STATE HIGH’S D’Antae Sheffey scored the Little Lions’ only touchdown in its PIAA semifinal loss to Harrisburg on Dec. 3.
The State College Little Lions returned to the PIAA semifinals for the second year in a row, and for the second year in a row the Lions left with a disappointing loss.
This was especially true since the team they faced on Saturday — the Harrisburg Cougars — is a Mid Penn Conference foe whom SC had already beaten, 20-6, earlier in the season.
But Harrisburg running back Kyle Williams Jr. has another gear that the Lions didn’t see in that first meeting.
Williams engaged that gear — and more — as he ran for 263 yards and scored all of the Cougars’ touchdowns in a 27-7 victory over the previously unbeaten Little Lions.
After trailing by a touchdown at halftime, 7-0, Williams and Harrisburg seriously ramped it up in the third quarter and State College was not able to keep pace.
Williams scored on runs of 34 yards, 1 yard, and 49 yards in the third quarter, and then he added the clincher after a nine-play drive in the fourth quarter that sent the Cougars into the AAAAAA final against St. Joseph’s Prep on Saturday in Mechanicsburg.
D’Antae Sheffey scored the State College touchdown on an 11-yard run in the second quarter, but that was all the Lions would manage.
At one point in the fourth quarter, with the Lions still in it at 20-7, SC found itself on the Harrisburg 28-yard line on an eight-play drive. But quarterback Finn Furmanek’s pass into the end zone was intercepted by Harrisburg, and the SC threat was turned away.
Nine plays later, Williams scored again and Harrisburg was on its way.
State College finished its season with a 13-1 record with a Mid Penn Commonwealth Championship and a District 6, 6A Championship.
The Little Lions will lose 27 seniors from this team including quarterback Furmanek, running back Matt Wall, receiver Dante Nastasi and tight end Stephen Scourtis.
But much of an outstanding defense will return as well as Sheffey, quarterback Owen Yerka and receivers Matt Gaul and Ty Salazer.
The Cougars will enter the championship game with an 11-2 record and take on 11-1 St. Joe’s Prep. Prep’s only loss came in the season’s first game to 13-0 St. Thomas Aquinas, 48-37, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
