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Derek Asche/Jaylen Walker connection leads Lewisburg to hard fought win over Warriors

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

| November 4, 2023

With just under 2 minutes to play and holding a 22-14 play, Lewisburg faced a fourth and one on the Montoursville 4 yard line. Jack Blough came through the middle of the line untouched and quarterback Derek Asche floated a perfect lob to seal the win for the Dragons with a final score of 29-14. Asche threw for nearly 200 yards, connecting for two more scores with freshman Jaylen Walker. “It was awesome because he’s a freshman, and it was awesome to be able to have a freshman make big plays in a big game” said Lewisburg head coach Eric Wicks.

The game at Christy Matthewson stadium had a little bit of everything, including a first quarter that seemed to be stuck in a puddle. Neither team managed much offensive gain. Montoursville missed on a 42 yard attempt shortly before the end of the quarter, then both teams traded punts to start the second quarter. Then just like that, the winds changed. Sitting on their own 14, Lewisburg struck. After a one yard run, Asche took the snap, stepped back and launched a bomb to Walker that landed in his arms and in stride. The 87 yard td put the Dragons up 7-0 midway through the second.


Montoursville responded with a grinding 70 yard drive that ended with a 1 yard td run by Nate Fisher that tied the game at 7 with 2:18 left in the first half. After the score, “strange and quirky” would be the best way to describe the next several events.

Lewisburg took the ensuing kick and was forced to punt, but the Warriors muffed the punt and Lewisburg recovered on the 46. Several played later Asche found Walker for their second td connection. On the attempted kick after, Charlie Landis took a bobbled snap stood up and lobbed a pass into a group of Warriors surrounding Jack Blough. Blough went up and grabbed the rock for the 2 point play giving Lewisburg a 15-7 lead heading into the break.

To start the second half, Lewisburg had several very bad plays backing them up to their own 4 yard line. Asche hit Landis for a quick 15 yard gain. Wick sent in the punt team but when he took the snap, kicker Cohen Hoover saw nothing but daylight to his right and he took off for a 15 yard gain and a first down that gave the Dragon offense new energy. On the next play Jeremiah Davis took the handoff and sprinted 67 yards to put Lewisburg up 22-7 just 2 minutes into the third quarter.

“Let’s just say the kicker is one of our better athletes and if he wasn’t playing soccer he’d probably be one of our quarterbacks” said Wicks. “If there’s a chance, we gotta take it and we did there” he said of the fake punt. Strange then happened again. On the kickoff, the Montoursville team made a blunder and never attempted to field the kick. The Dragons recovered the ball but didn’t score during the drive, giving the ball back on the 27.

Montoursville then went on another pounding drive with plenty of variety. Hard running by Fisher and Christian Banks mixed in with some nice throws by Warrior quarterback Jimmy Mussina kept the drive alive. Then “quirky” happened. Mussina threw a pass intended for one receiver but the ball bounced of him and into the hands of Owen Kleinman who took off for a 42 yard gain to the four. Fisher plunged in from the one to pull Montoursville with one score with 1:43 left in the third quarter.

 

Both teams had long, time consuming drives in the fourth quarter, but it was a pass interference penalty that set Lewisburg up for the clinching score. “We knew they were gonna be good, we knew they were gonna be tough. We watched them play against Southern (Columbia) and they ran the ball hard” said Wicks.

Lewisburg advances to face Danville next week for the District IV Class 3A title.

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