It wasn’t too long ago that Kyle Boney broke former Emmaus running back Andy Davidson’s single-season rushing mark. That record-breaking game came just last week against Williamsport. Boney added yet another milestone on Friday night and once again followed in his predecessor’s footsteps.

Led by Boney’s 177 yards on the ground, Emmaus capped its season with a dominant 56-13 victory over Reading in the Eastern Conference Class 4A Championships. Boney eclipsed the 3,000-yard rushing mark in the process, and has run for nearly 2,500 yards and 40 touchdowns in his final season.

For Emmaus, it’s a sweet ending after the team’s well-documented start to the season at 1-4. It was also the perfect gift the Hornets gave head coach Randy Cuthbert, who announced after the game that he would be stepping down to pursue an athletic director job.

“I think what people don’t realize is we played a lot of tough teams early,” Cuthbert said. “Even when we were losing games, we were getting better each week. People who haven’t been in a hole like that, 1-4, that’s tough to get out of.”

“We’ve been through a lot of stuff this year, and it shows how we grew together and came together as one big family,” Boney said. “It’s more than football.”

It was just last November as Boney watched Davidson ride a remarkable 2,000-yard season that earned him a scholarship to the US Army Academy at West Point. But even after his departure that left Boney on his own, the two stayed in touch over the last couple of months and nearly every day.

“I’m not going to say I imagined it, but it was always a goal,” Boney said. “It was always in the back of my mind. Andy has been a great guy to me. He’s helped me out along the way.

“I talk to him almost every day. I had to write him when he was in boot camp.”

Boney opened the Hornets’ scoring barrage with a 4-yard touchdown on their first possession, not even four minutes into the game. But it wasn’t just the Hornets’ leading rusher who made noise on Friday night.

Emmaus capitalized on a Reading fumble on the ensuing kickoff after Justis Walton recovered the ball at Reading’s 32-yard line. Quarterback Derek Sheaffer plunged in from a yard out eight plays later to push the Hornets’ lead to 14-0.

Sal Pagano, who has provided a nice one-two punch alongside Boney all year, recovered another Reading fumble on their third play of the next possession. And nine plays later, Pagano (who ran for 133 yards on 15 carries) burst into the end zone with a 15-yard touchdown that gave the Hornets a commanding 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.

“We felt that we could really run the ball on them,” Cuthbert said. “We thought our line would give us a big advantage...Kyle had tough yards tonight, but what they were doing to take away Kyle really opened up stuff for Sal. We hit them with a ton of traps and C-gap stuff because they were giving it to us.”

The Hornets certainly kept Reading off-balance. When it wasn’t Boney bruising through the middle, it was Pagano running the trap play to perfection.

“I love him to death,” Pagano said of Boney. “He’s my running back and I’m his fullback. When he has success, I feel like I have success.”

“Me and him, we had a really good year thanks to the offensive line,” Boney said. “Sal played phenomenal this year. He stepped up and showed that he is a big time player.”

Boney pushed the Hornets’ lead to 28-0 with 1:28 to play in the half before Reading got on the scoreboard with a kickoff return touchdown.

It didn’t take long for Reading, which ran a triple-option scheme, to get its offense rolling in the second half. Jai Whitlock took their second play from scrimmage 52 yards to the house to cut Emmaus’ lead to 28-13 in the first two minutes of the third quarter.

But it was back-to-back touchdowns from Boney, the second from 12 yards out early in the fourth quarter, that regained momentum for Emmaus.

“They have a lot of skills guys and they’re very fast,” Cuthbert said. “They run a triple-option and they don’t show you a lot of different looks. We saw one option team earlier in the year in East Stroudsburg North, and we shut them down pretty good. We felt pretty good there.”

Ben Maehrer made it 49-13 after Reading lost its third of five fumbles on the next possession. Lubens Myers capitalized on another Reading turnover with a 1-yard touchdown with 2:01 to play.

“We just wanted to play assignment football and everyone had to do their job,” said Pagano, who recovered two fumbles on defense. “That’s how you stop the triple-option. They hit a play or two, but we shut them down pretty much.”