High-Octane Offense Leads Steelton-Highspire To 43-25 Win Over Lackawanna Trail

Written by: Tom Robinson on Saturday, November 26^th, 2023. Follow Tom Robinson on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.

SCRANTON – Alex Erby added to his state record totals for career passing yards and touchdowns while the defending state champion Steelton-Highspire Steamrollers made it clear that they have more offensive weapons besides the Naval Academy-bound quarterback.

Ronald Burnette’s rushing and the pass receiving of Durrell Ceasar Jr. and Jaeion Perry each accounted for more than 150 of the team’s 534 yards of total offense as Steelton-Highspire rolled into the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A state semifinals with a 43-25 victory over Lackawanna Trail Friday night at Scranton Memorial Stadium.

Erby finished 20-for-25 for 337 yards and four touchdowns passing while also running for a score as the Steamrollers jumped out early and remained in control of the Lions in the meeting of 13-0 teams.

“Coming into the game, there was a lot on the table,” Erby said. “That’s the best defense I played against all year and the pressure of this being potentially the last game of my career.”

Erby had plenty of help in making sure that was not the case.

Burnett ran 19 times for 166 yards and a score while also catching a pass. Perry, who had seven catches for 162 yards, and Ceasar, who had nine catches for 151 yards, each grabbed two of the touchdown tosses.

“That’s just the three guys I grew up with since I was seven years old – Durrell Ceasar, Ronald Burnette Jr. and Jaeion Perry,” Erby said. “College coaches still contact me and I tell them every day, ‘those are the guys right there. They’re Division I prospects’.

“Those guys put the work in in the film room and on the field in practice. It just goes back to the preparation piece at this time. You don’t get any re-dos. We knew what the task was. I’m proud of those guys.”

The Rollers opened a 22-0 lead midway through the second quarter and although the Lions repeatedly fought back, Steelton-Highspire did not let them get closer than 16 points the rest of the way.

Operating out of a no-huddle attack and showing off a series of shifts and a variety of motions pre-snap, Steelton-Highspire only got past second down four times before a kneel down on the game’s final play.

Third- and fourth-down conversions were seldom a concern, but when the Rollers needed one to cap a 99-yard, first-quarter scoring drive, Erby and Ceasar came through.

Steelton-Highspire opened the game with a five-play, 74-yard scoring drive that used a 61-yard completion to Perry on Erby’s first attempt to set up the quarterback’s 3-yard touchdown run. Perry, who started out as the holder, ran for the two-pointer on a fake after lining up for an apparent kick.

Rather than gamble on fourth-and-two at midfield, Lackawanna Trail punted and Max Kimmel pinned the Rollers inside the 1.

It didn’t matter.

Erby quickly created breathing room by completing passes for a total of 36 yards on the first three plays of the 12-play scoring drive. He completed his first eight attempts, then, after his first misfire, found Ceasar on fourth-and-four. Caesar caught the short pass for a first down, then slipped two immediate tackle attempts and went in for the score.

Steelton-Highspire had an apparent touchdown called back on the next possession on the first of four consecutive penalties that led to fourth-and-40 and a punt.

The Rollers made up for it by scoring on the first play of their next possession when Burnette burst through the middle for a 57-yard touchdown.

“It was huge,” Erby said of taking a 22-0 lead against a methodical, run-based offense. “Coming into the game, they knew what we were going to do and we knew what they were going to do.

“Execution was the key.”

The teams alternated scores the rest of the way with Lackawanna Trail scoring four touchdowns and Steelton-Highspire adding three.

The District 2 champion Lions showed off the wing-T running game, which had combined with a defense that produced four shutouts in the previous five games, to give the team its first 13-0 start in school history.

Demetrius Douglas ran for 99 yards while Lukas Gumble and Stephen Jervis each ran for scores.

Isaac Ryon returned the second-half kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown and Jervis hit Max Kimmel on an 18-yard touchdown pass on fourth down early in the fourth quarter.

Steelton-Highspire’s most important response may have come after a Jervis sneak broke the shutout with 2:29 left in the half. The Rollers moved down the field to score as time expired, using Erby’s 11-yard pass to Perry to produce a 29-6 halftime lead.

“Coming in, we knew we had to limit the big play and we knew we had to score,” Lackawanna Trail coach Steve Jervis said. “They were better than us tonight.”

Scoring Summary

Team Statistics

Individual statistics

RUSHING

Steelton-Highspire: Burnette 19-166, Chisholm 2-21, Erby 5-11

Lackawanna Trail: Douglas 11-99, Gumble 14-66, H. Patterson 8-49, Jervis 4-2

PASSING

Steelton-Highspire: Erby 20-25-0—337

Lackawanna Trail: Jervis 2-4-0—25, Kimmel 0-1-0—0.

RECEIVING

Steelton-Highspire: Ceasar 9-151, Perry 7-162, Chisholm 2-11, Burnette 1-7, Jackson 1-6

Lackawanna Trail: Kimmel 1-18, H. Patterson 1-7

INTERCEPTIONS:

None