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General McLane Rolls To First D10 Title Since 2006

Tagged under: District 10, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

| November 9, 2024

Waterford – For the first time since 2006, the General McLane Lancers are District 10 champions.

It hadn’t been since a 19-7 victory over Strong Vincent on November 17th, 2006, since the Lancers last tasted District 10 Gold.

It was worth the wait for General McLane as they dominated Meadville 34-0 Friday night at Carm Bonito Stadium in Waterford.

“It feels great,” said General McLane head coach Marshall McCormick. “Since the start of the summer stuff, we felt like this was a special group. The way that Jacob and Isaac Zietz have stepped up as leaders has taken us to the next level and helped make this a reality. But we wouldn’t be here without all these guys and our coaching staff. It’s a great team and atmosphere that we have.”

Beating a school for the second time in a season is never easy. On October 10th, the Lancers knocked off the Bulldogs 35-27. On Friday night, they made it look easy.

“They gave us some tough fits defensively,” McCormick said. “We had to adjust some things to get our guys into space. Defensively, Coach Bradford had a great game plan. Our guys executed it, then gave us three weeks to watch a lot of film. Our guys gave a great performance.”

The most significant difference was defense. In that October matchup, Meadville pilled up 432 yards of offense and four touchdowns.

It was a different story with all the chips on the table. The Bulldogs were limited to 192 yards, and they did not complete a pass in the second half.

“With what they do on offense, they’re always going to get positive yards,” said McCormick. “It is that philosophy of bend but don’t break when they get down near the red zone.”

General McLane got it rolling right away as Teige Berger raced 91 yards for a touchdown on the opening kickoff.

“We had something set up in practice that we talked about all week,” Berger said. “We thought it was probably going to hit. In the pregame, I was nervous and was throwing up in the locker room. It always takes me one play to be good, and I house-called it.”

Late in the opening quarter, the Lancers extended their lead when Berger capped a 9-play 56-yard drive with a 3-yard run.

Berger rushed for a team-high 77 yards on ten carries and scored three touchdowns. His third of the night, a 2-yard run, put General McLane up 19-0 mid-way through the first half.

“It feels amazing to be a part of this group and perform how I did tonight,” Berger said.

The score was set up by their defense stopping Meadville on a 4th-and-1 from the Lancer 30-yard line as Jordan Lawrence was tackled for no gain.

General McLane led 19-0 at halftime.

On the second half’s opening drive, Meadville had their best opportunity to crack the scoreboard as they drove 36 yards in nine plays. On fourth down, Bradyn Miller was tackled for a 2-yard loss at the Lancer 24-yard line.

Late in the third stanza, Portland Mitchell blocked a Bulldogs punt at their 16-yard line. Four plays later, on 4th-and-6, Isaac Zietz ran eight yards for a touchdown, and his subsequent 2-point pass to Berger made the score 27-0 with 28 ticks remaining in the quarter.

“I’m not sure if I was born yet when they won the last D10 championship,” Isaac Zietz said. “The last time we were in the D10 championship, we played Meadville and got smoked. It’s great to get this win and move on. They’re a tough team and never went away in the last game. The scoreboard shows 34-0, but they’re a better team than that.”

Early in the fourth quarter, General McLane put the finishing touches to the victory when Jacob Zietz caught a 48-yard touchdown from his brother on a pass that looked like it would intercepted. Zietz caught the ball on a ricochet and drug Bulldog defenders into the end zone.

“I don’t think he should’ve thrown it, but miracles happen sometimes,” said Jacob Zietz. “Isaac knows that if he throws the ball, I’m going to get that thing. That ball just landed right in my hands, and I was like, wow.”

Jacob Zietz caught seven passes for 107 yards, while Isaac completed 11-of-17 passes for 171 yards.

“I’ve been waiting for this my entire life,” Jacob Zietz said. All 18 years have come to this. I’ve never been so happy in my life. Defensively, we dominated them. They came out with similar looks as last time, and we were prepared for it. We fired on offense early, coming out with things they weren’t prepared for.”

General McClane will now await the winner of Clearfield and University Prep.

“We want to keep it rolling,” concluded McCormick. “There’s no reason we can’t keep winning. I told our guys, why not us? There will be doubters and people saying that out of District 10, we can’t win. But why not?”

Game Highlights:

General McLane 34 Meadville 0

Score by Quarters

General McLane 12 7 8 7 – 34

Meadville 0 0 0 0 – 0

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

G.M. – Teige Berger 91 yd kickoff return, (kick failed), 11:42

G.M. – Berger 3 yd run, (rush failed), 3:48 – 9-56

Second Quarter

GM – Berger 2 yd run, (McCall Gerlach pat), 7:21 – 8-70

Third Quarter

GM – Isaac Zietz 8 yd run, (Berger from Isaac Zietz), 0:28 – 4-16

Fourth Quarter

GM – Jacob Zietz 48 yd pass from Isaac Zietz, (Gerlach pat), 9:33 – 4-50

Individual Stats

Rushing: M – Bradyn Miller 19-52, Jordan Lawrence 17-80, Jacoby Thompson 16-37, Amari Grenaway 2-13, Team 1-(-9). Totals: 55-173. G.M. – Berger 10-77, Isaac Zietz 10-40, Jared Corwin 2-13, Cohen Beachly 4-30, Nick Swenson 3-17, Team 1-(-3), Matt Caro 1-(-6). 31-168.

Receiving: M – Thompson 1-(-2), Tymir Philips 1-6, Lawrence 2-8, Grenaway 1-7. GM Jacob Zietz 7-107, Berger 1-5, Corwin 1-2, Kyle McConnell 1-57, Caiden Holler 1-0.

Passing: M – A.J. Feleppa 1-for-4, (-2) yards, Thompson 4-for-8,  21 yards. G.M. – Isaac Zietz 11-for-17, 171 yards, 1 T.D.

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