SHAMOKIN- In an odd game with a few interesting subplots, it was easy to find where the game turned for Shamokin against Central Columbia. Facing a third-and-long on its own 1 in a tie game, Indians coach Marc Persing decided to take a shot. The gamble paid off handsomely, as quarterback Brad Latsha connected with Chase Pensyl on a 99-yard touchdown pass. That was just the start of a strong finish, which enabled Shamokin to pull away in the fourth quarter for a 33-21 victory.
“Not many things you can do on your own 1-yard line, 3rd-and-10,” Persing said. “They were timing up our cadence all night. We even tried to go on hard counts, and on two, and it still seemed like they knew what our count was. They were timing up the quarterback. If they were going to do that and vacate the middle of the field, we took a chance, and this time it worked for us.”
Shamokin (4-4) rolled the dice on the very next play, and once again it worked. Pensyl recovered an onsides kick, setting up the Indians at the Central 48. Six plays later, Logan Steele scored on an 8-yard run with just over ten minutes left to open up some separation on the scoreboard, giving his team a 27-14 lead. Steele also contributed with two second-half interceptions on defense. Less than three minutes after Steele scored, Latsha crossed the goal line for his second score of the night effectively putting the game away. Za’kem Clinton was also a factor late in the running game, as he finished with 70 yards on 13 carries.
“When you can run the ball like we can run the ball, it wears on you,” Persing said. “We got Za’kem back, and he’s a bruiser. Not many people want to tackle him over the course of the game, let alone in the fourth quarter. We have a lot of things we need to get better at moving forward.”
Central (0-8) will look back at some missed opportunities, penalties, and a really bad sequence in each half that cost the Blue Jays any opportunity to pick up their first win of the season. Eli Book outran the defense after catching a slant from Caius Morrow for an 87-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring midway through the second quarter. However, Shamokin would answer by scoring twice in the span of 15 seconds. Latsha found the end zone on a 1-yard keeper, and on the very next play from scrimmage, Rylan Price stepped in front of a quick out for an easy six points on a 6-yard interception return. Penalties thwarted potential scoring drives, as the Blue Jays racked up 111 yards on 16 infractions.
“The penalties hurt us really, really bad tonight,” Central coach E.J. Smith said. “We were driving down the field several times. Some of it, I don’t know. It was rough for us. I think we were the better team, and we lost.”
Aiden Huntington tied the game on a 13-yard touchdown run with just over seven minutes left in the third quarter and had Shamokin backed up after a punt pinned the Indians deep before the strike to Pensyl flipped the momentum in the blink of an eye. In addition to all of the penalties, Central turned the ball over five times. Winnable games against Athens and Bloomsburg remain over the final two weeks of the season.
“The kids are motivated, they’re playing hard, there’s no doubt about that,” Smith said. “I love their fight. They didn’t quit all the way up until the end. It’s the mistakes. Caius had some really good moments, and he had some bad moments. 111 yards in penalties isn’t going to help.”
Much like in the beginning of the game where Shamokin went backward on each of its first three drives, the end of the game lacked any sort of rhythm as well. Shamokin fumbled the ball away as the Indians were trying to take a knee and run out the clock, which was almost fitting given how the nearly three-hour game moved along. There were fumbles on three consecutive plays before a knee was taken – this time out of the shotgun, to finally bring an end to things.
“I know we won, and I know that I should feel good that it’s homecoming and senior night, but that may have been the worst game of football I’ve seen this team play,” Persing said. “We came out flat, and that’s on me. We looked like that at practice. I don’t know why I expected anything different, so that falls on me, and we’ll be better moving forward.”
Central Columbia 0 7 7 7-21
Shamokin 0 14 7 12-33
Individual Scoring
Second Quarter
CC-Eli Book 87 pass from Caius Morrow (Maguire Blake kick) 5:58
S-Brad Latsha 1 run (Chase Pensyl kick) 3:11
S-Rylan Price 6 interception return (Pensyl kick) 2:56
Third Quarter
CC-Aiden Huntington 13 run (Blake kick) 7:02
S-Pensyl 99 pass from Latsha (Pensyl kick) :09
Fourth Quarter
S-Logan Steele 8 run (kick failed) 10:14
S-Latsha 3 run (kick blocked) 7:20
CC-Morrow 1 run (Blake kick) 2:03
Team Statistics
……………………CC…………S
1st downs……..13………….12
rush-yds……33-125….41-119
comp-att-int..10-24-3….8-19-0
pass yds…..180……..175
total yds…305…….294
fumb-lost….5-3……7-3
pen-yds…16-111……10-61
Individual Statistics
Rushing-Central Columbia: Ty Regan 9-92; Aiden Huntington 4-20, TD; Talon Piatt 6-7; Chase Williams 3-7; Caius Morrow 11-(-1), TD. Shamokin: Za’kem Clinton 13-70; Jayce Ginck 9-29; Brad Latsha 11-22, 2 TDs; Logan Steele 4-3, TD; Chase Pensyl 1-2; Kegan Gallagher 2-(-4); Team 1-(-3).
Passing-Central Columbia: Morrow 10-24-3, 180 yds., TD. Shamokin: Latsha 7-18-0, 160 yds., TD; Steele 1-1-0, 15 yds.
Receiving-Central Columbia: Eli Book 3-109, TD; Jaxson Hoffman 4-37; Parker Day 1-14; Piatt 1-11; Huntington 1-9. Shamokin: Pensyl 4-118, TD; Ben Delbaugh 3-28; Steele 1-29.
