“I think we’re peaking at the right time” said State College Head Coach Mat Lintal. The Little Lions (6-3, 5-1) have won 3 straight games and 6 of their last 7 after starting 2-0. “Any time you beat a team from your conference you know you’re doing something right.” What they did right was use a pounding running game, make smart offensive decisions and put up a brick wall on defense.
On their second possession Lintal used his workhorse back Jordan Misher to plow the way. Misher carried the ball 10 times for 66 yards on a 13 play drive that ate up 7 minutes of the first quarter. “He’s tough to stop, probably the best running back in our league” said Cumberland Valley Head Coach Mike Whitehead.
Cumberland Valley just couldn’t get anything going offensively in the first half. On their second series, State College linebacker Stan Martin wrestled the ball away from the pile after a bad exchange by the Eagles. “We knew we had to play flawless football, we just didn’t do that” said Whitehead. The Little Lions this time went to the air. On third down at the Eagle 34, Tanner Snyder hit a wide open Noah Woods down the left side for the second td of the night putting State College up 14-0 midway through the 2nd. “Noah made a great play. They played a man press, I knew the kid couldn’t guard him. I took my drop and he was wide open” said the Jr. QB of his receiver.
Our defense is stout! exclaimed Lintal while the State College Little Lion band played their usual post game performance. The defense held the Eagles to under 80 yards in the first half. Josh Ruffner was a major factor in that stat. On the ensuing Eagle possession the 5-10, 200 lb jr. linebacker crushed Eagle quarterback Josh Ferguson for a big loss on third down forcing CV to punt for the third time.
State College took a 21-0 lead on a 1 yard run from Misher after Snyder made 2 nice plays, first hitting TE Bret Graham for a 10 yard gain on a fake to Misher, then he hit Kellen Valentine on a bubble screen for another nice gain. “We run the ball a lot, but you gotta make some of those calls at the right time” said Lintal.
The Little Lions had a chance with 4 seconds remaining to score again, but a 48 yard field goal attempt by Noah Schwab following a Ruffner interception fell just short. “I hit the ball too low, got under it too far” said the usually sure footed long kicker.
Cumberland Valley put together it’s only scoring drive of the night at the end of the third quarter but neither team did much else in a strange second half that saw more penalties and miscues than either coach would like to discuss.
State College closes out the regular season at winless Mifflin County while the Eagles will host Chambersburg.
