WAYNESBORO – After defeating Palmyra a week ago, Waynesboro knew what was coming on Friday against varsity football rival Northern York.
“Stop the run,” said ‘Boro linebacker Tank Benedict and head coach Mark Saunders.
They were both right. But the Indians, try as they did, didn’t have a defensive scheme to stop the tandem of running back Gabe Johnson and quarterback Grady Bonin. Johnson rushed for 146 yards and Bonin made his way for 125 yards as the Polar Bears edged a determined Waynesboro 30-27 in a Mid-Penn Keystone Division on Homecoming at Buchanan Automotive Stadium on a drizzly Friday night.
In spite of superlative offensive efforts by Calvin Myers, Hayden Nolan and Rayshawn Frazer-Hewitt, Waynesboro was victimized by a dangerously efficient Northern offense. Myers caught seven passes for 98 yards and a touchdown. Nolan ran for 28 yards on five totes but caught nine passes for 106 yards and two scores. Frazer-Hewitt completed 21 of 42 passes (the most attempts by far for the junior QB) for 221 yards.
Nolan also intercepted a pass at midfield and returned it 28 yards early in the third quarter with Waynesboro trailing 20-6. He then scored on a bullet from Frazer-Hewitt in the end zone to make the score 20-13.
The difference in the game was a 23-yard field goal by Anna Lehman that made the score 30-20 with 6:23 left to play in the game.
Waynesboro (4-2) showed some grit by cutting the deficit to a field goal but couldn’t stop Northern’s offense on the final drive.
“We left too much on the field,” said Saunders. “We had chances in the first half where we should have at least scored once or twice. We were driving deep and came away with nothing. You gotta make plays If you don’t make plays, you’re gonna come up short, and that’s what happened.”
Waynesboro received the opening kickoff and would have taken the lead then were it not for a holding penalty that nullified a 24-yard touchdown run by Benedict. Instead of a lead, the Indians came up empty when a fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
Benedict would score late in the game on a 13-yard pass from Frazer-Hewitt with 4:24 remaining in the game.
Bonin took advantage of adequate pass protection to spot wide open receivers, especially between the inside hashmarks. During the Bears initial scoring drive, trailing 6-0, Bonin passed to Declan McConnell for 20 yards to get the ball towards midfield. Bonin got past the front seven and ran 36 yards to the Waynesboro 32. After an 18-yard strike to Landon Geidel, Bonin called his own number for the score to make it 7-6 after Lehman’s extra point.
Bonin completed nine of 12 passes for 141 yards.
The possession was a stark contrast to the first two series for Northern. The first one ended on a fumble when Waynesboro’s Nate Adkins forced Bonin to cough up the ball and then recovered the loose ball on the Polar Bears’ 35. On the second possession, Waynesboro’s Kean Baumgardner sacked Bonin for a seven-yard loss. Two plays later, Andrew Florek leveled McConnell for no gain to force a punting situation at the Northern 17.
Following Adkins heads-up play, Waynesboro couldn’t get points again. The drive stalled at the Northern 20.
A short kick gave the Indians a short field, and they took advantage. Myers, who has become one of the most reliable wide receivers in the league, made some acrobatic catches and some routine receptions. He was on the receiving end of a 12-yarder and then a 20-yard touchdown at the 2:17 mark of the opening quarter that gave the Tribe a 6-0 lead.
It would probably be a leap to say that Northern’s response to Waynesboro’s touchdown turned the momentum of the game, but it certainly kick-started the Polar Bears and gave them a much-needed confidence boost. Suddenly, the majority of the play calls were yielding results, sometimes double-digit yardage results.
“They got three good receivers and their quarterback runs well,” Saunders said. “I gotta go back and look at it, but I would say we have to do a better job of stopping the run when teams are running right at us. It’s a tough loss but we have to come back and be ready to go. We just ran out of time. For whatever reason, we just didn’t play well on defense.”
Waynesboro has come from behind this season, but the Indians had to do it on more then one occasion trailing by 14 points. Northern extended its lead to 27-13 on a 42-yard TD run by Johnson with 3:08 left in the third quarter.
Waynesboro came right back to make it 27-20 on an impressive drive that started on its 27. A personal foul penalty against Northern extended the drive. Frazer-Hewitt teamed up with Myers for 15 yards. After an 8-yard pass to Myers two plays later, Frazer-Hewitt lunged for the first down to the Northern 35. Nine-yard hookups to Steven Howard and Hayden Nolan were followed by a 25-yard touchdown pass to Nolan to make it 27-20.
Waynesboro won’t see its home stadium until Week 10 against Hershey on Oct. 25. In the meantime, the Indians travel to play Mifflin County (Oct. 4), Mechanicsburg (Oct. 11) and Lower Dauphin (Oct. 18).
