By Todd Hummel
LEWISBURG -- It just seemed things weren't going Lewisburg's way on Saturday afternoon.
Every time the Green Dragons would make a positive play in the first half of the District 4 Class AA quarterfinal game against Montoursville, a penalty or a turnover would ruin it.
So when Montoursville halfback Cody Haupt scored a touchdown to give the Warriors a lead in the second quarter, a pall settled over the Lewisburg sideline.
"It seemed like the kids had a little doubt, a little frustration on the sidelines (in the first half)," Lewisburg coach Todd Tilford said.
The Green Dragons were looking for some kind of confidence boost, and senior wide receiver Ryan Lopes provided it.
Lopes went over a Montoursville defensive back to catch an underthrown ball on the sideline, landed on his feet, and turned it into a 69-yard touchdown grab to tie the game with two minutes left in the first half.
From that point on, the Green Dragon front lines controlled the game as Lewisburg ground out a physical, hard-hitting 21-10 victory over Montoursville at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
"Ryan went up and made a great play on that ball," Tilford said. "You could see the confidence rise from there."
"After their first touchdown, we hadn't made too many yards on offense. We were getting apprehensive. We were starting to drag a little bit," Lewisburg linebacker/offensive lineman Joe Affsprung said. "That touchdown was a big confidence for us. It told us we were back in this."
The Green Dragons (10-1) travel to face No.1-seed Towanda (11-0) 7 p.m. Friday night. Montoursville ends its season at 7-4.
Trailing 7-0 in the second quarter, the Green Dragons had just 71 yards of offense and two first downs. Facing a third-and-12 with a little over two minutes left in the half, deep in its own territory, Cam Cassels lofted a pass down the left sideline. The six-foot tall Lopes jumped over the 5-foot-6 cornerback covering him. He came down, got his balance and ran down the sideline for the score.
"During practice, I work on a lot of jump balls," Lopes said. "When I catch the ball at the highest point, I'm able to land on my feet most of the time."
The Green Dragons' lines took over from there. Haupt had 73 yards on 20 carries in the first half, but in the second he managed just 35 on 10 carries, 15 of which came on his first tote of the third quarter. Affsprung was one of the main factors in the Lewisburg defensive effort with eight tackles and 1.5 sacks.
"(I ran into Haupt) more times than I can count, at least a dozen. Going into the week, we knew if we could stop Haupt, their No. 1 weapon, we would be in good shape," Affsprung said. "That was our No. 1 objective. I wasn't too sure how it was going to work out, but we executed and did pretty well."
The Green Dragons took the lead for good on their first possession of the second half. After netting a first down with a 20-yard gain on a hook-and-ladder play, Lewisburg went to the wildcat over the final 35 yards of the drive to score the touchdown to take a 14-7 lead when Nate Brown scored from a yard out.
"We've been running it all season, but we've only used it in one game against Bloomsburg. It was kind of the same thing. We came out in the second half in it and our offense started rolling," Brown said. "It's a different look for the defense."
Montoursville took advantage of a Haupt 15-yard run with a 15-yard facemask tacked on to cut the lead to 14-10 on 37-yard field goal by Christian Clark with 3:54 left in the third quarter. A short Lewisburg punt and a personal foul penalty gave the Warriors the ball on the Lewisburg 24 to start their next drive, but Montoursville managed only six yards. Clark then missed a 35-yard field goal.
Lewisburg finally salted the game away with a six-play, 72-yard drive in the fourth quarter. Merle Moscarello (18 carries, 132 yards) broke three tackles at the line of scrimmage before bursting out of the hole on his 30-yard TD run to give the Green Dragons a 21-10 advantage with 4:19 left.
