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Jones shines but mistakes cost Lycoming in close loss to King’s

By Chris Masse 9 min read

Heath Jones exploded through the hole and gained nine yards before King’s defenders started gobbling him up. Jones kept his legs moving, shed two tacklers and kept moving forward, ultimately carrying another defender and gaining 20 yards.

That play encapsulated Lycoming’s game against King’s Saturday at David Person Field. Jones continued writing quite a story and epitomized Lycoming’s gritty effort. But the play resulted in a penalty, wiping out the gain.

Jones caught an Elijah Shemory touchdown, David Tomb, Cole Senior and Jake Welch excelled up front defensively and Lycoming scored 13 straight second-half points but too many self-inflicted wounds added up as King’s won, 28-23. Lycoming (2-2) missed two field goals, had another blocked and produced just three points on six different possessions inside the King’s 40-yard line before rallying in the second half.

Lycoming had two chances to complete the comeback in the final 1 minute, 36 seconds but managed just one first down on its last two possessions and lost despite forcing five turnovers and producing five sacks.

“If you turn someone over five times; sack them five times you should win. But we were ineffective on offense and the kicking game, unfortunately, had an off day. All those points were probably the difference in the game,” Lycoming coach Mike Clark said. “We allowed 3 touchdowns over 40 yards, we had 7 penalties which is way too many, we missed 3 field goals and we couldn’t run it and we go 18-of-47 throwing it. That’s just not going to work. It’s a shame.”

“We just beat ourselves. We had some penalties, and I missed some assignments and that’s just something you can’t do,” Jones said. “I feel like if we would have that cleaned up today it would have been a different outcome.”

In defeat, Jones quite writing quite a remarkable football story. The 2021 Montoursville graduate never played tailback until midway through his senior year at his alma mater when injuries decimated the backfield. He played linebacker as a freshman last fall before moving to the backfield.

As he did at Montoursville, Jones attacked his new role and again is excelling there. He ran for 46 yards on 11 carries Saturday and caught his third touchdown pass, one which pulled Lycoming within 28-17 on the third quarter’s final play. Jones set up the game’s first points when he broke off a 27-yard run on a 2nd-and-22 setting up former Montoursville teammate Ian Plankenhorn for a 39-yard field goal which put Lycoming ahead, 7-3.

Jones is 5-foot-7, but like Tomb on defense, he plays so much bigger. He runs hard on each carry, gains yards after contact and keeps progressing at a position he never envisioned himself playing when he reached college. All Jones wanted was an opportunity to play college football and he has seized the opportunity while revealing again that his determination is something which statistics will never be able to measure.

“Going into the spring Coach asked me whether I wanted to play a little running back this year. I was like, ‘heck yeah.’ I played it my senior year and thought I did all right there. I thought it would be an easy move because it wasn’t too long ago that I had been running the ball,” Jones said. “My whole life I’ve been told I’m too short, too small and I have to prove them wrong. They’re not going to respect you until you go out there and put it to them. That’s the only thing you can do.”

That is exactly what Jones continue doing and he showed off that toughness again on his touchdown which started swinging the game’s momentum.

King’s (3-1) led 21-10 at halftime and converted two third-and-longs on its first third quarter series to go up 18. Welch forced a fumble late in the third quarter and Lycoming recovered at the King’s 13 but soon faced a fourth-and-4 from the 8. Jersey Shore graduate Elijah Shemory (185 yards) hit Jones coming out of the backfield on a quick flare and Jones shook off a tackler at the first down marker. He refused to go down, staying in bounds and then running over a defender into the end zone.

It was the kind of play which has come to define Jones.

“I saw the one (defender) near sideline and I was like, ‘nope, you’re not tackling me.’ I pushed him away and saw another one coming and thought I’m a little stockier than him and should be able to get in,” Jones said. “That’s what all the lifting was for.”

“I just pulled Heath aside and told him how proud I was of him and his effort because his effort today was good enough for us to win,” Clark said. “He was beat up a couple of times and he fought on a couple of runs that were neutralized by penalties. His effort was noticeable, and he’s not the only one, but if everyone played as hard as Heath did today, we’d be a better football team.”

That touchdown breathed life into Lycoming and the defense forced a quick three-and-out as well as a punt from the end zone. Lycoming took over at the King’s 48 and Shemory kept the drive going when he dropped a dime along the right sideline to Brody Rhodes for 18 yards on third-and-9. Two plays later, Shemory found Aaron Wolcott for 10 yards before running for a 5-yard touchdown on the next play as Lycoming pulled within 28-23.

“We try to preach relentlessness here and I think the second half really showed it. We preach about playing as a team, not as an individual,” Tomb said after collecting 1 1/2 tackles for loss and pressuring the quarterback several times. “Team goals are definitely better than individual goals and we’re trying to play as a team. It sucks that we lost but it shows how relentless we are with how we were able to come back in the second half and put some numbers up.”

Lycoming effectively stifled King’s running game for much of the afternoon and allowed just two yards per carry. The Monarchs, though, put together one of their best drives at a crucial time and ran 13 straight times on a 14-play drive which burned nearly eight minutes off the clock. Lycoming kept battling and forced a turnover which safety Austin Rowley recovered at the 13-yard line with 1:36 remaining.

Shemory hit Ziare Williams for 12 yards on first down, but King’s forced two straight incompletions before sacking Shemory on fourth down. It looked like King’s would run out the clock, but a personal foul penalty stopped it and gave Lycoming new life as it held again and gave the offense the ball back with 33 seconds remaining. Again, though, King’s held, forcing four straight incompletions and clinching the win.

“We didn’t quit, so there is some value in that. We talk about the little stuff all year but some of the little things that popped up today are things we’ve constantly been talking about for seven weeks,” Clark said. “We talk about everyone is counting on us and everyone is depending on each other, so we played hard and hung in there and did those things, but that doesn’t make up for all the mistakes we made.”

With Tomb, Welch and Cole Senior (2 1/2 sacks) helping Lycoming bottle up the run, King’s went to the pass in the first half and struck gold. One play after Plankenhorn put Lycoming up 3-0, quarterback Tyler Moore hit Tyler Carey in stride for a 75-yard touchdown and the Monarchs never trailed again. Two series later, Carey again slipped past the secondary and caught a 47-yard Moore touchdown.

King’s was especially effective on third down, converting 6 of 11 times. That included Moore spotting Brandon Cohen down the middle on third-and-12 and hitting him with a 47-yard touchdown which made it 21-3. Moore converted two third-and-longs with his arm and legs on King’s initial third-quarter drive which Shemar Ellis capped with a 1-yard touchdown to make it, 28-10.

From there, the defense stiffened and not just denied King’s but created scoring opportunities. The pass rush forced two errant throws which Rowley intercepted at midfield. Welch, a Central Mountain graduate, forced and recovered a fumble and Tyler Campbell recovered another fumble as the defense did its best to change the game’s complexion.

“We love chaos here. We have some big, electric players so we like to make any big plays we can,” Tomb, a four-year starter, said. “Those plays really do help boost our momentum going forward in the game.”

That was the case late in the first half when Rowley intercepted his second pass and set up Lycoming near midfield. Shemory and Brandon Timothy went to work with Timothy hauling in a 23-yard pass before burning the cornerback with a double move and catching Shemory’s 25-yard touchdown to make it 21-10.

Those are the positives Lycoming will try building on as it moves forward and prepares to play at Delaware Valley next Saturday.

“I think it gives us more confidence because it shows us we can play at a high level,” Tomb said. “Obviously, in the first half we weren’t. I think everyone was getting down on themselves but after those couple defensive stops, everyone started to get their confidence back and started playing at a high level. That’s a confidence boost for us.”

King’s 7 14 7 0 – 28

Lycoming 3 7 7 6 – 23

First quarter

L-Ian Plankenhorn 39 field goal, 3:39

K-Tyler Carey 75 pass from Tyler Moore (Kyle Prescavage kick), 3:29.

Second quarter

K-Carey 47 pass from Moore (Prescavage kick), 9:47. K-Brandon Cohen 46 pass from Moore (Prescavage kick), 7:15.

L-Brandon Timothy 23 pass from Elijah Shemory (Ian Plankenhorn kick), 3:18.

Third quarter

K-Shemar Ellis 1 run (Prescavage kick), 8:00.

L-Heath Jones 8 pass from Elijah Shemory (Plankenhorn kick), 0:00

Fourth quarter

L-Elijah Shemory 5 run (pass failed), 9:23

TEAM STATISTICS

K L

First downs 20 16

Rushes-yds 52-103 26-53

C-A-I 12-19-2 18-47-2

Passing yards 260 185

Total yards 363 238

Fumbles-lost 4-3 3-1

Penaltaies-yds 6-90 7-55

Time of poss. 31:29 28:25

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: King’s (Pa.)-Hailey, Jayon 12-48; Ellis, Shemar 15-35; Taylor, Victor 13-23; Minor-Shaw, Russell 1-2; Moore, Tyler 9-minus 1; TEAM 2-minus 4. Lycoming-Heath Jones 11-46; Michael VanHorn 3-7; Brandon Timothy 1-0; Elijah Shemory 11-0.

PASSING: King’s (Pa.)-Moore, Tyler 12-19-2-260. Lycoming-Elijah Shemory 18-47-2-185.

RECEIVING: King’s (Pa.)-DiGregorio, Michael 5-55; Carey, Tyler 2-122; Cohen, Brandon 2-49; Herman, Joe 1-14; Hailey, Jayon 1-12; Taylor, Victor 1-8. Lycoming-Brandon Timothy 7-71; Ziare Williams 3-42; Billy Coppock 2-15; Zach Green 2-14; Brody Rhodes 1-18; Aaron Wolcott 1-10; Heath Jones 1-8; Rocco Pulizzi 1-7.

INTERCEPTIONS: King’s (Pa.)-Carchio, Joseph 1-29; Tristan, Alex 1-0. Lycoming-Austin Rowley 2-25.

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