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KINGSTON--There is not one moment representing when or how Montgomery ignited a fabulous turnaround.
No, there are many moments. And so many occurred before the season ever started.
It was in the weight room, on the practice field, at football camps and in the gym where Montgomery planted the seeds. Once the season officially began, Montgomery started blossoming and now finds itself a win from doing something no Red Raider team has done since 2001.
Coy Bryson went over 1,000 yards rushing for a second straight season, scoring twice, Parker Persing threw three touchdowns, Hayden Wilt caught two and the defense dominated Saturday night as Montgomery blanked Holy Redeemer, 55-0 at Wyoming Valley West’s Spartan Stadium. Six players scored touchdowns, and the Red Raiders (5-3) won for the fifth time in six weeks while moving within a victory of their first winning season in 23 years.
"It means a lot to us. We all put in a lot of time in the offseason," Bryson said after running for 96 yards and scoring twice. "We believed we could do this, but we knew it was going to take a lot of work. To see it all come together and have a shot at Montgomery’s first winning season in a long time is big for us."
"It means everything. It’s been the best feeling ever to come out and help turn things around," two-way lineman Braiden Winter said. "I love playing with these guys and everyone is doing his part to help us be successful."
Coming off consecutive 1-9 seasons, Montgomery enjoyed a lot of offseason success. The Raiders were one of the district’s youngest teams a year ago and experienced growing pains, but also progressed despite the record. Knowing they would return a strong core; they went back to work soon after the season ended. Excellent seasons so often are born from all the work that goes on during the offseasons and the Raiders are seeing the fruits of that labor.
Montgomery dominated all facets against Redeemer, building a 35-0 halftime lead and outgaining it, 451-100. The Raiders let Redeemer run just four red zone plays, Trace Furman intercepted two passes and Austin Luckenbill added another as all three phases again came together.
"You look at all the work they put in during the offseason and it makes you pretty confident that they can do things the right way. They practice hard, they play hard and they’re doing their job," Montgomery coach Cory Tice said. "At the end of the day that’s what we tell them: just do your job.
It’s a heck of a lot easier to do one job than do 11.
"If you get caught up trying to do 11 jobs you lose football games, but you do one job it’s easier. That’s our message."
It continues resonating. Montgomery has mercy ruled consecutive opponents entering Friday’s showdown against rival South Williamsport and the starting defense has allowed one or no touchdowns four times. Winter and fellow linemen Landyn Rine, Layne Gingery, Ethan Hugar and Connor Jarrett continue asserting themselves and helped Montgomery average 11.9 yards per play as the offense proved explosive as the defense did stifling.
It was the latest step forward for a program which has come light years from where it was the last two seasons when it finished 1-9 both times. Instead of looking back at those seasons, however, the returning players looked at what could be. Turns out, it’s quite a lot.
"We all believed up front. As a line, we all knew we could do it and the whole team believed," Winter said. "It was a matter of everyone working to get better. We knew we had a lot of good players coming back and that we could turn things around for the program."
"It’s confidence. When they started being confident and started believing in themselves and believing in what they can do and believing in the program and believing in the system, the sky is the limit them," Tice said. "It takes a little confidence; it takes a little belief."
Montgomery continued showing the power that tandem holds as it scored touchdowns on eight of its nine possessions, including its final six. Highlighting the team’s resurgence, Persing found Wilt for consecutive first quarter touchdown passes, opening the scoring and setting the tone. The first went for 43 yards and the next 38 as Persing put the ball right where it had to be, and Wilt made excellent catches.
On those two throws alone, Montgomery totaled more passing yards than it generated all last season. Persing was flawless, completing 8 of 9 passes and later finding Mason Bryson for a 39-yard touchdown which made it, 48-0. He has been one of the area’s most efficient passers this year, complementing Montgomery’s strong running game, throwing eight touchdowns and just one interception.
Montgomery is excited for what it knows will be a hard-fought game against South Friday. But it also was mature enough to know it had business to take care of Saturday and took that business quite seriously, moving the ball at will and piling up 252 yards by halftime.
"We knew we had to stay focused on this game," Bryson said. "Everyone came out and did their jobs and it was good to see everyone come together again."
Bryson went over 1,000 yards in highlight fashion, ripping off a 46-yard touchdown run which made it 35-0 at halftime. Bryson burst through a big hole up the middle, shed two tacklers, then turned on the jets to complete the play.
Bryson also joined his cousin Hunter Budman as the only Montgomery players to produce back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons this century. Add in his brother hauling in a touchdown and collecting a sack for a second straight week and it was quite a night for the family.
"It’s pretty cool to do something like this and have two people from the same family get 1,000 yards twice," Bryson said. "I owe it all to the linemen. They make great blocks and open up the holes and they make it all possible."
That line has surged throughout the season and clear the way for Furman’s 37-yard touchdown run which closed out a 21-point first quarter. The line also gave Persing ample time to throw and led the way on Lincon Miller’s six-yard third quarter touchdown run as Montgomery went ahead, 41-0. Mason Bryson’s shoestring 39-yard touchdown catch, and Logan Joy’s 1-yard scoring plunge set up by a fabulous Austin Luckenbill 38-yard run closed out the scoring.
"Our line has really jelled and come together. They’ve been playing darn good football," Tice said. "Coy runs hard and those two fullbacks, especially in the Power I, Trace and Lincoln, love blocking. The biggest thing is they all love each other, and they all work for each other and as long as they continue to work for each other good things will continue to happen."
That was the case toward the end of the first half as well. Two circus catches against tight coverage gave Redeemer its best scoring opportunity, but the defense forced two incompletions after it reached the 16-yard line with Brady O’Rourke breaking up a potential touchdown.
After Cam Woltz, Trace Furman and Garrett Ulrich had earlier made big plays on fourth down stops, Winter delivered made it a quartet of timely stops. He blocked a last-second field goal try and Montgomery entered halftime on a high.
"I got it with my foot, but a block is a block. That was such a great feeling," Winter said. "It gave us such a rush going into halftime. Everyone was pumped up and we just kept building on that throughout the second half."
What a building project Montgomery has created this season.
Montgomery 21 14 6 14―55
Redeemer 0 0 0 0―0
First Quarter
M--Hayden Wilt 43 pass from Parker Persing (Abe Childs kick), 8:50
M--Wilt 38 pass from Persing (Childs kick), 6:55
M--Trace Furman 37 run (Childs kick), 2:35
Second Quarter
M--Coy Bryson 6 run (Childs kick), 4:48
M--Bryson 46 run (Childs kick), :59
Third Quarter
M--Lincoln Miller 7 run (kick failed), 5:36
Fourth Quarter
M--Mason Bryson 39 pass from Persing (Childs kick), 10:56
M--Logan Joy 1 run (Childs kick), 4:09
TEAM STATISTICS M H
First Downs 18 6
Rushes-yards 29-263 14-(-4)
Passing yards 188 104
Comp-Att-Int 8-9-0 13-30-3
Total yards 451 100
Fumbles-lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties-yards 5-65 2-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Montgomery, Coy Bryson 9-96, 2 TD; Austin Luckenbill 5-56; Lincoln Miller 6-47, TD; Trace Furman 2-36, TD; Cam Woltz 2-15; Parker Persing 3-12; Logan Joy 1-1, TD; Tyler Kuhn 1-0. Redeemer, Thomas Dugan 9-1; Lucas Shrader 1-0; Wildy Rodriguez 2-(-2); Brady McDermott 2-(-3).
PASSING: Montgomery, Persing 8-9-0, 188 yards, 3 TD. Redeemer, Dugan 6-17-2, 70 yards; McDermott 7-13-1, 34 yards.
RECEIVING: Montgomery, Hayden Wilt 3-89, 2 TD; Mason Bryson 1-39, TD; C Bryson 1-33; Miller 1-16; Seth McClintock 1-6; Furman 1-5. Redeemer, Mike Zbierski 7-41; Josh Grochowski 5-53; Shrader 1-9.
INTERCEPTIONS: Montgomery, Furman (2); Luckenbill.
SACKS: Montgomery, M Bryson; Woltz ½; Brady O’Rourke ½.
RECORDS: Montgomery 5-3. Redeemer 0-8.