Jersey Shore cruises past Lewisburg by scoring 70 points in first half
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LEWISBURG -- It's no secret to anyone that Jersey Shore football is an overwhelming football behemoth in Central Pennsylvania and statewide. Making the state playoffs four straight years and advancing to the state semifinals in three consecutive years -- as well as the state final in 2020 -- will do that.
But dropping 70 first-half points on Lewisburg in a 70-6 win on Bucknell's Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium is a level of dominance that is so over the top that it's simply hard to believe.
"We were hustling, making some plays and having some fun," Gravish said. "It's like going fishing sometimes. You have the greatest day in the world. Other days you really have work for what you get."
Coming off a 55-12 beatdown of a perennial state-playoff level team in Pottsville, the hope from Bulldogs fans is that there would be no letdown against the Green Dragons, remembering how last year against Lewisburg, the Bulldogs got off to a slow start only leading 7-6 after the first quarter.
"Last year we were a team replacing a lot of starters trying to find out who we were and how we were going to try and fit different people into the puzzle," Gravish said.
Tonight, was completely different, with the Bulldogs scoring four touchdowns in the first quarter. By the early second quarter they had already hit the running-clock threshold of 35-points. But the clock does not start running until the second half, there was simply too much time available for team that was in an entirely different stratosphere than its opponent.
Touchdowns were scored in all three phases of the game. Six different Bulldogs crossed the plane.
Senior Hadyn Packer led the way offensively with 126 yards and three rushing touchdowns on nine carries. Classmate Brady Jordan accounted for three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing). Senior Kooper Peacock had two touchdowns (a 42-yard punt return and a five-yard touchdown reception). As did senior Connor Griffin (a 13-yard touchdown reception and a 15-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown, which was forced by senior Stone Sechrist). Juniors Dathan Tyson (7-yard touchdown run) and Tate Sechrist (31-yard touchdown run) also got into the scoring column.
Senior kicker Breck Miller set the Jersey Shore program record with 10 extra points converted. Keep in mind that 2021 was his first year of high school football.
"You see how much he's dedicated himself to our program," Gravish said. "He could've played a lot more offense and defense in this game tonight because he's also an offensive and defensive player. However, with the way the score got, we wanted to keep him back because we know that there are many more kicks that he has to make this year."
Sure, there is an element of this that to the naked eye seems a little rough. No one would envy what the Green Dragons players endured from Jersey Shore. But you don't have to look that far back into the archives to see that Jersey Shore took their lumps many times over when Tom Gravish first took the job in 2012.
The Bulldogs went 0-10 that first season. The year was capped with a 63-33 loss to Central Mountain. The Wildcats put up a near 50-piece on the Bulldogs in the first half of that game on Nov. 2, 2012. Even though Jersey Shore went on two seasons later to go 10-0 in the regular season, it's not as if they were winning via running-clock almost nightly by that point.
This takes time, and while a Week 2 win over a team you've beaten annually since 2016 isn't exactly a program milestone, it does speak to how Jersey Shore has not only replenished its talent year in and year out. The last four plus years are the byproduct of the work that was put in way back around the time of that 0-10 season to build a unified Jersey Shore football program that starts at the middle school level and extends through high school.
Look at this class of Bulldog seniors that accounted for the bulk of these mind-boggling numbers. They mostly started playing with the middle school team around 2017. They've only seen winning with this program. Jersey Shore is on a 21-game regular season unbeaten streak that stretches from the middle of the 2019 season. This class of seniors were freshmen for that year. That is the biggest testament you can give to the compounding success that this program has achieved.
Who's to say Lewisburg, under the reigns of second-year coach Eric Wicks, isn't doing this to someone else as they continue onto the state playoffs on an annual basis perhaps in a few years. Who's to say Lewisburg doesn't make a run this year? Jersey Shore began the 2013 season 2-6, before winning the final two regular season games and winning the district championship.
As for the kids on Jersey Shore? They know not to salivate over this win very long. The countdown to Week 3 and another chapter in the rivalry with Selinsgrove is already underway.
Jersey Shore 70,
Lewisburg 6
Jersey Shore 28 42 0 0 -- 70
Lewisburg 0 0 0 6 -- 6
First quarter
JS--Hadyn Packer 34 run (Breck Miller kick),1 1:29.
JS--Brady Jordan 15 run (Miller kick), 8:04.
JS--Packer 51 run (Miller kick), 5:59.
JS--Dathan Tyson 7 run (Miller kick), 1:39.
Second quarter
JS--Jordan 5 pass to Kooper Peacock (Miller kick), 11:06.
JS--Peacock 42 punt return (Miller kick), 8:21.
JS--Jordan 13 pass to Connor Griffin (Miller kick), 7:27.
JS--Connor Griffin 14 fumble recovery (Miller kick), 6:18.
JS--Packer 6 run (Miller kick), 2:40.
JS--Tate Sechrist 31 run (Miller kick), 1:55.
Fourth quarter
L--(score not available).
(TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
NOT AVAILABLE)