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Lampeter-Strasburg erases first half deficit, advances to PIAA 4A title game

Tagged under: District 3, District 7, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

| November 29, 2024

“Our backs were against the wall there for a while, they’re a really good football team. Our kids, they found a way” said a jubilant Lampeter-Strasburg head coach Victor Ridenour after the Pioneers engineered a 20-16 come from behind win to advance to the PIAA class 4A title game.

The Pioneers scored first on a 18 yard field goal by Peter Fiorelli to get an early 3-0 after Christian Nolt intercepted a pass by TJ quarterback Luke Kosko and returned it to the Jaguars 18. On fourth and one the Pioneers elected to kick the field goal.

TJ took control of the game in the later half of the second quarter after a punt pinned the Pioneers at their own 12. Two plays later Turk Shep sacked LS quarterback Caileb Howse at the 5, then a penalty moved the ball to the 2. From there Matt Martinis blocked a punt for a safety to make it a 3-2 game. The Jaguars then leaned on Tyler Eber, who ran for 132 yards and two scores in the first half, to drive 56 yards on 13 plays. Eber went in from one yard out to give TJ a 9-3 lead with 6:05 left in the second quarter.


LS couldn’t move the ball at in in the first half. After forcing the Pioneers to punt after three plays, TJ once again went to the run with Eber. Eight plays later Eber popped through the middle for a 20 yard td run to extend the Jaguars lead to 16-3 and that’s where the score remained at the half.

The second half looked as though it would be a repeat of the first half. Eber took off for a 35 yard gain to the Lampeter 37. Then the wheels started to come off the TJ train. Two holding penalties put the Jaguars in a hole they couldn’t dig out of.  After forcing an incompletion on fourth down, the Pioneers took over. Specifically it was Caileb Howse who led the charge. After a short completion and a couple nice gains by Dom Brown, Howse found a seam and streaked down the field for a 46 yard td making it a 16-10 deficit with 8:03 left in the thirds quarter.

The Pioneer defense once again came up big and forced another punt that put the ball on the LS 20. Two plays later Howse broke the game wide open with a beautiful pass down the sideline to Christian Nolt. The play covered 70 yards and after the kick they led again 17-16.

“As soon as we got the stop to start the second half you could just feel the momentum change” said Howse after the game. “We came out with energy in the first half but we were struggling. I was struggling myself but the second half, my team called me out for that. That showed how my team has my back”.

“We caught them on the hitch and go down there, the kids just executed when we needed them to do it” said Ritenour of that play. “He’s a playmaker. He’s been that way all year. Our offense runs through him and he just did a phenomenal job today” he said of Howse’ play in the second half.

The Pioneers tacked on another field goal early in the fourth quarter.

Lampeter-Strasburg will face the winner of the Bonner-Prendie/Southern Lehigh game.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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