CENTRE COUNTY — Bellefonte and State College both advance to the First Round of the PIAA Tournament this weekend.
4-1 Shamokin (12-0) at 6-1 Bellefonte (6-6)
PIAA 4A Football First Round
Friday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
Bellefonte
PIAA District 6 champion Bellefonte High School will host undefeated District 4 champion Shamokin at home on Friday, Nov. 14 in the first round of the 2025 PIAA 4A tournament.
The Raiders qualified for the state tournament with a 17-6 win over top-seeded Juniata in the D6 Final on Friday night in Lewistown.
Bellefonte took a 10-0 halftime lead over the Indians only to see them close the gap to 10-6 with a late third-quarter touchdown.
The Raider defense, however, stood strong from there, and Bellefonte was finally able to put the game away with an 8-yard run by quarterback Alten Howell at the eight-minute mark in the fourth quarter.
Running back Ashton Howell got the Raiders on the board with a 1-yard run late in the first quarter and then kicker William Oskin made it 10-0 with a 23-yard field goal in the second quarter.
Juniata crept back with a 10-yard touchdown run by Jasper Shepps, but from there it was shut out by the Raider defense.
Alten Howell had a big game on the ground, gaining 110 yards on 20 carries and scoring a touchdown, while Ashton ran 12 times for 50 yards.
Juniata did gain 110 yards on the ground in the game, but the Bellefonte defense held the Indians to just four pass completions for 30 yards.
The win gave Bellefonte the D6 AAAA championship title and qualified the Raiders for the PIAA tournament.
Shamokin, the undefeated District 4 champion, will visit Bellefonte on Friday night.
Shamokin runs a ground-oriented offense that averages 41 points per game and gains over 320 yards every time out.
The Indians never scored less than 26 points in any game, went over 50 twice, and won their last two games by a total of 74-7.
Their two closest games were a 43-42 win over Jersey Shore on Sept. 12 and a 26-21 win over Mount Carmel on Oct. 24.
Shamokin had two 1,000-yard rushers this season. Senior Zakem Clinton, 6-foot-1, 225 pounds, ran 162 times for 1,388 yards and 16 touchdowns, while junior quarterback Logan Steele ran 106 times for 1,026 yards and 20 touchdowns. Steele also threw for 566 yards and eight touchdowns on 37 completions.
The team as a whole ran for almost 4,000 yards and 51 touchdowns this season.
Last season, Shamokin also won the D4 title, but lost to Juniata in the PIAA first round, 27-7.
The Raiders and Indians are set to kick off at 7 p.m. in Bellefonte.
6-1 State College (9-2) vs. 2-1 Wilkes-Barre Area (8-4)
PIAA, 6A First Round
Saturday, November 15, 1 p.m.
Milton H.S., Milton
State College High School football team has had many tense and difficult encounters with Erie McDowell over the years in the D6-D10 subregional football championship game.
Not so much this year, though.
The Little Lions, led by the running of D’Antae Sheffey and the passing of Connor Kulka, raced to a 27-0 halftime lead and coasted in for a 41-7 victory in the subregional on Friday night in Erie.
Sheffey ran 15 times for 103 yards and a touchdown and caught three passes for 63 yards and another touchdown, and Kulka passed for 225 yards and three touchdowns in the Little Lions ninth, and perhaps most important, victory of the season.
Sheffey scored SC’s first two touchdowns on a 15-yard run and then a 23-yard pass from Kulka in the beginning of the second quarter.
A Kulka-to-Hank Lustig made it 21-0, and then two field goals by Shane Markowski put the halftime score at 27-0.
Two more touchdowns in the third quarter–a pass from Kulka to Daimear Coad and a 45-yard run by Zach Spicer–finished the SC scoring for the night.
McDowell scored the final points in the game on a 1-yard run as time was running out.
The win put the Lions against District 2 Champion Wilkes-Barre Area.
The Wolfpack is 8-4 this season with four wins in their last five games, including a 42-14 victory over Williamsport in the District 2-4 Subregional Championship.
Wilks-Barre’s losses were all close affairs except an opening-night loss to the Whitehall Zephyrs with a score of 38-14 on Aug. 22.
The Wolfpack is led by quarterback Jake Howe who throws for over 212 yards per game, and running back Davon Underwood, who runs for over 50 yards per game.
They average over 360 yards of offense per game and just under 33 points per game.
The Little Lions will likely be considered a favorite in this game, but District 2 and 4 teams are traditionally very tough outs in the PIAA tournament.
Kickoff is at 1 p.m. in Milton.
