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Montoursville Wins Defensive Battle Against Lewisburg 14-0, Advances to District 4 Semifinal

 
Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

| November 7, 2026

MONTOURSVILLE – It wasn’t the prettiest of performances offensively for the Warriors, but as the saying goes, ‘defense wins championships.’ While it didn’t win the Warriors a championship yet, it did allow them to win this game and advance to the semifinals in the District 4 Class 3A playoffs, as Montoursville took down the Green Dragons at home by a final score of 14-0.

The Warriors had already earned two other shutouts this season coming into this matchup, and they were entering this game against a team that they hadn’t faced since the 2025 season. Montoursville was also going up against one of the hottest teams in the district, as Lewisburg had won four out for their last six games coming into this week, and had also been putting up an average of nearly 38 points per game over that span.

Both teams went three and out on their respective opening drives before Montoursville broke the ice, after a 29 yard connection between Elijah Eck and Cole Snyder, the Warriors had a first down at the Lewisburg 25 yard line. Then on that very next play, Eck handed the ball off to Kaden Kleinman on a stretch play to the left side, who bounced off of a tackle attempt and sprinted all 25 yards to the end zone for the game’s first score.

That drive ended up having two of the game’s very few explosive plays, however despite that Montoursville was still able to sufficiently move the ball throughout the majority of the first half. The problem for the Warriors in the first half was their inability to finish promising drives, as they had three possessions in the first half reach the red zone before either stalling or turning the ball over.

After forcing a fumble on a handoff to Jaylen Walker, Montoursville took over at their own 39, and began driving once again after two big pass plays of 16 and 20 yards moved them right back into Lewisburg territory. This is when the drive began to stall though, as Montoursville was only able to gain 11 more yards after those two big pass plays, forcing them to settle for a 31 yard field goal attempt from Brent Crawford, which ultimately fell short by about 10 yards.

Then on Montoursville’s next two possessions came the turnovers, both coming from quarterback Elijah Eck. On a third and long situation just outside of the red zone, Eck scrambled and got close to the first down, however the ball was knocked out of his hands and recovered by Brody Wenrich. Then on their next possession, Montoursville moved down close to the red zone again before Eck threw an interception over the middle to Mason Bolden.

“Sometimes we are our own worst enemy on the offensive side of the ball, the game plan was there, we just weren’t executing,” Montoursville head coach Reese Holmes said about the mistakes on offense. “We were missing one block here, one block there, there were crucial spots where we couldn’t have that happen.”

The biggest reason why Lewisburg still trailed going into halftime despite Montoursville only scoring once in the first half was the Warriors’ defense. Montoursville forced four three and outs in the first half, as well as forcing that previously mentioned fumble which was on one of Lewisburg’s only plays in plus territory through the first 24 minutes of the game.

“Our defense played lights out, they’re flying around, hitting on all cylinders, making the plays when we’ve needed them,” coach Holmes said about the defensive performance. “They’ve been like that for most of the year, and we had a good game plan. The defensive coaches and myself did a good job of setting our kids up to be successful.”

Lewisburg wasn’t doing themselves any favors either with penalties, as a bunch of their drives were killed by them. Late in the first half, the Green Dragons had a near 30 yard connection between Xavier Carter and Todd Dershem on fourth down that would have put Lewisburg in the red zone for the first time. However the play was erased due to an illegal blindside block, which moved Lewisburg back 15 yards and forced them to punt.

The Green Dragons had 3 penalties for 45 yards in the first half, and that trend only worsened as the game went on. Lewisburg’s third possession of the second half started at their own 19 yard line, but after two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, they had been backed up to their own 3 yard line, which the drive never recovered from, and once again forcing a punt.

This time though, the penalties proved to be more costly than some of the others, as the terrible field position led to a very short punt by Lewisburg, giving Montoursville the ball at the 28 yard line of Lewisburg. The Warriors had been struggling offensively to this point, however this time they capitalized, scoring just 5 plays later on a 9 yard touchdown run from Eck which gave Montoursville a two score cushion late in the third quarter.

“He’s a heck of a quarterback, he’s the leader of this team, he’s our speaking captain, and he does things the right way,” coach Holmes said about Elijah Eck. “He flies around on both sides of the ball, he does things the right way leadership-wise, and that’s what you want in the quarterback position.”

Eck made plenty of plays on offense in the game, but he also came up big on Lewisburg’s final drive, their only real promising one of the night. Lewisburg made it into the red zone but ultimately stalled, and on fourth down the Green Dragons tried a reverse play where Todd Dershem tried to throw a pass to Jaylen Walker in the end zone, but it was deflected up in the air and picked off by Eck at the goal line and returned back into Lewisburg territory, which essentially sealed the 14-0 win for Montoursville as Lewisburg never saw the ball again.

“Football is a game of ups and downs, it doesn’t ever go the way you plan it, so if you can battle through the adversity and not put your chin in your chest and move forward, that’s how you win football games,” coach Holmes said about his team’s ability to overcome adversity. “You just have to keep going to the next play, and luckily our kids are starting to do that and starting to understand that.”

Montoursville keeps their season alive with the victory, they are now 7-4 on the year and move on in the District 4 Class 3A playoffs, next week they will matchup against the number one seed Mount Carmel on the road. For Lewisburg, their season comes to an end with the 14-0 loss, they finish the 2026 season with a final record of 5-6.

SCORING SUMMARY

1st Quarter

Montoursville – 7-0 (5:42) – Kaden Kleinman 25 yard run (Brent Crawford kick)

2nd Quarter

None

3rd Quarter

Montoursville – 14-0 (1:42) – Elijah Eck 9 yard run (Brent Crawford kick)

4th Quarter

None

PLAYER STATS

LEWISBURG

Xavier Carter – 1/10, 30 YDS, 1 INT
Jaylen Walker – 3/6, 9 YDS
Todd Dershem – 0/1, 0 YDS, 1 INT

Jaylen Walker – 16 CAR, 78 YDS
Xavier Carter – 4 CAR, 28 YDS
Ethan Coleman – 4 CAR, 3 YDS

Jaylen Walker – 1 REC, 30 YDS
Drake Osunde – 1 REC, 6 YDS
Owen Fellon – 2 REC, 3 YDS

MONTOURSVILLE

Elijah Eck – 9/16, 139 YDS, 1 INT

Kaden Kleinman – 19 CAR, 91 YDS, 1 TD
Mason Lapinski – 11 CAR, 38 YDS
Branson Fogleman – 4 CAR, 23 YDS
Elijah Eck – 6 CAR, 14 YDS, 1 TD
Bryson Fillman – 3 CAR, 5 YDS

Cole Snyder – 2 REC, 59 YDS
Jay Houseknecht – 3 REC, 41 YDS
Brody Alexander – 1 REC, 20 YDS
Branson Fogleman – 1 REC, 12 YDS
Jacob Schon – 1 REC, 5 YDS
Mason Lapinski – 1 REC, 2 YDS

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