State College Rolls Over Mechanicsburg 55-0
State College moved to 4-0 on Friday night with a dominant 55-0 win over Mechanicsburg. After a sloppy first quarter by both teams, State College scored their first touchdown on a short run by Tristen Lyons with 1:13 left in the first and never looked back, entering the endzone a whopping seven more times.
The defense set the tone early for State College, with an almost diving interception by Pete Haffner followed immediately by a pick from Mark Wess on the next play. State College, however, fumbled the ball on an attempted option toss and lost possession soon after their own takeaway. The State College defense held strong, and with with 3:01 left in the first, Pete Haffner forced a fumble recovered by Kam’ron Walker that led to their first touchdown. “Our defensive staff does a tremendous job, our defensive kids fly to the football, so we’re really proud of their effort,” said State College head coach Matt Lintal.
State College started rolling on all cylinders in the second quarter, cleaning up their mistakes and finding a good rhythm. A punt return to the 22 yard line was followed by a touchdown run from Haffner to make it 14-0 State College. After an interception thrown by State College quarterback Tyler Snyder into the endzone, the senior quickly made up for his mistake with a gorgeous deep pass to Noah Woods to set up another short touchdown run for Haffner with 1:21 left in the half. State College managed to score yet again in the quarter with another connection from Snyder to Woods, who found himself so wide open that he walked into the endzone. “I was trying to run out the clock,” said Woods. That 40 yard touchdown gave State College a 28-0 lead at the half.
Early in the third quarter, second and third string players began to enter the game for both teams. With Drew Friberg at quarterback for State College, Tristen Lyons tacked on another score with a 34 yard touchdown run to make it 35-0 State College with 7:43 left in the third. The pace slowed for the rest of the quarter as bench players for both sides battled it out, and the score remained 35-0 entering the fourth. “All in all, we’ve got first year players out there playing on the offensive line and some different kids that may not get in in some of those tight battles, so we’re excited to get them opportunities here tonight as well,” said Lintal
The standstill continued until late in the fourth when Mikey Misher ran it in for State College to increase their lead to 49-0 with 4:27 left in the game. The State College defense asserted its dominance one last time, pinning Mechanicsburg deep and leading right to a 21 yard punt return touchdown by Keaton Ellis, who was allowed to kick his own extra point after the score. He missed wide left, keeping it at 55-0. The score was followed by a bizarre accidental onsides kick, which allowed State College to simply run out the clock and secure their 55-0 victory. “We’re really excited about where we’re at. We know there are big challenges to come. There’s no pushovers from here on out, so we’re really excited about the opportunity to have some big challenges ahead,” said Lintal. State College will face its first true test and Mid Penn conference game away at Carlisle next week. “It’s good to get a 4-0 start, but the real test starts next week. We’ll prepare for their big receivers, and hopefully come away 5-0,” said State College captain and two-way star Haffner.
State College improves to 4-0 while Mechanicsburg falls to 0-4.
