: Andrews 12-169, TD; Will Burdett 3-65; Bastian 2-6; Danny Dowell 1-24; Harman 1-6. Danville: Johnson 3-31; Cole Duffy 1-31; Carter Raup 1-26, TD.
