SHICKSHINNY – When a single player scores four touchdowns before halftime, you know it’s probably going to be a good night.
When you have a player run for over 200 yards and you outrush your opponent, it’s also usually a good night.
Both of those things happened to opposite teams on Friday night, as Line Mountain quarterback Jacob Feese ran for four touchdowns in the first half alone and finished with 142 rushing yards as well as 99 passing yards to go along with his four scores, while Northwest running back George May ran for 211 yards and a pair of scores.
In the end, five turnovers by Northwest ended up being the difference, including a particularly costly and momentum-shifting one early in the second half, and Line Mountain improved to 3-1 with a 47-20 win over the Rangers (3-3).
“We can’t turn the ball over like that and expect to win,” said Northwest coach Lon Hazlet. “It’s a recurring theme for us and it’s something we not only talked about but worked on all week. It was the same great effort from our kids but the same result based on too many mistakes.”
Those mistakes, along with Feese’s performance allowed the Eagles to negate May’s performance, which came on 31 carries. But of his 211 yards, 115 came in the second half, which Northwest entered trailing 33-7 thanks to Feese’s first-half performance, as he ran the read-option to near perfection.
“Jacob has been doing a great job running our option offense and he’s making the right reads and being disciplined and when it’s time for him to pull the ball and run he does,” said Line Mountain coach Brandon Carson. “He does a nice job protecting the football and getting some extra yards with how strong he is and he’s got good feet.
Two of Feese’s scores came directly off read-option plays, while the other two came on quarterback sneaks, which followed big gains earlier in the drives. His first one was a 48-yard run on Line Mountain’s first possession to put the Eagles up 6-0 after the Line Mountain defense stopped Northwest on downs at the Eagles 28-yard line.
Northwest answered right back with a six-play, 69-yard drive featuring five rushes by May, including an 18-yard and 33-yard pickup before he finished the drive with a four-yard touchdown.
But from that point, Line Mountain would score on four of their next five drives, and nearly five out of six, with a 47-yard field goal attempt by Brayden Boyer falling just short to end the half.
Feese ran it in from one-yard out following a 24-yard pickup by Beau Keim with 10:55 left in the second, then the Rangers coughed it up on their own 39 to give it right back to the Eagles. Feese then connected with Garret Laudenslager for a 37-yard reception on Line Mountain’s first play, and then Feese finished with a two-yard plunge to make it 19-7.
“We knew they were big upfront and so we had some matchups on the outside that we liked and we saw some times we thought we could take advantage of it, so we did a nice job of audibling it and taking what was there,” said Carson. “Garret moved to tailback this year but with his height and how small some of their defensive backs were, we felt we’d be able to take advantage of that matchup.”
The teams then exchanged punts with Line Mountain gained the edge in field position, and that turned out to be a key when the Eagles took the ball at the Northwest 23, and in just one read-option play, Feese made it four touchdowns in less than two quarters.
After another Northwest punt, Feese marched the Eagles down the field again with the first half coming to a close, and Laudenslager finished the drive with an eight-yard touchdown run to make it 33-7.
“Our game plan was good. We ran the ball well initially but we didn’t tackle their quarterback. He’s good, he’s big and he ran it well, my hat’s off to them. We’ve got a really young group and we show it at times,” said Hazlet.
The Rangers then fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, giving Line Mountain another golden opportunity, but Northwest’s defense was able to hold the Eagles to the long field goal attempt to end the half.
Although they trailed 33-7 at the half, Northwest looked like it might seize some momentum early in the second half before turnover and big-play essentially put the game away for the Eagles.
Line Mountain received the second-half kickoff and on the Eagles’ first play from scrimmage, committed its only turnover of the night when Laudenslager fumbled and the Rangers recovered in Line Mountain territory at the Eagle 47.
May then ripped off a 32-yard run to set up the Rangers at the Line Mountain 15 less than a minute into the second half. But two plays later, quarterback Carter Hontz tripped while making a handoff to May and the ball ended up on the ground, where it was scooped up by defensive lineman Dominick Bridi, who ran it back 87 yards the other way for a touchdown to give the Eagles a 40-7 lead.
“We wanted to get a stop to start the second half and we did, we got a turnover, and then we took the ball down and we were just trying to slowly get back into the game and hoping we could get a few things to go our way. Then they pick it up and run almost 80 yards with it,” said Hazlet.
The Rangers would score on their next two drives, getting a 30-yard touchdown run by Hontz and another touchdown by May, but both took over four minutes to complete, and in between those drives, Laudensalger scored his second touchdown of the night on a 21-yard run to largely negate Northwest’s two second-half scores.
Line Mountain 47, Northwest 20
Line Mountain (3-1) 6 27 14 0 – 47
Northwest (3-3) 7 0 7 6 – 20
First quarter
4:34 – (LM) Jacob Feese 48-yard run (kick failed), 5-65, 2:23
1:58 – (N) George May 4-yard run (Foley kick), 6-69, 2:36
Second quarter
10:55 – (LM) Jacob Feese 1-yard run (Boyer kick), 8-74, 3:03
9:18 – (LM) Jacob Feese 2-yard run (kick blocked), 2-39, :28
4:23 – (LM) Jacob Feese 23-yard run (Boyer kick), 1-23, :10
:23 – (LM) Garret Laudenslager 8-yard run (Boyer kick), 7-57, 2:29
Third quarter
10:43 – (LM) Dominick Bridi 87-yard fumble return (Boyer kick)
6:41 – (N) Carter Hontz 30-yard run (Foley kick), 7-62, 4:02
4:37 – (LM) Garret Laudenslager 21-yard run (Boyer kick), 5-51, 2:04
Fourth quarter
11:48 – (N) George May 12-yard run (kick failed), 12-69, 4:49
Statistics
LM NW
First downs 21 18
Rushes-net yards 37-235 50-245
Passing yardage 99 23
Passing 6-10-0-0 3-9-0-0
Fumbles-lost 1-1 9-5
Penalties-yards 4-50 5-51
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Line Mountain: Jacob Feese (14-142-4), Garret Laudenslager (13-67-2), Beau Keim (5-30), Max Bingaman (2-(-8)), Nolan Baumert (1-4), Angel Gonzalez (1-1), TEAM (1-(-1)); Northwest: George May (31-211-2), Carter Hontz (13-52-1), Jake Bobersky (2-6), Landon Hufford (2-1), TEAM (2-(-25))
PASSING: Line Mountain: Jacob Feese (6-10-99-0-0); Northwest: Carter Hontz (3-8-23-0-0), Andrew Bonczewski (0-1-0-0-0)
RECEIVING: Line Mountain: Garret Laudenslager (3-67), Aidan Herb (1-14), Cameron Smeltz (1-12), Jace Hackenburg (1-6); Northwest: Landon Hufford (2-9), George May (1-14)
