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Nate Rogers catches three touchdown passes in Muncy’s 31-13 rivalry win vs. Hughesville in Week 10

By Jon Gerardi 6 min read

HUGHESVILLE -- Muncy seemingly moved the ball at will however it wanted to in the first half. Be it on the ground, through the air. Whatever Muncy's offense did, it seemed to work.

The Indians opened the game with a nine-play, 69-yard drive to score a touchdown.

After a three-and-out on Muncy's following possession, the Indians put together three consecutive drives to put up points going into the half for a fast 24-point lead.

It was a hole too big for Hughesville to claw back from as Muncy earned a 31-13 win on Friday night in Week 10 over rival Hughesville on the road.

"That definitely set the tone (scoring early). Touchdowns right off the rib get that energy for the team," Muncy receiver Nate Rogers said. "It helps us keep pushing. We had a great first half, came out a little flat in second half, but those first three touchdowns really got us moving in the first half."

And Rogers was key to that production.

The senior wide receiver reeled in four catches on Friday night, three of which were for touchdowns. Two of those came in the first half to build up a 24-0 lead over Hughesville.

"That was good. You know, my quarterback just found me at the right spots at the right time," Rogers said. "Those catches, they counted. It felt pretty good."

"He preps himself really well. He's a great leader for us on both sides of the ball. When his number's called, he has a knack for making plays," Muncy coach Chris Persing said. "He's jsut a really, really good football player and stepped up in some big moments."

Weikle found Rogers for a 4-yard touchdown catch wtih 8:16 left in the first quarter as Rogers caught it near the sideline, making a great athletic grab to stay in bounds and score for a 7-0 lead. Right before halftime with 37 seconds left on the clock, Rogers helped Muncy go ahead 24-0 when he caught a 14-yard pass from Weikle.

Weikle ended his night going 7 for 9 for 99 yards and three touchdown passes, all to Rogers.

While Weikle and Rogers were clicking all night, Muncy was able to get a ton of yardage from its running game.

The Indians ran it 44 times for 237 yards and of that ground game, 115 came from Layken Harris on 21 carries. Harris didn't find the end zone, but he was key on drives keeping the chains moving and picking up big chunks of yardage. Of his 21 carries, 11 went for four or more yards.

"All honesty, this is like his second week we've had Layken where he's been able to really go for us. He had a preseason injury, then we got him back ,then another injury, so he was recovering from that. It's really nice," Persing said. "He's a tough runner, he's a big strong kid, has good vsiion and really helps our offense. … Getting Layken back has been really big getting our running game going consistently like we'd hope it would be."

While Muncy's offense was flourishing early, its defense was doing just as well limiting the Spartans. Hughesville's offense failed to get into rhythm in the first two quarters as Muncy pulled ahead. The Spartans punted it away their first four drives before a five-play drive ended the first half. In those five first-half possessions, Hughesville gained just 65 yards of total offense not including yardage from penalties.

"We were definitely very physical. We knew they were going to run up the middle," Rogers said. "They were going to try to run down our throats, but just settled down and did what we did best: we got physical and did our job."

"We felt we know what they were going to do. Try to get guys to point of attack, get four yards and keep ball in their possession, We didn't want to get situation we only touched the ball first or twice and if we did we had to score," Persing added. "But our guys, we asked them to finish this week. Last couple of years we didn't finish games and lost some close ones. We wanted to make sure we finished this one and left everything out here."

A week after a phenomenal defensive effort against Loyalsock, holding the Lancers to just seven points and having a huge goal-line stand to end the game, Hughesville's defense wasn't able to contain Muncy. The Indians had drives go for 69, 43, 65 and 80 yards in the first half.

"On defense, we came out and we weren't ready for their power. We didn't know they'd be as strong as they were to be quite honest with you," Hughesville coach Howard Rainey said. "We had a few opportunities on offense, few dropped passes. Some may have been touchdowns or got us down there. We just weren't on tonight. From the beginning of the game until halftime, we just didn't seem like we were up. We didn't seem like we were ready for this game."

Hughesville came out of the locker room in the second half witha spark.

The Spartans opened the third quarter with an 11-play drive that went 40 yards and culminated with a Chase Shrawder 2-yard touchdown run up the middle to make it a 24-6 deficit with 6:38 in the third left.

On Muncy's following possession, Nicholas Stubbs of Hughesville picked the Indians off and the Spartans drove to the 9, looking to punch in a momentum-shifting touchdown and possibly spark a rally attempt.

But Muncy's defense held, not giving up a touchdown, and Hughesville's field goal attempt missed.

"When we missed a field goal (after not converting for touchdown), I've seen a couple of our kid's heads go down and they stopped believing," Rainey said. "When we got that pick, they got ready, they thought we'd get back in game early and you see their heads dropped when we missed it and we did the best we could. We just couldn't bring it back."

Hughesville scored with 12 seconds to go when Jullian Smith caught a nice 36-yard touchdown pass from Stubbs to cut the deficit to 31-13.

After Hughesville's missed field goal possession, Muncy took over and went 80 yards on 12 plays to make it a 31-6 lead and quell any Hughesville momentum it had left when Rogers caught his third touchdown pass for a four-yard reception.

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