Sentinel photo by MATT STRICKER
Mifflin County’s Tim Beck (21) looks for running room around DuBois defender Josh Mercer during their GEFA first-round playoff game Saturday at Rec Park in Lewistown.

LEWISTOWN — Mifflin County scored on its opening drive and kept up the pressure in a 42-19 win over DuBois in the divisional round of the Great Eastern Football Association (GEFA) playoffs on a warm Saturday afternoon.

The Tomahawks (8-2) advanced to the semifinals where they will meet Moshannon Valley at Rec Park on June 23 at 7 p.m. The Vikings moved on with a 26-12 victory over the Upper Dauphin Comanche.

“I feel like we had control the whole game. What we have to do is keep the intensity up. We have a tendency to get up on people and then go through the motions. We’ve got to get a little bit better than that,” Mifflin County coach Brian Rodgers said. “I’m very happy with the defense and we opened the offense up some today, got some big plays, and things turned our way.”

Mifflin County took an 8-0 lead when quarterback Leshawn Brown tossed a seven-yarder to fullback Kyle Kahley for a touchdown. Robert Albro added two points with a conversion catch. The drive took six plays and put the Mountain Lions (6-4) on their heels the rest of the contest.

“Great momentum builder to be able to get the ball and drive down the field and score. We put a knife in their heart right off the bat,” Rodgers said. “It doesn’t matter who we play next we’re in for a tough game. We have to work on red zone consistency. We are still struggling in there. That will be polished up this week. We have to go over some things on defense and we will be ready to go.”

After a DuBois touchdown made it 8-6, the Tomahawks answered with their special teams standout Timmy Beck, who took a punt 34 yards to paydirt. A Matt Short two-point reception made it 16-6 early in the second quarter.

The pivotal point in the game came with the Mountain Lions having a first-and-goal at the 8. Mifflin County ended the threat when Robert Albro intercepted a Jake Terry pass in the end zone. Five plays later, Albro was the hero again with a spectacular diving catch for the 22-yard touchdown, making it 22-6.

“It was the big point of the game, the breaker. DuBois came in thinking they had a chance to win and when we did what we did, that was a 12-point swing and took the wind out of their sales. That was a big play by Rob,” Rodgers said.

Mifflin County extended its lead to 28-6 with a Brown to Short touchdown pass from five yards out.

“Coming into the ball game, we knew we had to come out strong and fast and put them on their heels right away. This is a good team. We knew they would come out and play us tough. Everybody on the DuBois team is physical. I love playing them,” Tomahawk center Derek Yoder said. “I thought the O-line did a good job of calling out the protections today. We put Leshawn in a good position to make throws, the receivers ran great routes, and the running backs ran hard today. Overall, I thought we played a good game.”

The Tomahawks added two more scores in the fourth quarter — a 2-yard reception by Albro and a 30-yarder to Caleb Gehman. DuBois added touchdown runs in each quarter of the second half to account for the scoring.

“It’s pretty darn good (holding them to 19 points). That’s three scores and they had short fields and it’s tough to stop a 20-yard drive,” Rodgers said. “Other than that, our defense stepped up. One of the keys was we moved (Chris) Maldonado to middle linebacker in the second half and put Kyle (Kahley) on the edge. Kyle sealed the edge a little bit better and DuBois quit running up the middle because of Maldonado because he stopped it.”

Brown threw for 161 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Tomahawk offense. Jordan Bell had five catches for 50 yards. Running back James Sweating led the Mountain Lions with 53 yards rushing and a TD reception.

“I’m very happy to be in the semifinals. Brian has done a very good job. We’ve come a long way from when we first started,” Tomahawks co-owner Bill Miller said. “The offense got off to a great start, but we have to tighten up some things. Hopefully, we can get a good crowd next week and move on to the Keystone Bowl once again.”