Hornets dominate Muncy

By: Ed Weaver  /  September 12, 2015

The Wellsboro Varsity Football team picked up from where they left off in week one with a dominant 33-12 victory at Muncy on Friday, September 11.

With questions coming into the game about how the Hornet defense would handle Muncy's Junior Ramos, who rushed for 199 yards and 4 touchdowns on only 15 carries against Warrior Run last week, the Hornets squashed those concerns as they held the running back to just 17 yards on 7 carries and forced Muncy to change their offensive strategy.

"We talked about making a statement all week and we wanted to prove that the NTL could play with the Williamsport area teams," said head coach Matt Hildebrand. "A lot of the media picked us to lose this game tonight, but we knew how hard we worked and came down here and proved them wrong tonight."

An early three-and-out by the Wellsboro defense gave the Hornets the ball to their opening drive. After short runs by seniors Nick Tremper and Anthony Cooper, sophomore quarterback Quinn Henry took to the air with a short gain to fellow sophomore Chase Moser and then a 15-yard connection to junior Parker Jones to give the Hornets a first down inside Muncy territory. Short runs by Tremper and Cooper got the ball down to Muncy's 26-yard line before Henry swept around left end and eluded a gang of defenders on his way to a 26-yard run for Wellsboro first touchdown of the night. The snap on sophomore Nic Ingerick's extra point attempt was off and the Hornets led 6-0.

The Hornet defense again forced Muncy to a three-and-out, but the time, however, the Hornets were unable to to much offensively and eventually turned the ball over to Muncy on downs. The Hornets forced their third straight third-and-out after Jones sacked Muncy's Jeff Fry for a large loss on first down. This time Wellsboro took advantage of excellent field position and marched down field before Henry found Jones in the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown. The Hornets tried going for two, but were unsuccessful and held a 12-0 lead with 10:19 remaining in the first half.

Wellsboro scored on their next drive after again holding Muncy to a three-and-out on a seven yard run by Henry. Ingerick's kick split the uprights and the Hornets led 19-0 with 8:53 left in the opening half. Muncy and Wellsboro would exchange drives late in the second quarter, before Wellsboro finally got the ball back to begin their final scoring drive of the first half.

Henry found Jones to start the drive before runs by Henry and Tremper got the ball to Muncy's 41-yard line. Henry found Moser for a 15-yard gain and then connected with Cooper for 16 yards on the next play for back-to-back first downs. Henry found Jones again for a 9 yard gain to get the ball down to the 1-yard line before he punched it in to put the Hornets up 26-0 after Ingerick's to end the first half.

The Hornets held Muncy to 58 yards of total offense in the first quarter, a number that Hildebrand was very happy about.

"When the defense plays like that its hard to lose and makes it that much easier for the offense," Hildebrand said. "Last week we did it against CV and now tonight. We stopped Ramos, who had a great game last week, and he wasn't anywhere near that total tonight. If we continue to play like we have our defense will carry us a long way this year."

Wellsboro received the football to start the second half and scored on their opening drive. The Hornets went to the ground as Tremper, Cooper, and Henry carried the ball to wear down the Muncy defense. Henry capped the drive on a 12-yard run into the end zone for his third rushing touchdown of the night to put the Hornets up 33-0 with 6:44 left in the third quarter.

Muncy finally got on the scoreboard with 3:27 left as Coleman Good broke a 51-yard run up the middle of the Wellsboro defense to make the score 33-6. The Indians added a final touchdown with 2:41 remaining as Good broke a 23 yard run to make the final score 33-12.

Henry finished the game 12-for-17 passing for 147 yards and a touchdown with 110 yards rushing with 4 touchdowns on 13 carries. Tremper carried the ball 21 times for 57 yards and Cooper gained 52 yards on 14 carries. Jones led the Hornet receivers with 66 yards and a touchdown on 6 receptions. Moser caught 3 passes for 52 yards and Cooper caught 2 passes for 26 yards.

Defensively, Tremper led the team with 7 tackles and sophomore Collin Pietropola made 6 stops. Cooper intercepted one pass for 17 yards and sophomore Alex Kozuhowski also had an interception for 18 yards.

The win improves the Hornets' record to 2-0 on the season. The team will be back in action at home for the first time as they host Bucktail on Friday, September 18.