Dominating rebound, Huskies dominate in convincing win over Lower Dauphin

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: September 15, 2022

Photo by Kathy Reed
By Kenny Varner

HERSHEY – Coming back strong!

Looking to rebound off its loss to Altoona a week ago, the young and upstart MIfflin County football team traveled to the legendary Hershey Stadium to go head-to-head against Lower Dauphin on a rare Thursday night prime time battle.

Coming into the game, It was a match up between two 2-1 teams.

Mifflin County fell to Altoona and Lower Dauphin lost to Elizabethtown.

In the end, the Huskies put up a punishing overall performance winning in dominating fashion 28-7, upping its record to 3-1.

Mifflin County was led by the ground game running of Deakon Schaeffer who finished with 137 yards on the ground.

The front offensive line for the Huskies were able to give their quarterback Landon Eichhorn time to throw for 178 yards.

Mifflin County pounded out 358 total yards on the night while it’s defense clipped the Falcons, leaving them with 151 total offense. The team played some hard nosed smash mouth football, just like their coach Shane Breon hoped they would.

“That’s what we planned coming in. We wanted to establish it again. They responses to it, Deakon ran hard. Josh Cruz ran hard and we were able to hit some passes when we needed them,” said Breon. “When you get a little of both of that going it’s tough to deal with defensively. We tried to mix things up a bit with some motions and ran some counters off of that. It was just a good win! I was proud of defense played tonight.”

In the first quarter, Lower Dauphin struck first when the Falcons rolled down the field through the air. The 7-play drive culminated in a Bryce Forney 10-yard TD pass to Ty Millhimes. With the Brandon Fritz kick, Lower Dauphin led with 9:25 left in the quarter.

After a questionable fumble by the Huskies on its second possession, the MIfflin County defense took over.

The Falcons started to push the ball back downfield.

The Huskies made consecutive big plays as Josiah Sechler broke up a pass that was looking to be a big play.

Then on 2nd and 20, Falcon quarterback Bryce Forney tried to hit his receiver Logan Chiara in the middle as the ball was thrown Isaac Wilson put a clean hit on him, sending the ball out of Chiara hands for the incomplete pass.

From there, things started to heat up for the Huskies.

Starting with the ball on their own 35, the Huskies mixed up strong runs by Deakon Schaeffer and quarterback Landon Eichhorn’s arm and drove down field. It’s offensive line was tough as it allowed Eichhorn time to get the ball to receivers.

Mifflin County drove the ball to the one and faced a 3-goal at the three.

Eichhorn found Dupree Reed for the 3-yard hook up.

However, the PAT was unsuccessful, keeping the Falcons holding a 7-6 advantage with 10:10 left in the second.

But MIfflin County’s defense would hold tough on the next Lower Dauphin possession and forced another Falcon punt.

Facing 3rd down and 25 from their own 32, Eichhorn rolled out and found Schaeffer in the flats and got the ball to him. Schaeffer did the rest as he put some punishing hits on some would be tacklers and rumbled down for the 68-yard TD reception.

The two hooked up again on the 2-point conversion, giving the Huskies a 14-7 advantage with 4-minutes left until the half.

Mifflin County refused to let the Lower Dauphin offense muster any kind of drive and took the 7-point lead into the intermission.

Going into the second half, the Huskies received the ball and had a chance to extend their lead to two touchdowns.

They did just that.

This time they marched down on a lengthy 12-play drive that saw them start at their own 23 and hit paydirt.

Facing a 3-10 at the Falcon 29, Eichhorn aired it out and found Wilson on a 29-yard TD connection, upping their lead to 21-7.

With its defense in pure hunting mode, the Huskies continued to dominate, keeping Falcon quarterback Bryce Forney frustrated as he was held to just 114 yards through the air.

The Huskies added some insurance in the final stanza when Schaeffer capped off yet another successful drive on a 5-yard run, clinching the game at 28-7.

Mifflin County will be home again next Friday during homecoming week against Palmyra.

Mifflin County 0 14 7 7 – 28

Lower Dauphin 7 0 0 0 – 7

First Quarter

LD – Bryce Forney 10-yard TD pass to Ty Millhimes (Brandon Fritz kick), 9:25

Second Quarter

MC – Landon Eichhorn 3-yard TD pass to Dupree Reed, (kick failed), 10:10.

MC – Eichhorn 68-yard TD pass to Deakon Schaeffer (2-point conversion), 4:00

Third Quarter

MC – Eichhorn to Isaac Wilson 29-yard pass, (Isaac Parks-Gill kick), 6:03.

Fourth Quarter

MC – Schaeffer 5-yard TD run (Parks-Gill kick),10:15

TEAM STATISTICS. MC LD

First downs 18 7

Total yards 358 151

Rushes-yards 44-181 21-57

Yards passing 177 114

Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 11-17- 0 10-21-0

Fumbles-lost 2-1. 0-0

Penalties-yards 7-70 7-49

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Mifflin County – Schaeffer 28-137, Eichhorn 3-5, Isaac Wilson 1-5, Regan Ettinger 1-11, Dupree Reed 1-12, Joshua Cruz 9-(-2), Logan Parks 1-7, Trevor Miles 1-6. Lower Dauphin – Ty Millhimes 10-31,Bryce Forney 6-0, Dakota Sary 2-10, Carter Burton 1-2, Gerald Sander 4-14.

PASSING-Mifflin County – Landon Eichhorn – 10–6 -178, Logan Parks 0-1 0. Lower Dauphin – Forney 10-21-114, Brandon Fritz 0-1-0.

RECEIVING: Mifflin County – Schaeffer 2-72, Wilson 4-58, Josiah Sechler 1-12, Reed 1-3, Cruz 1-8, Parker Kearns 2-9. Lower Dauphin – Millhimes 4-21, Wesley Heagy 3-22, Charlie Fortney 3-71.