Considering the youth of the Daniel Boone squad the Lions faced on Friday night, Red Lion was expected to leave Berks County win a victory. But as coach Jesse Shay said, “the kids still have to perform.”
And they did just that.
The Lions did their job, scoring six touchdowns through the first three quarters while marching to a 42-7 victory.
Dylan Gurreri ran for 103 yards and two touchdowns, the first of which opened the scoring. He added a 30-yard tackle-breaking scamper, and a short while later, Paul Jones returned a punt for score. Sam Emig added a 37-yard run for a 35-0 halftime lead.
“If you look at stats, no one is going to jump off page at you,” said Shay. “We scored our 35th points with a minute to go in first half. We played our second string and JV kids the entire second half.”
Even with the offensive showing, it was the Lions’’ defense that stood out, limiting the Blazers to only 94 yards for the game, and no first downs until the final quarter. In fact, almost 60 of those yards came on Daniel Boone’s only scoring drive of the night, late in the fourth.
“Because we didn’t allow a first down we won field position. Every offensive drive started on their side of the 50. There was excitement, flying to the football. The old coaching adage of 11 helmets to the ball, we had that.
Shay credited coordinator J.D. Granger for getting the defense ready.
One area that Shay would like to see develop more is the passing game. Not needed against Daniel Boone, the coach wants to prevent teams from being able to focus on the Lions’ running game.
Up next is Chambersburg, which is 1-1. Check out the Trojans' roster.
