Ruoss, Gov. Mifflin run over Daniel Boone, 47-7

UNION >> It’s no overstatement to say Isaac Ruoss is the center of Governor Mifflin’s football universe.

Ruoss is the linchpin of the Mustangs’ run-oriented offense. As the senior running back goes, so goes Mifflin.

“Everything we do is based on him,” GM head coach Mick Vecchio said Friday, following his team’s Berks League game with Daniel Boone. “If he’s going well, we go with him. If they (the opponent) take him away, we go to others.”

The Blazers certainly weren’t taking Ruoss out of the equation. He amassed a workmanlike 165 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns to underwrite Mifflin’s 47-7 romp over Boone at Brazinsky Field.

Ruoss got the majority of his production in a 40-point first half. Five of his totes during that span covered double-digit yardage, and his touchdown runs fell just short of the 100 mark.

“He’s real good,” Vecchio said. “In Berks, I think he’s third in rushing.”

Ruoss headed an offense that got all but 20 of its 315 yards on the ground. A total of nine Mustangs ran the ball, all but one coming away with positive yardage — the exception backup quarterback Kolbie Reeser, who closed out the game by taking a knee to finish off the “running clock” GM owned for the entire second half.

“In the triple-option offense they run, there’s a lot of responsibility,” Boone head coach Ryan Contento said. “But they can run any offense. Their line is big and strong, and they like to run more than they can throw.”

Contento’s hope for the Blazers, coming off last weekend’s 14-7 win over Muhlenberg that was their first of the season, was to build on the momentum of that victory. But that hope was dashed less than a minute from the opening kickoff, Mifflin (2-0 league, 5-1 overall) capping a four-play, 61-yard march with Ruoss’ 33-yard sprint up the middle.

That got the Mustangs off to the races in a hurry. They got another Ruoss scoring run less than two minutes later — a 62-yard burst up the gut with 9:24 left — and a one-yard run by him 1:30 before the end of the quarter.

“The game plan every week is to give him the ball,” Vecchio said. “If we don’t get him, we’ll pitch the ball and see what happens.”

Mifflin’s defense got in the scoring act, Michael Franks returning an intercepted pass 28 yards for a touchdown 32 seconds before the end of the first quarter. In the second, quarterback Kamron Wolfe went up the middle five yards with 9:51 left, and Darius Copeland (three carries, 28 yards) followed with a 30-yard run off left tackle at 4:02 to boost GM’s lead to a mercy-rule qualifying 40 points.

“Our kids are good up front,” Vecchio said, a reference to an offensive line with the likes of Samuel Mueller, Michael McClatchie and Jordan Espinosa. “It seems we’re getting better every week.”

Boone (1-1, 1-4) was able to avert a shutout with a heads-up play by Matt Okuniewski early in the fourth quarter. The Boone defense forced Wolfe to fumble at the 41, and Okuniewski scooped up the loose ball and ran unopposed to the end zone with 8:01 on the clock.

The momentum stem proved brief, however, as Mifflin came back on its next series to score one last time. Jaden Quilles made his lone carry a big one, running 37 yards around his left end for a touchdown with 3:45 remaining.

“The kids have been through a lot, with the change in head coaches and losing several starters,” Contento said. “We were hoping to have the momentum from last week carry over.”

Boone’s defensive play was also highlighted by Chase Lacey recovering a Wolfe fumble at Boone’s seven, halting the Mustangs’ third possession of the game. On the other side, GM got other interceptions from Boston Patton and Espinosa as it held the Blazers to 145 yards’ total offense.

“I don’t think we’ve ever done that,” Vecchio said of his team’s interception total.

Offensively, Boone was led on the ground by Lacey’s 37 yards on 10 carries. In the air, Josh Ehst went 7-for-17 with 80 yards, Okuniewski (four catches, 30 yards) and Lacey (3-50) his principal targets.

“We still have five games left, four of them league games,” Contento said. “We’re going to learn from this and get better.”

NOTES >> The Boone school district honored active-duty military, veterans and first responders as part of the game’s activities. Boone’s band merged with Mifflin’s for a halftime show of patriotic music.