By BILL ALBRIGHT, Senior Writer
MILL HALL — Two up and two down. That is the early season picture painted by the Lewisburg Green Dragon football team.
On the heels of a solid 32-22 win over defending District IV Class AAAA champion Selinsgrove to open the season, the Dragons made Class AAAAA Central Mountain their second victim in a row with a 55-7 demolition of the Wildcats Friday night at Malinak Stadium.
“We have been using the word dominate all year,” said Lewisburg head coach Marc Persing. “It doesn’t matter what position the kids plays, we are taking that word and trying to apply it to every aspect of football. I don’t care what position you are playing, you are going to dominate the kid across from you. These kids have bought in to that philosophy all summer and it is paying off right now.”
Although the Dragons led 14-0 after one period and 41-0 at halftime, Persing was somewhat disappointed in that the running game was sluggish out of the gate.
“I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t get the running game going,” he said. “We stressed all week that we wanted to come out strong and show people that we are going to pick up right where we left off last year. I have been saying it since his first game that Max (Moyers) is a workhorse, a special talent and his future is very, very bright.”
The Dragons chewed up the Malinak Stadium artificial turf for 377 yards rushing, 320 of which belonged to Moyers. While weaving around and out-racing the Central Mountain defenders, Moyers racked up five touchdowns during his outstanding night.
“We didn’t start out like we did last week and we didn’t play as well as we wanted to early in the game,” said Moyers. “This week we wanted to focus on running the ball well, we worked real hard on that and it paid off for us.”
As for a possible letdown from the big win over the Seals, Moyers said it doesn’t matter who they are playing. They just want to play hard and take it one game at a time.
“We really don’t care who we are playing, we just want to come out the play our game,” he said. “Regardless of who we are playing, we just want to play the best football we are capable of playing.”
Like any good back will tell you that a lot of his success is mainly due to the work of the “hogs” up front, the offensive line.
“I want to say that my vision on tonight’s game was due to the play of the offensive line. They did an outstanding job of making the holes and giving me the opportunity to get outside and into the secondary,” Moyers said. “They worked extremely hard this week and again, it paid off for us with this win.”
Already trailing by the 55-0 count, Central Mountain was able to tally a consolation touchdown with less than two minutes remaining when reserve quarterback Peyton Johnson found Tanner Williamson wide open in the left flat for a 7-yard scoring strike.
Trey Gentzel set the final at Lewisburg 55, Central Mountain 7, with the extra point.
Lewisburg 14 27 14 0 — 55
Central Mt. 0 0 0 7 — 7
First Quarter
L — Dylan Farronato 15 run. (Ben Liscum kick). (9:20)
L — Max Moyers 30 run (Liscum kick). (.04)
Second Quarter
L — D. Farronato 6 run (rush failed) (11:18)
L — Moyers 93 run. (Liscum kick) (8:34)
L — Moyers 16 run. (Liscum kick) (5:32)
L — Moyers 62 run. (Liscum kick). (2:20)
Third Quarter
L — Moyers 52 run (Liscum kick). (6:36)
L — Ethan Dominick 4 run (Liscum kick) (3:47)
Fourth Quarter
CM — Tanner Williamson 7 pass from Peyton Johnson. (Trey Gentzel kick) (1:29)
Team Statistics LEW CM
First Downs 14 5
Rushing Yards 26-377 24-10
Passing Yards 76 103
Passing 5-11-0 13-28-2
Penalties-Yards 1-1 1-1
Fumbles-Lost 3-45 2-10
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Leading Rushers
Lewisburg: Max Moyers 14-320-5 Tds; Dylan Farronato 4-34, 2 Tds; Ethan Dominick 6-27, Colten Witherite 1-32.
Central Mountain: Peyton Johnson 2-18, Ryan Pentz 6-15.
Passing:
Lewisburg: Nick Shedleski 4-10, 69 yards.
Central Mountain: Zane Probst 10-21, 2 interceptions; Peyton Johnson 3-7, 16 yards, 1 TD.
Receiving Leaders:
Lewisburg: Coleman Witherite 2-41, Dylan Ferronato 1-16, Max Moyers 1-12..
Central Mountain: Collin Jones 1-38, J. T. Pentz 3-22, Zach Eck 3-20Tanner Williamson 1-7, 1 TD.
