SILVER SPRING TWP. — This was the first 4A state football championship title matchup for the Lampeter-Strasburg Pioneers.

A game like the PIAA Class 4A football final can hinge on big plays and big moments. Dial down the thermostat and ratchet up the winds, and sustaining high quality offense becomes even more difficult, making the big swings in momentum more consequential.

Thursday night at Cumberland Valley’s frigid Chapman Field, the District 12 champio (12-2) Friars of Bonner & Prendergast came up with four turnovers and four touchdowns from Mick Johnson to earn the program’s first state football championship, 40-14, over District 3 Champion (14-1) the Lampeter-Strasburg Pioneers.

The District 12 champion Friars finish the season at 12-2, and as the first Delaware County team since Strath Haven in 2000 to win a state title. They are the first to even make the final since Garnet Valley in 2007. Bonner & Prendie’s title stands along Haven’s back-to-back crowns as the only ones from Delco schools since the PIAA began crowning champions in 1988.

The big plays that change games come in many forms. For Bonner & Prendie over most of the first half, it came via interceptions. Against a Lampeter-Strasburg (14-1) team that picked off three passes in the state semifinal and pocketed 18 interceptions on the season against zero thrown, that effect was particularly pronounced.

The Friars went up two scores thanks to a Brett Johnson diving pick on LS’s second series, the first one thrown this season by Pioneers quarterback Caileb Howse, though the ball had hit intended receiver Emory Fluhr in the hands.

“I felt like going to the game, they were going to be a run-heavy team, and I didn’t think they were going to pass the ball a lot,” defensive back Jeremiah Coleman said. “So every opportunity we got in the air, I knew we had to take advantage of that and take the ball out of the air.”

With a short field, Bonner & Prendie ran for its second touchdown of the game’s first six minutes. The first had been Mick Johnson from the 1. The second was Johnson going from the 2 on fourth-and-goal to the 1, fumbling and having Saleem Frink recover and take it the final three feet for a 14-0 edge.

With the momentum squarely on the Pioneers’ sideline in the second quarter, Coleman came up with a pick of Howse on a third-down scramble at the LS 49. Noel Campbell found Jalil Hall on a double-move seam route for 40 yards on third-and-5, then Johnson bulled the last four yards for a 21-14 edge with 31 seconds left and the Friars due to get the ball first out of the break.

“It makes the sideline go up, the crowd go up,” Coleman said. “It gives us a mentally better state. We were down on the sideline, people trying to doubt each other. I was like, no we’ve got to go and let’s score.”

That seemed great for the Friars. It got better when Howse – who again had not thrown an interception in 14 games in which he’d amassed 1,500 yards and 17 touchdowns – tried to push the Pioneers into field-goal range. He didn’t spy linebacker Brett Johnson dropping into coverage, and the senior picked it and returned 61 yards to the house. The PAT, thanks to a 15-yard unsportsmanlike call, was missed, making it 27-14 Bonner & Prendie at the break.

“We got the pick-six because, we weren’t scared but they were back on offense and it was a chance for them to score,” Bonner defensive end CJ Amobi said. “And when we got to pick six, it just brought up more energy for us to score.”

Campbell was excellent for the Friars as usual, going 13-for-21 for 162 yards without a turnover. Mick Johnson was the bell cow with 24 carries for 112 yards. Frink added 13 for 63. Coleman was the top target with six catches for 67 yards, Hall with four for 65.

Lampeter-Strasburg’s first-half momentum was built around a punt. The Friars led 14-0 and were getting the ball back when kicker Peter Fiorello uncorked a field-flipping 74-yarder to the Friars’ 1-yard line. They were stopped and punted out of their end zone. Two players later, Howse dropped a dime into the hands of Dominic Brown for a 29-yard touchdown, his lone completion in the opening half with interceptions on the other three attempts.

A quick-strike drive followed, covering 54 yards in seven plays, Brown capping it with a six-yard TD to tie it at 14 with 5:12 left to half.

Even when the District 3 champion came up with a big play, Bonner & Prendie had an answer. The Friars punted on the first series of the second half, but a tackle for loss on third down by Khalil Holley and Chaz Ingram got the ball back. A nine-play drive, aided by a late hit from LS, finished with a Johnson four-yard TD run for a 34-14 lead.

Lampeter-Strasburg threatened to take the game back as a last gasp when Brown recovered a Frink fumble with 24 seconds left in the third quarter. But the window lasted all of one play, Howse getting the ball popped out by Hall on the first play of the next drive and Coleman recovering with a 20-yard return.

Five plays later, Johnson tacked on a five-yard run to make it 40-14.

All of LS’s offense came from two guys, literally the only two Pioneers to touch the ball. Howse carried 24 times for 127 yards. He finished 1-for-6 through the air. Brown had 22 carries for 85 yards, stacked up at the 5 on the game’s last play.