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Trace Furman has 4 rushing touchdowns in Montgomery’s 35-14 win vs. Towanda

By Jon Gerardi 5 min read

MONTGOMERY -- Whenever Montgomery senior Trace Furman got the ball, good things seemed to happen. Up the middle. A handoff to the right. An end-around run.

It didn't matter what Montgomery drew up for Furman, Towanda's defense struggled holding him in check.

Early in the third quarter, Furman got a handoff to the right, cut to his left and was gone for a 50-yard touchdown. A flag brought the ball back. But, just five plays later, on fourth-and-1, Furman struck again. The Red Raider broke a 21-yard touchdown to punch it in and gave Montgomery a 28-point lead.

It was a microcosm of his day on a rainy and cold Friday night in Week 8 at Montgomery as the Red Raiders defeated Towanda, 35-14.

"That's a fun game, especially on senior night, to be able to play in front of home crowd for one of the last times. It was really fun," Furman said. "We're assuming we'll get a home football game (in playoffs), so it'll be fun to play in front of them again, but four touchdowns? It's awesome."

Furman had an outstanding performance with 13 carries for 104 yards and four touchdowns. He was part of a running attack that saw the Red Raiders gain 277 on the ground on 43 carries.

"His vision is very good running the ball. He was making cuts where they needed to be made, not trying to extend it too much," Montgomery coach Joel Knoebel said. "That's something we've been working on with him and his style of running. He's been picking that up well, making adjustments and making them count."

Furman had a 31-yard touchdown run in the first quarter with 9:01 left for an early 7-0 lead. That touchdown came off an early interception by Lincoln Miller, setting up Montgomery in great field condition as the Red Raiders capitalized.

In the second quarter, Montgomery scored twice in the final seven minutes. Trace Furman punched in a score from four yards out for a 14-0 lead before Gage Furman had a nine-yard touchdown run on Montgomery's next possession to go up 21-0 before halftime.

Montgomery did well extending drives. The Red Raiders had four consecutive drives between the first and third quarters that were for eight or more plays, including a 10-play drive that resulted in a turnover on downs before three consecutive touchdown drives of 79, 65 and 71 yards.

The heavy rain on Friday afternoon influenced a lot of the play-calling with a muddy field making Montgomery focus on the run, and Montgomery ran with ease.

"We knew we were gonna get some rain, but not sure how much coming into tonight. Obviously we got absolutely hammered about three o'clock and the field didn't take it well," Furman said. "So, lot of stuff we were running was inside and then trying to find the sidelines. The line did a great job keeping their feet and driving guys down field. I think the backs did a good job keeping their feet and making cuts when they needed to."

Towanda struggled to get its offense established early in the game. After a five-play drive to open the game resulted in an interception, Towanda had back-to-back three-and-out possessions before a seven-play drive ended with a turnover on downs before the half came to a close on the next possession.

The Black Knights went into the half with just 52 yards of total offense, 48 coming in the air as Towanda's run game was held to four yards in the first two quarters.

"Well we told them all night long coming into this we're playing downhill football. They ran 71% of the time coming into this. With this footing and with the weather, passing was unfavorable to anybody. But, we played downhill football and they played really well on defense," Knoebel said. "We were flying to the football, filling and spilling. In the first half, our blitzing, especially Josh (Knoebel) from the outside linebacker, was very effective and made some really good tackles."

Knoebel, back in the lineup on Friday, ended the night with 54 rushing yards on 10 carries and had a sack.

While Towanda did score twice, both touchdowns came in the fourth quarter with the game all but decided.

"We never wanna give up any points, but giving up those points at the end of the game didn't make a huge difference, but things to work on definitely," Furman said.

Montgomery had four ballcarriers go over 50 on the ground in Trace Furman (104 on 20 carries, four touchdowns), Knoebel (54 yards on 10 carries), Lincoln Miller (52 yards on seven carries) and Briar Persing (74 yards on eight carries).

"This field went to crap in a hurry (with rain). We found our footing on the hash-to-boundary side and that's where we had to execute and go, and it worked well. This week we had Josh (Knoebel) back," coach Knoebel noted. "We got him into the game in the first half. He ran well in the first half and we pulled him out, but Briar (Persing), Linc (Miller) and Trace (Furman) had a night."

Reese Sluyter found Curtis Maynard for a 19-yard touchdown pass with 7:13 to play in the game to cut the Montgomery lead down to 28-7. The Red Raiders responded with a 20-yard touchdown run by Furman with 64 seconds left to go back ahead by 28 points before Sluyter found Gabe Wolf for an 11-yard touchdown with just 25 seconds remaining.

Of Montgomery's seven drives -- not including the final possession which resulted in one kneel down -- five went for touchdowns and the Red Raiders never punted.

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