The State College football team focused on the positives when the game ended Friday night at Memorial Field.
The Little Lions beat Chambersburg 35-16, celebrated homecoming and improved to 5-0 on the season. The Mid Penn Conference Commonwealth Division win was anything but pretty, however.
“We were happy to get the win,” said senior Cohen Russell, who had an interception on defense and caught two passes for 36 yards on offense. “But me as a captain, the other captains, we were disappointed in how we played. We don’t think this team should have been in the game with us, but we made mental mistakes and killed ourselves.”
Tommy Friberg completed 11 of 13 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed for another 83 yards on 10 carries and a score to drive the offense. Keaton Ellis caught two of those scoring strikes, and Isaiah Edwards ran for 82 yards on 12 attempts.
However, there were plenty of bumps on the road to the win. Two snaps went over the head of a Little Lion, with one resulting in a safety. Plus there were two muffed punts, and in all they lost the handle on the ball six times, with two resulting in turnovers, one of which was returned for a touchdown.
“You try to stay positive,” said coach Matt Lintal, whose team also had seven penalties for 65 yards. “These kids are trying their best. They’re doing everything they can and it’s tough. We want to pick them back up.”
Along with the miscues, State College had a number of players helped from the field with injuries, including Ellis departing three times in the third quarter. Lintal did not know the status of any of the injured players, but Ellis did not appear to be seriously hurt.
Combining the bumps and bruises with the mistakes, the Little Lions strayed far from their game script.
“We were improvising a lot,” Lintal said. “We had a freshman running back (Ryan Domico, who had four carries for 24 yards) come in and seal it. We had a sophomore quarterback (Conrad Moore) come in at wide out and have a key catch. We have some kids, they’re fresh but they’re ready to go when their number’s called.”
Another possible contributing factor may have been the way the game opened. State College led 14-0 before the Trojans even touched the ball, and was up 21-0 just over four minutes into the game. Having scored a 70-20 win at Chambersburg last season, the Little Lions may have assumed it would be like that again even if the Trojans entered the game with a 4-0 record.
“Our team got a big head, thinking we were going to blow them over,” Cohen said. “In the past couple years they haven’t won many games so we came in thinking we were going to kill them.”
The fast start began with Ellis returning the opening kickoff almost to midfield, and Friberg taking the first snap 53 yards down the sideline for a touchdown. An onside kick had the ball back in the Little Lions’ hands, and six plays later Friberg hit Ellis on a quick nine-yard slant for a 14-0 advantage. Three plays after that, Nathan Lusk picked off a Brady Stumbaugh pass, returning it 28 yards for a score and a 21-0 lead just 4:09 into the game.
“I feel like when we got up, they just lost their energy to come out and play,” Russell said. “But playing sloppy … they got that confidence back that they could be in the game.”
Chambersburg finally got its offense moving, capped by a Stumbaugh one-yard keeper. The junior quarterback finished with 75 yards on 17 rushing attempts. The bulk of the visitors’ yardage came from Keyshawn Jones, who had 167 yards on 20 carries, and the Trojans finished with 251 yards on the ground.
The miscues started to pile up after that, including a snap over Friberg’s head, then a snap over punter Addison Darcy that bounced through the end zone for a safety.
“You always try to keep the hammer coming,” Lintal said. “We kind of let up there a little bit.”
Russell’s interception at midfield set up another score, with a drive finalized by a Dresyn Green five-yard scoring run.
A crazy turn of events soon followed. A Trojan punt was muffed by the Little Lions inside the 10, the ball bounced over the goal line but was batted back by one Trojan to a teammate. A long discussion among the officials resulted in a touchdown call, then the guys in stripes talked again for a while and changed their minds to a touchback. State College turned that decision into an 80-yard drive ending with a Friberg-to-Ellis four-yard scoring strike.
Chambersburg took advantage of yet another mistake, when Tucker Perry stripped the ball out of Edwards’ arm and raced 27 yards for a score midway through the third quarter with what proved to be the final score of the night.
Said Lintal: “It’s a win and we’ll take it.”
Centre County Scoreboard
Bellefonte (5-0) 31, Tyrone (4-1) 14
Bald Eagle Area (5-0) 54, Central (1-4) 28
Penns Valley (3-2) 35, Huntingdon (1-4) 18
Bishop Carroll (2-3) 31, Philipsburg-Osceola (0-5) 13
State College football coach Matt Lintal talks to his offense before the Little Lions’ 35-16 win over Chambersburg on Friday at Memorial Field. Photo by Gordon Brunskill
