Two early turnovers and numerous squandered opportunities were too much for the State College High football team to overcome on the road against Martinsburg Friday night.
Against the Bulldogs, the Little Lions found themselves down six and near midfield with less than two minutes remaining, yet couldn’t finish off the drive. John Weakland’s pass to Brett Graham on fourth-and-17 fell to the ground and State College went to 1-2 on the season with a 27-21 loss.
“Our kids gave everything they had,” State College head coach Matt Lintal said afterwards. “A few different bounces go our way and we could have been walking out of here as the first team to win on this field not named Martinsburg in a number of years.”
The Little Lions held Martinsburg, who have won four straight West Virginia state titles and haven’t lost in their home state since 2009, without a score in the second half, yet couldn’t capitalize on their own chances.
Down 27-14 at halftime, State College threatened for most of the second half and seemed poised to take the lead multiple times.
After John Weakland’s 16-yard scoring strike to tight end Brett Graham at the end of the third quarter cut the Bulldogs lead to 27-21, a fumble recovery by Stan Martin gave the Little Lions the ball back inside the Martinsburg 10-yard line, yet the drive ended with a missed field goal.
Despite their next two drives ending with a Weakland interception and a failed fake punt, the Little Lions found themselves with the ball at their own 1-yard line with just over three minutes left.
The Little Lions moved toward midfield with a collection of short throws from Weakland to Drew Flanagan and a 19-yard strike to Graham, yet the drive stalled as Graham was unable to bring in Weakland’s fourth down heave.
Even in defeat, Lintal praised his defense for shutting down the Bulldogs offense after halftime.
“Give credit to our staff because they made some outstanding adjustments and our kids bought into it,” Lintal said. “Martinsburg has two tremendous backs and an athletic quarterback but our kids believed we could stop them. We’re really a second-half team.”
Just minutes into the game, it seemed unlikely that State College would have a chance to win at the end. Two early fumbles by punt returner Kellin Valentine and Weakland led to short touchdown runs by Martinsburg running back Trey Boyd that put the Little Lions in an early 14-0 hole.
“The first one in particular was killer,” Lintal said. “That was hard being down 14-0 early but our guys never hung their heads and they didn’t stop.”
For the rest of the half, the Lions played well yet couldn’t sustain any momentum.
Junior running back Jordan Misher got the State College offense going by taking a screen pass 41 yards for a touchdown. Two drives later however, Martinsburg answered with 12-yard score on the ground by Deamonte Lindsey to increase their score 21-7.
Later, with only 2:53 remaining in the first half, the Little Lions seemed set to go into halftime down by only a score following a touchdown run by Weakland, yet the Bulldogs struck quickly and expanded their lead to 27-14 with a 21-yard scoring strike from Carter Walburn to Dylan Brewer.
On a night in which the Martinsburg defense did everything to bottle up Misher, the star back was still able to remain productive, finishing with 100 all-purpose yards.
Two straight losses hasn’t dampened Lintal’s expectations for his team. The Little Lions have likely already played their two toughest opponents in Bishop McDevitt and Martinsburg.
“We’ve played the two best teams we’ll see for a long time,” Lintal said. “I think we’ve shown we can play with anybody and we just need to focus on ourselves and what we can control. When we started to focus on them was when we made mistakes.”
The Little Lions return home next Friday when they face Carlisle at 7 p.m.
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