Elizabethtown blasts right through crosstown Rival Donegal in Coach Stokes Debut

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Carl Frederick | August 27, 2022

Elizabethtown with some post-game calisthenics

If it were up to Coach Stokes, he would have had his Bears score 50, but between players cramping, ridiculous humidity and  a message already been sent, he settled for a 43-21 victory over Donegal. “I wanted 50, I don’t care who it was, but is a good win though” Coach Stokes said “Offense helps defense, defense helps offense, once we started scoring we weren’t stopping”.

The Elizabethtown Bears were humming from the start against Donegal, scoring on their first four possessions, but it wasn’t pretty out of the gate. Led by returning Section all-star Noah Rohrer the Indians marched right down the field on their opening drive and Rohrer finished off the 9 play drive with a 5 yard touchdown run.  After Braden Cummings (more on him later) hit Cade Capello on a trick play, Logan Lentz plunged in from the 2 to tie the game at 7 a piece.

Noah Rohrer took the ensuing kickoff nearly the distance getting tracked down at the 9, he would finish the drive off two players later with another 5 yard touchdown run (14-7 Donegal). This is right about when Senior Josh Rudy got rolling as he hooked up Braden Cummings on a 36 yard pass, the extra point saw a botched snap leaving the Bears trailing 14-13.

The Bears finally got a stop defensively and the connection between Rudy and Cummings was back on display. This possession saw Rudy hit one of the league leading receivers in stride for a 46 yard touchdown (21-13 Elizabethtown). Another Donegal 3 and Out, and Rudy marched his squad down the field this time hitting Cade Capello for a 22 yard touchdown pass (28-14).

Rohrer did nearly everything for the Indians, including just missing a 31-yard field goal to end the half. After another Rudy to Cummings connection to make it 35-14, Rohrer drove Donegal all the way down the field and notched his third rushing touchdown to pull the Indians within 14 (35-21).

It was not enough as Rudy (250 yards passing, 5 touchdowns) hit Braden Cummings for the fourth time for a 33 yard touchdown to put this one out of reach at 43-21. Cummings himself would then stop Donegal’s last minute scoring attempt picking off Landon Baughman’s pass at the 4 yard line.

For the second season in a row Elizabethtown bested Donegal in this bitter rivalry, the Indians need to regroup quickly as the welcome York Suburban. New Head Coach Keith Stokes and his squad will travel to face McCaskey (1-0), “We feed of each other” Coach Stokes replied “The league better watch out”.

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