Football

Football: Ryan, Mitzel Lead Northern Lebanon to Dominant Season-Opening Win Over Pine Grove

by
LebCoSports Staff
August 24, 2025

Written by Gavin Sweeney

Sweeney is a local high school student and aspiring sports journalist & entrepreneur.

Photos by Susan Dengler of Owlcatraz Photography

Additionally, Braydin Adams caught up with senior Kael Erdman after the game. Adams is a senior at Northern Lebanon with school pride and a deep-seated passion for sports. Check out the quote below!

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For any questions, comments, or discrepancies, please reach out to dan@lebcosports.com.

The Northern Lebanon Vikings traveled north to take on the Pine Grove Cardinals on their home turf in a physical Week 1 matchup.

Coming into the opener, the Vikings made it clear all offseason that they were eager and excited for this game.

After winning the coin toss, the Vikings chose to defer. Pine Grove opened their drive facing a 4th down situation. Cardinals head coach David Shiffer made the bold call to go for it, but the attempt failed, giving the Vikings possession at midfield. Northern Lebanon wasted no time—just three plays later, Brady Ryan found the end zone to put the Vikings up 7-0. A 55-yard drive capped with a touchdown in three plays? That’s how you set the tone.

Early in the second quarter, quarterback Bryan Mitzel showed off his legs, scoring on a 10-yard run to extend the lead to 14-0. That momentum carried into the next possession, as Ryan broke free for a 32-yard touchdown, pushing the advantage to 21-0.

With one second left before halftime, Pine Grove called a timeout to try one more play. But Mitzel, proving he could do it on both sides of the ball, intercepted the pass and returned it for a pick-six, sending the Vikings into the break up 28-0.

Defense ruled the third quarter, as neither team managed to score.

In the fourth, Northern Lebanon sealed the deal. Ryan tallied his third touchdown of the night to make it 35-0, as Coach Rice leaned on him to both move the chains and drain the clock.

Pine Grove finally broke through on the final play of the game, scoring a touchdown with just a fraction of a second left and adding a two-point conversion to make the final 35-8.

The Vikings opened their season in style, taking Week 1 under the Friday Night Lights, 35-8.

Northern Lebanon (1-0) will be back in action at home next Friday when they take on Oxford High School. They will not rest on this victory as they work to start the season 2-0.

Northern Lebanon Stats

Passing: Bryan Mitzel – 5/7, 66 yds

Rushing: Brady Ryan – 16 carries, 156 yds, 3 TD (long 40); Bryan Mitzel – 11 carries, 69 yds, TD (long 34); Jaxin Bush – 2 carries, 12 yds (long 7); Landon Copenhaver – 2 carries, 11 yds (long 7)

Receiving: Ryan Clemmer – 4 receptions, 42 yds (long 14); Brady Ryan – 1 reception, 24 yds (long 24)

Special Teams: Johnny Hilton – FG: 1/1 (long 35), PAT: 2/2, 3 punts, 130 yds (long 25), 1 punt return, 0 yds; Landon Copenhaver – 2 kickoff returns, 32 yds, 1 touchback

Defensive: Bryan Mitzel – INT, 57-yd TD return; Bryce Yocum – 4 tackles, 4 assists, 4 TFL; Brady Ryan – 5 tackles, 1 assist; Jaxin Bush – 4 tackles, 1 assist; Landon Copenhaver – 4 tackles, 2 assists; Landon Graby – 4 tackles, 2 assists, 2 TFL; Kael Erdman – 2 tackles, 3 assists; Matthew Chernich – 2 tackles, 2 assists; Kaleb Barr – 2 tackles, 1 assist; William Spayd – 2 tackles; Ryan Clemmer – 2 tackles, 2 assists; Andrew Stohler – 2 assists; Johnny Hilton – 1 tackle, 1 PD; Christian Anspach – 1 tackle, 1 PD; Vinny Moyer – 1 tackle; Blake Burdick – 1 tackle; Owen Dohner – 1 tackle; Justin Bennethum – 1 tackle; Simeon England – 1 assist

Coach Rice’s Post-Game Thoughts

“The boys pulled out a solid 35-8 win. Pine Grove’s eight points came in the last four seconds of the game.

The fact is, they came out with such a team mentality and with guns ablaze. We came out hot on our first drive, where it took just three plays to go down and score. That set the tone for the rest of the game.

Brady Ryan had about 20 touches on offense and scored three touchdowns. The guy’s just a menace, so we’ll look to keep feeding that horse.

Brian Mitzel at quarterback has the ability to extend plays, which is such an asset for us. He’s a great athlete, he understands the offense as a whole, and he also added a pick-six to end the first half—right after Pine Grove called a timeout to try and take a shot down the field. He grabbed it and took it back to put us up 28-0.

I’m really proud of our core guys upfront, anchored by a senior captain and Andrew Stohler – especially on the offense side.

Defensively, we had 20 different guys record a tackle or some sort of defenses statistic last night. That just says a lot about what we’re trying to do with you know getting a rotation of guys and not only that but but having 20 guys who can get in there and then make plays, but just being able able to stay fresh on that side of the ball helps tremendously. The guys were flying around in all in all positions on defense and just knocking some heads down so proud of that.

I want to give a quick recognition to Johnny Hilton, who is a sophomore and a first year guy with us. He went 5-5 on extra points and kicked off then five times that even had himself a touchback. He’s not a kicker. He’s just an athlete that can kick.

A huge shoutout to Josh Thompson, our new offensive coordinator this year. He put together a great play-calling system that really put us in a position to score points. Another big shoutout to my dad, Mark Rice, for another fantastic defensive game tonight. I have all the confidence in the world in our defense. We truly should’ve come out with the shutout, but nonetheless, they played their rear ends off.

Overall, I’m really happy with the performance.”