Trailing 7-0 at halftime came as a bit of a surprise to Little Lion Head Coach Matt Lintal. “It was interesting. The bubble burst for a second there, the heads were down but they popped back up again real quickly. We had some great leadership there in the locker room, getting the energy back up” said Lintal.
But when Delaware Valley running back Ryan Obiso tore off a 70 yard touchdown on the first play of the second half, the entire State College crowd was fully surprised. “One play drive, they banged out the counter and hit it for the score” Lintal said. Facing a 14-0 deficit, the Little Lions rebounded. And they did it in a big way scoring 21 points in the next 2 minutes to pull out a 21-14 win over previously 12-0 Delaware Valley. “Our kids did a great job of recovering” said Lintal.
The Little Lions started the game by driving right down the field to the Warriors 18, but Tommy Friberg was intercepted by Tyler Magee ending the drive. It was the first of 4 first half interceptions he would give up, three of them to Magee. The Little Lions held and once again drove straight toward the endzone, only to be thwarted at the 5 yard line. “Credit to Del Val, coach Keith Olsommer does a great job. We wanted to get some points on the board early and credit to them. They did some things we weren’t ready for.”
On the first play of the second-half Obiso goes 70 yards. @dvwarriorfb 14-0. pic.twitter.com/R6eO3dqyoU
— WPAFootball (@WPAFootball) November 18, 2017
For the most part, State College held Obiso in check the entire first half. With a first down at the Warrior 34, Friberg was picked off again, this time by James Secor at the 16. Five plays later Obiso ripped off a 66 yard run to the Little Lion one yard line. Ryan Yencik carried the ball over the goal line and the kick made it 7-0 with just 34 seconds remaining in the half. “I just told the guys on the line what they were doing defensively and they went out and made the holes for me” said Obiso.
After Orbison beaks off 66 yard run to the 1 yencik goes in. 7-0 @dvwarriorfb 32 seconds in half pic.twitter.com/0NQmhRazFh
— WPAFootball (@WPAFootball) November 18, 2017
After the Obiso score to make it 14-0, the Little Lions offense exploded. Starting at their 33, Friberg found his stride. He twice ran for 8 yards, then found his favorite receiver, Brandon Clark for the first of 5 straight connections between the two that went for 84 yards and two scores. The first two tallied 35 yards, the third was an 18 yard td pass to cut the deficit to 14-7 with 7:10 left in the third. Matt Lintals crew then dialed up an onside kick that the Little Lions recovered at the 50. On the very next play State College dialed up a one play drive of their own as Friberg threw a pass to the right side of the field that went through Cohen Russells hands and into Clarks, who went 49 yards to tie the score at 14 with 5:45 left in the third.
State College on sidekick they recover. Freiberg throws the ball goes off Russell hands and Clark takes it 49 yards score is tied at 14 pic.twitter.com/56MhEypDRv
— WPAFootball (@WPAFootball) November 18, 2017
Before you could blink an eye, the Little Lions again capitalized on a turnover when the snap from center to Nick Reilly hit the ground that Jeremy Bullock landed on. Friberg then found Cohen Russell over the middle and 33 yards later it was 21-14 in favor of State College. “I just honestly can’t explain the feeling. We’re just happy to be on the winning side of it. We knew coming out of halftime we had to do something big to win and our team found out how to do that” said Clark of the second half performance.
“The difference was they scored off turnovers and we didn’t. That onside kick, we saw them do that against Erie and we practiced and practiced. They get the onside kick, then they get the td off the fumble. That stretch in the third quarter, we just could stop their momentum” said Olsommer.
State College will move on to play the winner of the Pine-Richland/Central Catholic District 7 championship.
