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Mounts' air game holds off CV
- 05 November 2005
The football seemed to be in the air on every play at War
Memorial Field Friday, but was actually only lofted downfield
two-thirds of the time in the relentless air attack from both Conestoga
Valley and Ephrata.Ephrata (3-4 L-L, 4-6 overall) beat the Buckskins at their own game, riding the hot arm of sophomore quarterback Blake Crowther and the hands of senior wide receiver Kyle Sensenig in a 49-34 slugfest.
Crowther completed 16 of 19 passes for 231 yards and five touchdowns, while Sensenig caught 10 passes for 171 yards and three scores, helping blow open a 14-12 game. (Click here for the complete boxscore.) Sensenig expanded his school record for touchdown catches in a season to 12 with one game remaining.
"The team is rallying around Blake right now," said Ephrata head coach Ken Grove. "I tell you, though, No. 2 (Sensenig) is making some catches for us. Blake did a great job. He is a good kid who wants to play hard."
The game went back and forth early as Conestoga Valley (1-6, 1-9) found holes in the secondary of the Mountaineers to score twice through the air. Matt Zigment threw for 172 yards in the first half and 300 overall, giving his team an early lead on an eight-yard slant to Trey Keeley.
Ephrata bounced back when Crowther tossed a 30-yard bomb to a wide-open Sensenig. Eric Petters kicked the first of his seven extra points.
"You never feel safe with a lead against a passing team like CV, but we wanted to play a lot of kids tonight and we did that," Grove said.
The second touchdown for Ephrata resulted from a special-teams error by the Buckskins. The team prepared to punt, but a bad snap rolled all the way into the end zone. Punter Adam Glick picked the ball up and elected to throw it, depositing it in the arms of linebacker Derrick Shank, who ran in from 15 yards for the score. After another scoring pass from Zigment, the Mountaineers started to pull away.
After a bruising run by Ryan Crowther gave Ephrata the ball on the CV 20, Blake Crowther again found an open Sensenig. The next score minutes later was one for the highlight reel. Crowther felt pressure up the middle. He rolled left and threw across his body to Mike Burkholder, who was crushed on the play by a linebacker. Burkholder held onto the ball, and stumbled forward into the end zone.
"Our playmakers made plays tonight, and that is what they have been doing the last few weeks. Burkholder made a heck of a play," Grove said.
The Mounts' lead was 30 before Conestoga Valley started a valiant comeback effort. Zigment, who completed 21 of 40 passes to seven different receivers, led a drive to the 1 before Juan Figueroa ran in for the score. The Bucks recovered the onside kick and scored again, pulling as close as 16 points before Crowther's fifth touchdown pass of the game sealed the victory with a little over five minutes left.
"I felt real good today, but my receivers made me look good at times. Everything has to go right for a play to be successful and it did," Blake Crowther said. "We had a good scout report on CV during the week, so we had a good idea of what we were going to be seeing on both sides of the ball."
The Mountaineers close the season next week with their annual rivalry game at Warwick. "We played as one unit tonight and really gelled, as we have the last four games," Sensenig said, "but the Warwick game will tell a lot about how good we are."
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