JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
LEBANON – First things first.
Annville-Cleona senior running back Andrew Batula has the coolest hair ever.
Seriously.
Getting a shot to watch Batula compete is always a treat because I get to see his flowing mane (saw him a few times last spring during track season, where his locks were blowing in the breeze while he was participating in the jumping events).
Batula and his mane had it going on Saturday.
Glad to report that I made the trip to Cedar Crest for the 10:30 a.m. start between Annville-Cleona and Pequea Valley.
I haven’t seen either of these programs play live in quite a while, and after witnessing an offensive explosion, I’m glad I went. And besides, I cover the whole league, people - not just Manheim Central as I’m often accused of (not that it bothers me or anything).
Was disappointed to hear, however, that A-C coach Terry Lehman was not on hand because he was, um, asked to leave last week’s game against Lampeter-Strasburg, meaning he couldn’t coach on Saturday.
He would have been proud of his team after this game.
Batula had a whopper of a game, carrying 26 times for a career-high 191 yards in the Little Dutchmen’s 42-29 victory, which included just about a little of everything.
“Huge holes,” Batula said. “The guys on the line did everything for me. Every time I got to the corner, I had a lineman leading me down the field. Without those guys, I do nothing.”
A-C, which improved to 1-2 in Section 3 and to 2-4 overall, pounded out 351 rushing yards against Pequea Valley, which fell to 0-3 in the section and to 0-6 overall.
Quarterback Nate Myers had 88 yards on 13 keepers, Dean May had 45 yards on just seven carries, and Seth Arnold had 27 yards on seven carries as the Dutchmen churned out 411 total yards and 18 first downs.
“Good win,” said Arnold, who had a 5-yard TD run that gave A-C a 21-7 lead with 3:36 to go in the first half, and he also picked off a pass and returned it 54 yards for a score, giving the Dutchmen the lead for good, 14-7, with 7:43 to go in the first half.
“We needed this win for our confidence,” Arnold added. “We’re happy, but now we have to go to work and get ready for Donegal.”
A-C is at Donegal on Friday. The Indians dropped a 35-0 decision to Lancaster Catholic in a Section 3 game in Week 6.
A-C’s win and impressive game running the ball overshadowed incredible individual efforts by Pequea Valley quarterback Michael Rice and his favorite target, wideout Sean Persch.
Get this:
Operating out of a no-huddle, shotgun set, Rice completed 24-of-42 passes for 328 yards. He had two TD passes and one TD run. The run, a 10-yard keeper, gave the Braves a quick 7-0 lead with 9:22 to go in the first quarter.
Persch, meanwhile, was everywhere.
He caught 14 passes for 214 yards, including a 5-yard TD grab with 4:26 to play and a 24-yard TD catch with 3:42 to go, after Pequea Valley recovered an onside kick.
Persch also had one carry for 27 yards, he returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, he kicked an extra point and he caught a 2-point conversion pass.
He was awesome.
But it wasn’t enough for Pequea Valley, which dropped its unlucky 13th game in a row.
“Something just happens,” Braves coach Curtis Waltman said. “We sputter. We get a penalty. We drop a pass. We can’t run the ball. It’s almost maddening, and it’s definitely frustrating because the potential is there. But we just have this major mental block.
“I guess the most frustrating thing is that we just haven’t played up to our potential in a game yet this season. That’s what we keep going back to. We’ve had some glimpses, but we haven’t put it all together in a game.”
It looked like A-C had this game under total control, when the Dutchmen went ahead 35-7 when Batula punched one in from the 2 on the first play of the fourth quarter.
That score came on the heels of Myers’ 17-yard TD strike to Tyler Henning, which gave A-C a cozy 28-7 cushion just before the half.
Undaunted, Pequea Valley rallied, with Rice hitting Persch for TDs on back-to-back drives, the second TD slicing the Dutchmen’s lead to 35-23 with 3:42 showing.
But A-C iced the game when Myers snuck in from the 2 to make it 42-23 with 57 seconds left.
Persch returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a TD, but it was too little, too late for the Braves.
“Coming off the last three games (all losses, including back-to-back shutouts to Northern Lebanon and L-S), we needed a big one like this,” Batula said. “We need to start picking it up, and this game gives us some momentum going forward.”
And that was my morning at Cedar Crest, where I got to see the new turf field (very nice).
I got to see Persch and Rice go bananas.
And I got to see Batula’s cool hair.
That made the trip worthwhile right there.
Time for Week 7. Stay tuned for all of my usual preview and review stuff.
