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Freshman quarterback leads Rams past Lions

By John Hartsock

jhartsock@altoonamirror.com

NEW PARIS — On a Friday night when a steady rain turned the grass field at Chestnut Ridge High School’s Dr. Giovacchini Stadium into a quagmire, Richland used a freshman quarterback to get back on steady footing en route to winning the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship and finishing an undefeated regular season.

Freshman Kellen Stahl keyed Richland’s game-winning, 52-yard, eight-play scoring drive through the swampy mess, rushing six times for 37 yards and the go-ahead touchdown with 8:04 to play, as the Rams wrapped up a 10-0 regular season with a 24-20 win over Ridge.

Richland coach Brandon Bailey has an all-state caliber starting quarterback in senior Joe Hauser at his beck-and-call, but Bailey turned to Stahl because of his excellent running skills in the adverse conditions.

“Joe is an all-state type quarterback, but I pulled Joe aside and told him that I wasn’t mad at him, but that I needed a guy who was going to be a mudder to come in and run the ball, and Kellen loves the mud,” Bailey said. “We needed to run the ball down the field if we were going to win this football game, and Kellen gave us the boost that we needed.”

On a night when most of the skill position players on both teams struggled due to the muddy conditions, the move to insert Stahl into the game for the winning fourth-quarter drive proved to be a monumentally successful one for Richland.

“It was a rough, hard-fought game, we knew what we had to do, and we knew how to do it, and that’s why we scored,” Stahl said. “At first, it was tough, because I didn’t really get any traction, but after the first couple of runs, I got the hang of it.”

After running 13 yards around the right side for a first down to the Ridge 1, Stahl slanted into the end zone on the next play to give the Rams the victory in a back-and-forth dogfight.

Ridge (8-2) fought valiantly to the end, stopping Richland on a fourth-down run at its own 47 with 3:25 left to play.

“Our defense has played pretty consistent all year, and we were pretty solid on defense tonight,” said Ridge coach Max Shoemaker.

The Lions, however, had trouble with what became a wet, soggy football, and their bid for a go-ahead scoring drive stalled at the Richland 32 on two incomplete passes by sophomore quarterback Logan Pfister with 55 seconds left.

The lead changed hands several times before the finish.

Ridge took a 20-18 lead when Pfister hit senior wideout Austin Crocker with a 63-yard scoring pass with 2:29 left in the third quarter. Crocker beat a defender near the Richland 40 and raced down the soggy field untouched into the end zone.

Trailing, 14-12 at halftime, Richland went ahead, 18-14 on a 1-yard scoring run by senior Zack Vogelsberger with 8:07 remaining in the third quarter.

Richland opened the scoring on a 4-yard first-quarter touchdown run by Vogelsberger. Ridge went ahead, 7-6 on a 10-yard pass from Pfister to senior Jacob Mowry and the conversion kick by Ian Anderson early in the second quarter.

Richland senior running back Teon Reed, who rushed for 107 yards on 17 carries, put the Rams back in front, 12-7 on a 44-yard touchdown run down the left sideline, before Mowry ran 10 yards off right end on a reverse for a touchdown with 3:08 left in the first half to give Ridge its 14-12 lead at intermission.

Shoemaker saluted his team’s superior effort, but pointed out that the problems with center-quarterback exchanges that had plagued Ridge in a 12-0 loss to Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic last week continued last night. Ridge fumbled the ball five times and lost two.

“Our kids fought tooth-and-nail, but the bottom line is that our offense was kind of taking steps backward, and you can’t do that in a championship game,” Shoemaker said.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Richland 6 6 6 6 — 24

Chestnut Ridge 0 14 6 0 — 20

First Quarter

R–Vogelsberger 4 run (pass failed), 5:02.

Second Quarter

CR–Mowry 10 pass from Pfister (Anderson kick), 10:00.

R–Reed 44 run (pass failed), 7:22.

CR–Mowry 10 run (Anderson kick), 3:08.

Third Quarter

R–Vogelsberger 1 run (pass failed), 8:07.

CR–Crocker 63 pass from Pfister (run failed), 2:29.

Fourth Quarter

R–Stahl 1 run (pass failed), 8:04.

TEAM STATISTICS R CR

First downs 13 13

Total yards 289 286

Rushes-yards 41-185 34-115

Yards passing 104 171

Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 10-22-3 7-17-0

Punts-avg. 3-34 4-27.5

Fumbles-lost 0-0 5-2

Penalties-yards 4-26 6-40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–Richland, Reed 17-107, Stahl 9-42, Vogelsberger 7-20, Hauser 6-8, Kocsis 1-5, Kovalchick 1-3. Chestnut Ridge, Harbaugh 12-70, McGill 12-37, Mowry 1-10, Pfister 7-1, Holderbaum 2-(-3).

PASSING–Richland, Hauser 10-22-3-104. Chestnut Ridge, Pfister 7-17-0-171.

RECEIVING–Richland, Bailey 4-33, Burke 2-20, Kovalchick 1-31, Kocsis 1-11, Malzi 1-8, Tustin 1-1. Chestnut Ridge, Crocker 3-98, Mowry 2-9, Weaver 1-40, Whysong 1-24.

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