Sep 13, 2008 3 min read

As a team, the Golden Lions broke a 20-year old school record with 457 yards rushing, including a 312-yard individual school record from junior running back Matt Adams. Even more impressive than the final tally for Adams is the fact he didn’t play a down in the fourth quarter.

“We knew coming in he was a very good player,” Albert Gallatin coach Bill Elias said. “But they’re whole team is good. You have to spread the field and make sure everything is covered against them. They’ve got great backs, a great quarterback and their line blocks as well as anybody. It’s just a good, solid, well-coached football team and they played like it tonight.”

The game started off on a bad note for the Colonials when the opening kickoff sailed out of bounds at the Greensburg Salem 40 yard line. The Golden Lions then methodically marched down the field on an 11-play, 65-yard drive that was capped off with a 1-yard touchdown by Adams. He finished the game with four touchdowns.

The Colonials quickly answered when sophomore Grayling Sanders returned the ensuing kickoff 70 yards to the Greensburg Salem 20. Six plays later quarterback Cody Peebles scored on a keeper from 1-yard out to tie the score at seven. From that point on, however, the game was taken over by the Golden Lions’ runaway ground game.

“It seemed like every time we scored or did something to get back into the game, they were able to respond,” Elias said. “I thought we ran the ball well tonight and were able to move the ball at times, but again, that’s a good team over there.”

Sanders led the Colonials with 88 yards rushing on nine carries, while Senior Jeremiah Karpency registered 53 yards and a touchdown. Peebles finished 5-of-12 passing for 45 yards.

Greensburg Salem quarterback Steve Fagert entered the game as the third-leading passer in the WPIAL, but did all of his work on the ground, rushing for 41 yards and three touchdowns. He was 0-for-3 passing.

“We made too many mistakes tonight,” Elias said. “We keep working on the basics every day with our blocking and tackling, and that’s the type of stuff that beat us tonight.”

The Colonials return to action next Friday with another Keystone conference matchup, this time with cross-town rival Uniontown.

“They’re a very good football team,” Elias said. “Every team we play this year is going to be competitive. They’re all teams that are going to be a handful for us and Uniontown is no different. There isn’t a team on the schedule that we can look at and say, ‘that should be an easy win.'”