WILLIAMSPORT — Westfall held on late to break a string of losses to county rival Logan Elm 35-28 Friday night.
Trailing by a touchdown with time running out, the Braves moved down to the Westfall 35. A motion penalty pushed them back, passes on first and second down fell incomplete and a short loss on third down left the Braves facing fourth-and-17 from the 42.
It was Westfall’s Quinn Eberly who came down with the fourth-down pass and the Mustangs were then able to run out the clock for the win.
“I mean, we’ve talked about it, and to do it in front of the atmosphere we had tonight was special. And our seniors finally did it,” Westfall coach Logan Stepp said of beating LE for the first time since 2019. “Our seniors have talked about this all summer long, and I was like, guys, we’ve got to beat Madison Plains first.
“But that’s one that they haven’t checked off the list. We’ve got Circleville one time (2023), we hadn’t got Logan Elm. So that’s been a cool experience.
“I know we’ve gotten a lot of things to clean up — and we’ll do that — but we’ll celebrate this one.”
Offense was featured to start the game.
Joey Wright wrapped up Westfall’s initial drive with a six-yard scoring run.
Austin Holbrook went in from four yards out to cap LE’s initial drive and ran in a two-point conversion.
A four-play Westfall possession ended with a 45-yard scoring pass from AJ Paudicz to Eberly.
Logan Elm followed with a nine-play drive where Holbrook channeled his inner Tim Tebow in throwing a jump pass to Tyler Bowlby for a 19-yard TD. This time the PAT run was stopped, leaving the game tied 14-14.
The first mistake of the night came a couple plays later when Westfall fumbled away a short pass setting up a quick LE drive that had Holbrook connect with Waylon Moore on a 30-yard score.
It looked like the Mustangs were going to lose another fumble after a 36-yard run, but an inadvertent whistle was blown before LE could get possession leading to the down being replayed.
After a short run for first down by Eli Wright, Joey Wright picked up 16 yards and 19 to get to the endzone. Carson Deskins’ third PAT kick of the night had the Mustangs up 21-20 and that’s where the score stood at halftime.
After struggling in a Week 1 shutout against Zane Trace, where the Braves managed only 130 yards, LE had 196 in the first half.
“An immense amount of improvement from last week. A lot of guys grew up tonight and I just told our guys, I’m not displeased with their effort,” LE coach Terry Holbert said. “I thought they played with a great effort, great heart with great toughness. We’ve just got to become more disciplined. And I told them at halftime, I said, the more disciplined team is going to win this game in the second half, and unfortunately, we came out in the second half and made a couple mistakes, and that ends up costing us on the back end.
“But I’m really proud of our effort, really proud of how hard we played, and we’re just going to continue to grow and get better.”
Eberly came through for the Mustangs to start the second half as he recovered an onside kick.
The joy was shortlived.
Joey Wright, who ran for 116 yards in the first half, was stopped for no gain on first down and some words were exchanged between players. Wright was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Earlier in the game, after he had scored the game’s first touchdown, Wright was flagged for an unsportsmanlike when he spiked the ball after scoring. By rule, two unsportsmanlike flags result in the player being disqualified for the rest of the contest and the team’s next contest.
“Early in the game, he scored a touchdown that, I mean, he’s been waiting for for four years, and he tossed the ball on the ground and they called a personal foul,” Stepp said. “And then the next time, the kid said something to him and he said something back and the ref threw a flag. So, it is what it is, right? He’s got to clean it up —we’ve got to clean it up. I think he is going to learn from this. He is super emotional about it, but he’s a good kid.
“And he’s done everything for this football program, and he he’s been a staple of what we are. Joey’s an emotional kid, and he got really excited, and that’s just the way what it is.”
Three plays later, the Mustangs lost their second fumble of the game.
LE was unable to sustain a drive as the Braves fumbled on fourth down to give the ball back to Westfall.
A short Westfall punt gave LE a short field, and the Braves moved down the 10 before turning the ball over on downs.
This time the Mustangs were able to move the ball down the field keyed by a 24-yard pass to Eberly and a 45-yard pass to Landen Sparks. Eli Wright capped the drive with an 18-yard scoring run.
Another onside from the Mustangs was recovered by Sparks.
The success of the onside kicks helped make up for some big returns from the Braves.
“Special teams killed us and we had no other option, and we got lucky,” Stepp said. “I don’t know what to say. I mean, our kicker is good. We got a lot of young guys on that team right now we’re trying to develop. So, as the year goes on, we’ll do better and we’ll get better.
“It was a double-edged sword in the second half. We got lucky.”
Westfall used 10 plays – eight runs from Eli Wright – to cover 42 yards with Wright scoring from three yards out.
Westfall took a shot at another onside kick, but the Braves got control this time. An eight-play drive that featured seven pass plays ended with Holbrook connecting on a 12-yard scoring pass to Dalton Davy. The two connected on the PAT to pull the Braves to with seven.
LE caught another break when the Mustangs fumbled the ball way for the third time with 3:18 left on the clock, setting up LE’s final drive and Eberly’s fourth-down interception.
The Wrights finished as the game’s leading rushers. Sophomore Eli had 118 yards on 23 carries while his older cousin had 116 on 14.
Holbrook was LE’s leading rusher with 63 yards on 24 carries.
Holbrook threw for 250 yards for LE with Seimer catching six for 103 and Bowlby catching four for 82.
“I thought Austin played really well, as well as a host of our guys,” Holbert said. “On offense, we did a great job up front and got a lot of guys involved. I don’t know the stats right offhand, but the ground game was pretty solid as well. And so, we were balanced.
“I thought our staff did a great job preparing those kids.”
Paudicz was 7-10 for 135 yards for the Mustangs. Eberly had 69 yards on two catches.
Not only was Friday night the first win over LE for Westfall’s senior class, but it was also the first as a coach for Stepp who took over the program when the seniors were freshmen.
“That’s a good football team and Coach Holbert over there ‑ he’s on the coaching Mount Rushmore in my eyes,” Stepp said. “When I first got this job at Westfall, he was a super, super big mentor of mine, and I just kind of listened to him talk to all the media when I’m with him at the media, I listen to him talk to his kids every once in a while, I go to JV games and I’m always in his ear.”
Up next for the Mustangs (2-0) is a visit from Circleville (2-0).
Logan Elm (0-2) heads to Miami Trace (2-0) next week.
Westfall 35, Logan Elm 27
By Quarters 1 2 3 4 F
Logan Elm 8 12 0 8 28
Westfall 14 7 0 14 35
First Quarter
WF — Joey Wright 6 run (Carson Deskins kick), 8:51.
LE — Austin Holbrook 4 run (Austin Holbrook run), 3:59.
WF — Quinn Eberly 45 pass from AJ Paudicz (Carson Deskins kick), 2:32.
Second Quarter
LE — Tyler Bowlby 19 pass from Austin Holbrook (run failed), 9:05.
LE — Tyler Bowlby 30 pass from Austin Holbrook (run failed), 6:12.
WF — Joey Wright 19 run (Carson Deskins kick), 4:20.
Fourth Quarter
WF — Eli Wright 18 run (Carson Deskins kick), 11:44.
WF — Eli Wright 3 run (Carson Deskins kick), 6:28.
LE — Dalton Davy 12 pass from Austin Holbrook (Dalton Davy from Austin Holbrook), 4:19.
TEAM STATISTICS
LE WF
First downs 18 18
Rushing yards 34-96 42-236
Passing yards 250 135
Comp.-Att.-Int 17-26-1 7-10-0
Total yards 346 371
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-3
Penalties-Yards 11-95 7-76
Punts-Ave 0-0 2-27
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING –Logan Elm — Austin Holbrook 24-63, Bryson Parish 7-31, Ayden Hartley 2-14, Ayden Hudson 1-(-3). Westfall — Joey Wright 14-116, Eli Wright 23-118, AJ Paudicz 5-2.
PASSING – Logan Elm — Austin Holbrook 17-26-1-250. Westfall — AJ Paudicz 7-10-0-135.
RECEIVING – Logan Elm — Ayden Hartley 6-54, Zane Seimer 6-103, Tyler Bowlby 4-82, Wyatt Justice 1-11. Westfall — Eli Wright 2-13, Quinn Eberly 2-69, Landen Sparks 2-49, Waylon Moore 1-4.