BY JEFF FALK

ANNVILLE – Given Northern Lebanon’s start to the season, there may have been those who forgot which team is two-time defending Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three champions. There’s certainly nothing wrong with the Vikings’ memory.

And last evening, Norther Lebanon issued its own stern and not-so-subtle reminder on the subject.

On Friday night at Annville-Cleona High School, the Vikings tapped their pride, heart and experience to serve notice that they are still very much in the Section Three discussion by taking it to the hometown Little Dutchmen, 32-14. After Annville-Cleona had assumed a 14-6 lead early in the second stanza, Northern Lebanon owned the next 36 minutes of action and ripped off 26 unanswered points.

The Vikings got the job done with a resurgent defense, three key second-half takeaways and behind the play of quarterback Michigan Daub. Daub tallied three touchdowns with his legs, gained 126 yards on the ground and generally controlled the flow with his decisive decision-making.

By coming through in a must-win situation, the Vikings upped their overall record to 3-4 and most importantly their Section Three mark to 2-1. Annville-Cleona, which has section and District Three playoff aspirations of its own, had its four-game win streak snapped and fell to 5-3 on the year and 3-1 in the league.

“This was a big one for us,” said Daub, who was also tabbed as the Vikings’ team spokesperson. “We practiced as hard as we could all week. We knew the section title was on the line.

“We knew the section was our’s at the beginning of the year,” Daub continued. “But we knew we weren’t going to get it easily. Hopefully we can end the season on a little win streak.

“According to two of their players, this is their house,” said Annville-Cleona head coach Matt Gingrich of the Vikings. “Those comments will not be forgotten. I think when we play them, we find a way to play too up or too down.

“Our kids are exactly what you would hope kids would be,” continued Gingrich. “They (the Vikings) might have a chip on their shoulders, but it’s not from us. Our kids don’t even know what their record is. But that ain’t a bad way to get motivated.”

Staring down an eight-point deficit, the Vikings drove 75 yards in 11 plays, a march that was culminated by Daub’s 11-yard touchdown run that made it 14-12, 16 seconds before intermission. The drive featured ten running plays.

Then 5:24 into the second half, Northern Lebanon took the lead for good when Stevie Herb raced 73 yards down the left sidelines for a touchdown.

“We stayed hungry,” said Daub. “We just wanted to win really bad. We haven’t lost to them in a long time. We wanted to keep that zero in the loss column against them.

“We just wanted to be on the field more than they did, in my opinion,” added Daub. “I think this is our number one rivalry. To get a ‘W’ at this place, that’s a big one. It’s nice to come out with a win against a school so close to us.”

“The thing that hurts for me is that we’re going into a bye week,” said Gingrich. “We had a chance to go into it with a five-game win streak. The other is we like to beat our rival. We turned a corner. We’re a heck of a lot better than we were at the beginning of the season.But clearly we have work to do. Maybe with this loss we won’t think as much of ourselves. I hope they (his players) learn from this.

“Right now, it’s not that big of a rivalry,” Gingrich added. “We’ve got to beat them. Until we step up, it’s not going to much of a rivalry. We’ve got a ways to go.”

Daub placed an exclamation point on the Vikings’ performance with two fourth-quarter touchdowns.

His one-yard sneak with 4:14 remaining came four plays after Northern Lebanon recovered an A-C fumble, and pushed the Vikings’ advantage to 26-14. Exactly 2:07 later, Daub rambled 48 yards through the teeth of the Little Dutchmen defense.

“I feel like my role has increased over the last couple of weeks, since Luke (Funck) has been out,” said Daub. “I felt I played my best game of the year running, but I couldn’t have done it without the offensive line. It felt good to get one for the crowd, for the coaches and for the rest of the team.

“I didn’t feel like it (that the Vikings were underdogs),” Daub continued. “No one else felt like it. The media had us as underdogs. But it’s not up to the media who wins.”

“We score 35 points a game,” said Gingrich. “We had a touchdown called back. We had the ball down to the ten (yard line) twice and fumbled. But give them (the Vikings) credit. They had a good game plan.”

The Vikings struck first, taking a 6-0 lead 6:52 into the contest when lineman Luis Negrerios lined up in the backfield and bulled his way into the end zone from a yard away. It placed a finishing touch on an 11-play, 73-yard possession.

But it took Annville-Cleona just 50 seconds and two snaps to respond. Little Dutchman Cameron Hoch took a hand-off 64 yards to ‘The House’, and the Little Dutchmen grabbed an 8-6 edge.

Then on the first play of the second quarter, Annville-Cleona employed a bit of trickery to extend its lead to 14-6. Hoch accepted a hand-off from quarterback Noah Myers, headed right, then threw back left to Victor Hoffer, who turned the catch into a 79-yard touchdown.

“We made some big adjustments on defense,” said Daub. “We knew what they were going at. We just filled the holes where we needed to.”

“They cut our offensive linemen,” said Gingrich. “That’s an old technique most people don’t use any more. We did not adjust well to that up front.”

Annville-Cleona enjoyed a slight 386-365 advantage in total yards. Of the Vikings’ output, 347 of those yards came on the ground.

Herb carried 21 times for 172 yards. For the Little Dutchmen, Hoch gained 145 yards on ten attempts.

“Yes, it was the team’s best game of the season,” said Daub. “Our run defense was a weakness for us, but tonight we stepped up. I saw a lot of heart out of our team.

“I think we’re better than we’ve been showing.” Daub added. “It was a good win. I think we can finish in a tie for the section. If Donegal gets a loss, we’re right up there.”

“No, Trinity was a heck of a lot worse, and Camp Hill was a heck of a lot worse,” said Gingrich. “We hit. We played hard. But it wasn’t one of our better games. They’re (the Vikings) good too. They showed what they got.”

 

 

 

 

 To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2016 Annville-Cleona Football Schedule

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	RESULT
08/26	Trinity	7:00 PM	L 27-55
09/02	Biglerville	7:00 PM	W 35-30
09/09	@Camp Hill	7:00 PM	L 34-54
09/16	@Hanover	7:00 PM	W 35-26
09/23 *	@Elco	7:00 PM	W 27-21
09/30 *	Lancaster Catholic	7:00 PM	W 36-21
10/07 *	@Columbia	7:00 PM	W 56-20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016 Northern Lebanon Football Schedule 

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	RESULT
08/26	@Pine Grove	7:00 PM	W 32-13
09/09	@Cedar Crest	7:00 PM	L 12-41
09/16	@Daniel Boone	7:00 PM	L 24-28
09/23 *	Pequea Valley	7:00 PM	W 40-13
09/30	York Suburban	7:00 PM	L 31-48
10/07 *	Donegal	7:00 PM	L 31-35

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PIAA District Three Class AAA Power Rankings

AAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP
1	Middletown	6-	0-	0	0.762394	1.000000	0.471986
2	Bermudian Springs	5-	1-	0	0.684220	0.838983	0.495066
3	Littlestown	5-	1-	0	0.674116	0.814516	0.502517
4	Wyomissing	4-	2-	0	0.633020	0.700000	0.551155
5	Annville Cleona	5-	2-	0	0.543581	0.674074	0.384089
6	Pequea Valley	4-	2-	0	0.509296	0.661017	0.323859
7	Eastern York	3-	3-	0	0.498719	0.541667	0.446226
8	Lancaster Catholic	3-	3-	0	0.495565	0.491935	0.500000
9	Trinity	2-	4-	0	0.440837	0.296875	0.616791
10	Kutztown	3-	3-	0	0.439392	0.462264	0.411438
11	Eastern Lebanon County	2-	4-	0	0.373025	0.350000	0.401168
12	Schuylkill Valley	1-	5-	0	0.351438	0.161017	0.584175
13	Boiling Springs	0-	6-	0	0.321807	0.000000	0.715126
14	Susquenita	1-	6-	0	0.294029	0.121019	0.505486
15	Biglerville	0-	6-	0	0.287881	0.000000	0.639736

 

 

 

 

 

 

PIAA District Three Class AAAA Power Rankings

AAAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP
1	Shippensburg	6-	0-	0	0.726224	1.000000	0.391608
2	Berks Catholic	5-	1-	0	0.723135	0.855932	0.560828
3	Milton Hershey	5-	1-	0	0.692523	0.866071	0.480409
4	Lampeter Strasburg	4-	2-	0	0.662580	0.725806	0.585304
5	Big Spring	5-	1-	0	0.616068	0.841667	0.340336
6	Bishop McDevitt	3-	3-	0	0.597747	0.584746	0.613636
7	East Pennsboro	4-	2-	0	0.591631	0.661017	0.506826
8	Susquehanna Township	3-	3-	0	0.586427	0.594828	0.576159
9	Conrad Weiser	3-	3-	0	0.558144	0.563492	0.551607
10	Hamburg	4-	2-	0	0.544207	0.636364	0.431571
11	York Suburban	4-	2-	0	0.537738	0.666667	0.380158
12	Donegal	3-	3-	0	0.521164	0.527778	0.513080
13	Northern York	3-	3-	0	0.488852	0.532787	0.435154
14	Gettysburg	3-	3-	0	0.466683	0.549180	0.365854
15	Northern Lebanon	2-	4-	0	0.404865	0.345455	0.477477
16	West York	1-	5-	0	0.367897	0.198113	0.575410
17	Greencastle Antrim	1-	5-	0	0.338472	0.194444	0.514505
18	Susquehannock	1-	5-	0	0.278548	0.163793	0.418803
19	West Perry	0-	6-	0	0.274125	0.000000	0.609167
20	James Buchanan	0-	6-	0	0.243686	0.000000	0.541525
21	Kennard Dale	0-	6-	0	0.186822	0.000000	0.415159

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Lancaster-Lebanon League

Section Three Standings