Twin Valley charges back, scores 36 unanswered points to defeat Daniel Boone in high school football

Oct. 22—After trailing by 13 points with 8:03 to go in the third quarter, Twin Valley turned it on against Daniel Boone in the second half, scoring 36 unanswered points to defeat the Blazers 43-20 in a Lancaster-Lebanon Section 3 game Friday Birdsboro.

Sophomore Evan Johnson ran for a game-high 121 yards and scored two touchdowns to help lead Twin Valley. Johnson scored on a 59-yard run with 23.9 left in the third quarter on a delayed handoff to give the Raiders a 27-20 lead.

"Honestly, it was just an energy shift," Johnson said on the second-half turnaround. "We knew coming in it was gonna be a dogfight and we just bounced back. Our team, we build off of each other; our energy just keeps going up, and up, and up. And once we go up, we can't be stopped."

The second half was a stark contrast to the first in which numerous penalties helped Twin Valley get off to a sluggish start on offense. The Raiders (3-3, 5-4) had just one first down and had nine penalties for 45 yards and trailed 13-7 at halftime.

Twin Valley finished with 12 first downs, scored five second-half rushing touchdowns and finished with 336 yards of total offense (77 passing, 259 rushing)

"We got a lot of really tough kids that play really hard at practice," Twin Valley coach Brett Myers said. "We had a really unusual week this week, and I think it showed our kids mental toughness. They were down and they didn't flinch. They believed in themselves and they kind of pulled together to make sure it (the win) happened."

In addition to Johnson's 122 rushing yards on nine carries, senior Jaydon Goebel ran for 115 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries.

Johnson scored his second touchdown after a fumble by Daniel Boone (0-5, 1-8) on a kickoff return gave the Raiders the ball at the Blazers' 41. Johnson found a hole and broke free on the drive's first play and ran into the end zone to cap the scoring at 43-20.

"Evan has got really good vision," Myers said. "I think he'll be the first one to tell you that the big boys up front make it easy for him. And I just think that they got some stuff clicking and got some stuff out of themselves in the first half and they just got it rolling."

Daniel Boone quarterback Dean Rotter threw three touchdowns to give the Blazers a 20-7 lead early in the third.

After a scoreless first quarter, Rotter threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Anthony High with about nine minutes to go in the first half.

An interception by Twin Valley's Mason Marks gave the Raiders the ball in the Daniel Boone red zone. Goebel capped the quick drive with an 8-yard touchdown run to tie it 7-7 with 5:01 to go in the second quarter.

A strong kick return by Ethan Kryman set up the Blazers at the Twin Valley 45. Rotter then threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Robbie Burns to cap a four-minute, nine-play drive and make it 13-7 at halftime.

"We definitely played better than we have been and some guys really played with everything tonight, and that's good to see," Boone coach Rob Flowers said. "Our seniors played in their final home game here. We got one more week left and I know these young men are going to put together and we're going to be better.

"We love our seniors, man. We just want to continuously wish them nothing but love and we got one more week with those guys, and we're going to enjoy that."

Rotter connected with Burns for an 18-yard touchdown pass on Daniel Boone's first drive of the second half to give the Blazers a 20-7 lead.

Goebel scored his second touchdown, a 3-yard run on fourth down with 4:09 left in the third, to begin the Raiders' comeback.

Daniel Boone fumbled the ensuing kickoff to give Twin Valley the ball at the Blazers' 20. Quarterback Evan Myers took advantage and tied it for the Raiders on an 11-yard run with 3:43 to go in the third. A blocked extra point kept the game at 20-20.

After forcing Daniel Boone to punt late in the third, Twin Valley took over at its 41 before Johnson found daylight on the second play of the drive to score the momentum-shifting, 59-yard TD.

Johnson, a Brett Myers alluded to, immediately credited his offensive line when asked about his performance.

"To be honest, I'm just proud of our team," Johnson said. "Our offensive line works hard. I just look up to them personally and they're great role models. We got a senior center, Masen Ketner, he's amazing. He's a really good role model for the offensive line and then we just build off of that."

With the lead 27-20, Marks made another big play on defense as he sacked Rotter in the end zone for a safety after a 45 yard punt pinned the Blazers at their 5.

On the ensuing drive, Goebel did most of the work. He ran for 48 yard to get Daniel Boone 1 before punching it in to make it 36-20.

"Give Daniel Boone credit, those kids played really, really hard," Myers said. "That's a tough group of kids and Coach Flowers is doing a great job getting them ready to play."