On Friday, Schuylkill Valley hosted the Eastern Lebanon County Raiders in their home opener for the 2021 season. The Panthers came into this game 0-1 after a 35-7 loss last week against Springfield. This was ELCO’s first game of the season.
In 2020, the Raiders went undefeated in the regular season but suffered a loss to Lampeter-Strasburg in the second round of the playoffs.
ELCO runs a triple-option offense, with senior Luke Williams getting most of the workload. In ELCO’s first drive they ran it eight times and took 5:02 off the clock. The drive ended with the quarterback, Cole Thomas, punching it in from four yards out.
Schuylkill Valley answered with their own five-minute touchdown drive. Quarterback, Drew Campbell, capped off the drive with a six-yard touchdown run. The PAT was blocked by Luke Williams.
What seemed to be a promising drive for ELCO came to a halt when Thomas fumbled a snap and SV’s Jacob Stelluti scooped it up at the Panthers nine. At the half, ELCO led SV 7-6.
There was no scoring again until the fourth quarter when ELCO’s Elliott Kreider ran it in from three yards out. This capped off a 10:39, 19 play drive. This put the Raiders up 14-6.
ELCO sealed the game with another Thomas four-yard touchdown run. This put ELCO up 21-6 with less than seven minutes remaining.
ELCO’s clock chewing, the triple-option offense simply wore down the SV defense. Schuylkill Valley kept this a close game for three quarters. The Panthers forced a few turnovers as well.
ELCO improves to 1-0. While Schuylkill Valley falls to 0-2. Next Friday, ELCO will travel to Conrad Weiser. And Schuylkill Valley will head southeast to face Pottsgrove.
