Mason Lenig had himself quite the night in front of the home fans on Friday at East Penn School District Stadium.
Emmaus’ senior two-way performer shined on both sides of the ball in lead the Hornets to their second consecutive win.
Lenig had a pair of touchdown receptions, recorded a game-high 11 tackles to go along with three sacks and a fumble recovery as the Hornets used a big second quarter to defeat Pocono Mountain East 21-7, handing the Cardinals their first loss of the season.
After the visitors jumped out to their only lead of the game on a 4-yard TD run from senior quarterback Ceejay Serfass, Emmaus shutdown the Cardinals offense the rest of the way while the offense was busy scoring touchdowns on three consecutive drives.
The Hornets, who were coming off their first win of the season last week in a 42-0 rout of Scranton, evened their mark at 2-2 on the season, while Pocono Mountain East dropped to 3-1. It was the first meeting between the two schools in three years when Emmaus rolled to a 41-0 victory.
This win wasn’t as dominant facing a much-improved Cardinals squad who was unbeaten and coming off a historic season a year ago where they won a school record eight games.
But head coach Harold Fairclough’s squad will take it and move on as they now prepare for a key stretch of games over the next three weeks.
Lenig and junior quarterback Kellen Hafner hooked up twice on touchdown passes on back-to-back series. First on a 20-yard scoring strike tying the game at 7-7 and then on an 8-yard pass giving Emmaus the lead for good. Hafner finished 11 of 18 for 130 yards and two more TD passes.
Senior running back Manolo Bermudez, who was coming off of a career-high 186 yards on the ground in last week’s win over Scranton, once again led the rushing attack with 138 yards, including a 22-yard touchdown run.
Defensively, Emmaus was once again stout for the second consecutive week. Besides Lenig’s performance, junior Nik Castro also had a big game with seven tackles including 3 TFL. Seniors Shane Leyden and Legend Vasquez each had four tackles.
Statistically, Emmaus outgained PM East 287-192 in total yards. The Hornets were balanced on offense rushing for 157 yards and passing for 130. Emmaus was also efficient on third downs converting on 50 percent (5-of-10) compared to just 17 percent (2 of 12) for the Cardinals.
Emmaus will be on the road next Friday at 7 p.m. as they travel to Nazareth. The Blue Eagles are coming off an impressive 31-0 win over Freedom and are 3-1 on the season. The game will be carried LIVE on The Eastern Pa. Sports Network beginning at 6:30 p.m.
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Emmaus 21, PM East 7
PME – 7-0-0-0 – 7
Em – 0-21-0-0 – 21
Scoring:
PME – Ceejay Serfass 4-yard run (Lucas Angst PAT)
Em – Mason Lenig 20-yard pass from Kellen Hafner (George Marmaros PAT)
Em – Lenig 8-yard pass from Hafner (Marmaros PAT)
Em – Manolo Bermudez 22-yard run (Marmaros PAT)
Individual stats – Emmaus
Rushing – Manolo Bermudez 20-138, TD; Evan De La Rosa 5-11, Jamaad Sanders 1-8, Jacques Pletz 1-2, Kellen Hafner 1 (-2)
Passing – Kellen Hafner 11-18, 130 yards, 2 TD/1 Int
Receiving – Mason Lenig 5-54, 2 TD; Sanders 2-37, Ty Laird 1-25, Legend Vasquez 1-6, Nik Castro 1-6, Manolo Bermudez 1-2
PHOTO GALLERY – Courtesy of Tom Ashelman
#33 – Manolo Bermudez
#6 – Kellen Hafner
#66 – Mason Weber
#58 – Brayden Ennis
#8 – Jamaad Sanders