Reading’s option runs all over Daniel Boone, 61-7

READING >> Daniel Boone came into Friday night’s game against Reading short-handed at a couple of key spots. But even without quarterback Nick Hughes and running back Cinque Ramsey, few expected to see what happened on the turf at Albright College.

Reading ran its option attack to razor-sharp perfection against the Blazers, piling up 380 rushing yards on 36 carries — the vast majority before halftime — in a 61-7 pasting. The win gave the Knights their first victory in Berks Section 1. Boone is now winless in three league contests.

Reading scored 41 points in the second quarter, including a spurt of four touchdowns in a 3:54 span put the game on ice well before the halftime buzzer.

Daniel Boone (3-3, 0-3) head coach Bill Parks did not have much to say after the game.

“We have to take some time and put it back it back together,” he said.

The Red Knights (3-3, 1-2) were simply on-point on the ground, with quarterback Elisiah Bayne reading his keys nearly flawlessly. If the Blazers keyed on him, he pitched to a stable of speedy colts, including Berks League leading rusher Jai Whitlock. If the Blazers played contain, Bayne kept it. In fact, the Reading signal-caller scored the Knights’ first two touchdowns on keeper option runs of 19 and 58 yards.

Reading’s defense was also opportunistic. Ryan Okuniewski got the start under center in place of Hughes, who is battling a knee sprain. Kirk Boston — who doubles as Reading’s place-kicker — proved to be a disruptive force of maximum damage by picking off not one, but two, Okuniewksi passes during the second quarter and returning both for touchdowns.

Boston’s first interception was a timely route-jump on a curl that he took back 45 yards to make it 21-0 just 38 seconds into the second quarter; his second was in the flat and covered 26 yards, a score that made it a 34-0 game midway through the frame.

Hughes is nursing a sprained knee and his status is week-to-week. He did not appear in Friday’s game. Ramsey, Boone’s explosive running back, has been sidelined since Week 3.

The Blazers managed to avert a shutout late, with Chris Nitka going in from a yard out to cap a 10-play, 65-yard drive at the end of the game.

Reading head coach Rob Flowers has been looking for a complete effort from his charges, and he finally got one.

“Our guys did an excellent job of executing what we wanted to do offensively,” Flowers said. “And defensively, they did an excellent job of executing the packages we put together. And we’re going to try to continue to do that.

“We were able to spread the ball around a lot tonight, which was good.”

Reading’s Khary Mauras was the biggest star for the Knights offensively. Mauras took an option pitch from Bayne at the Reading 7 late in the first half and burst through the Boone defense for a 93-yard touchdown virtually untouched with 2:56 left in the half. That play gave Reading a 41-0 lead.

Mauras later returned a punt early in the third quarter 68 yards for a score to push it to 55-0. He finished with 117 rushing yards on just four totes.

Whitlock went for 84 yards on 12 carries and scored a second-quarter touchdown on 41-yard scamper. He needed 231 rushing yards coming into the game to crack 1,000 for the season.