Plum’s Landen Ekiert selected Valley News Dispatch defensive player of the year

By: Michael Love
Saturday, December 13, 2025 | 9:30 PM

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Landen Ekiert suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder in the last game of his freshman season.

Surgery was needed to fix it.

The Plum senior was limited in his comeback, and then he was injured again.

While still being nagged by injury, he admitted he had an on-and-off junior season for the Mustangs. He made 30 tackles, but he wanted to do more.

Ekiert was determined to work this past offseason to make sure he was as healthy as possible to help the Plum defense with the best of his skill and ability.

“I just couldn’t have any of that for my senior year. It was my last year,” he said.

“I worked hard in the offseason to build up the strength for the season. I was so happy that I had no injury issues. I was truly healthy. It was a great feeling to go out there each game and give my 100% and help the team win. It was so awesome to know that I had a great year.”

At inside linebacker, Ekiert was a heart-and-soul player for a Plum defense that improved throughout the season. He finished the season with 115 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions for a Mustangs team that made a late-season surge, upended rival Penn Hills at home in dramatic fashion in the regular-season finale and was selected by the WPIAL as a Class 5A playoff wild card.

With all that he was able to provide for the Mustangs and his consistent leadership throughout the 11 games, Ekiert is the Valley News Dispatch Defensive Player of the Year from a collection of worthy candidates that included Freeport inside linebacker Dawson Gaillot and others.

“I was excited to see how I came from my freshman year to now,” Ekiert said. “I was grateful that I was able to go out and make plays. It was my true self.”

Ekiert was consistent throughout the season averaging 10 1/2 tackles over 11 games as he delivered hits with strength and used his quickness to make plays from sideline to sideline. He surpassed 10 tackles seven times with a season-best 14 coming in a 27-20 loss to Shaler in Week 3.

He responded in the final two games of the regular season, recording 11 stops in a 29-12 win over Kiski Area before making 12 tackles against Penn Hills.

Ekiert capped his high school career with 13 tackles in Plum’s playoff loss to Upper St. Clair.

“Stats were what they were,” Ekiert said. “I was just doing what I could to help the team win games. If I had two tackles or 20, if I could do anything to put us in a position to win, that’s what I wanted to do.”

Plum coach Matt Morgan said he appreciated all of the tackles Ekiert made this season, but it was a play against Pine-Richland that truly revealed Ekiert’s heart, desire and leadership.

“Oobi Strader, their quarterback, broke a run of about 50 yards,” Morgan said.

“Landen blitzed the backside gap and broke through the line. Strader was clearly gone. But Ekiert took off and chased him down at the 5-yard line. That is something I will never forget. It was a ‘wow’ play for the coaching staff, and we made it a point to use that for teaching everyone else on the defense and the younger guys that this is the type of effort we need out of everybody every single play. That is the kind of effort that Landen brought to us every single game.”

Ekiert, who plans to major in physical therapy in college, finished the season with 31 all-purpose yards.

One of the 31 came on a 1-yard run in the Week Zero rivalry win over Franklin Regional.

The other 30 were a result of an interception return to the 8-yard line against Latrobe that set up a touchdown a few plays later.

“That was my first-ever interception in football,” Ekiert said. “That was a lot of fun.”

He also intercepted a pass against Kiski Area that snuffed out a key Cavaliers offensive possession and helped Plum pick up the win.

The next week, the Mustangs topped Penn Hills, 20-14, in the final home game for Ekiert and the other Mustangs seniors.

The “Mustang Miracle,” the last-second, field-goal-turned-touchdown by kicker Austin Kolankowski, will go down as one of the top plays in the history of Plum football. Ekiert had a sideline view of the play. He still tries to wrap his head around the dramatic ending to that game.

“He kicked it and it got blocked, and I was like, ‘Oh my God. We’re going to have to go to another overtime,’ ” Ekiert said.

“Austin picked it up, and I didn’t think he had a chance to run it in. There were just too many (Penn Hills defenders) between him and the end zone. He got stopped, but then everyone just pushed him in. It was just crazy.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Plum