On Friday, the football team blew out Altoona 49-7 in its first Mid-Penn Conference game of the season. Junior quarterback Eddie Corkery led the way with 309 yards and four touchdowns along with just two incomplete passes.
Altoona hung in through a punt-fest of a first quarter and the score remained 0-0 into the second. Just six seconds into the second quarter, Altoona struck first with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Brennan Freiwald to Julian Hazelwood and took the lead 7-0.
State College was unfazed and immediately shot back. Star running back D’Antae Sheffey took Altoona’s kick all the way to the house, but the impressive return was called back on a block in the back penalty. The offense didn’t miss a beat and quickly drove down the field to score a seven-yard touchdown from Corkery to Michael Gaul to even the score at seven.
Altoona’s punt was shanked out of bounds and the touchdown flood gates opened up. Corkery took the team down to the two yard line and Sheffey punched it in to give State College a 14-7 lead with five minutes left in the second quarter. They would not relinquish that lead the rest of the game.
On the second play of State High’s next drive, the Altoona secondary left sophomore receiver Daimear Coad completely uncovered. He took a pass from Corkery for 43 yards and what he said should have been a touchdown, but ended up down at the two yard line. Sheffey then wasted no time and took a handoff into the end zone for his second touchdown of the night with 2:26 left in the second quarter.
After the play, the first of many scuffles broke out and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were given to State College’s Colin Dardis and Altoona’s Derron Jones.
Altoona, still working out of their power formation, punted again after an Eli Espinoza sack and State High took over at their own 49 yard line. On the very first play, Coad took a screen pass from Corkery all the way to the house for the team’s second touchdown in the last two minutes. John Zipf’s extra point was blocked to hold the score at 27-7 where it would stay until halftime.
The halftime break did not slow down the State High offense one bit. On the first play, Corkery hit Salazer on a deep shot and he blew past the Altoona defense for a 77-yard touchdown. Zipf made the score 34-7 with his extra point just 21 seconds into the half.
After an explosive run from Altoona’s Hazelwood, a late hit from State College’s Justin Castro-Dixon prompted another scuffle and a personal foul. The mental mistake from Castro-Dixon didn’t end up mattering, as Altoona went on to turn it over on downs at the State High 33 yard line.
Altoona thought they had something going on defense with State College facing third and sixteen, but they clearly did not. State High was unfazed by the down and distance and Corkery unleashed a strike to Cooper Brushwood for a 73-yard touchdown with 2:43 to play in the third quarter. Sheffey then powered his way into the end zone for the two point conversion to make the score 42-7.
Head coach Matt Lintal began to empty his bench with underclassmen such as freshman quarterback Kellen Williams and sophomore utility skill player Connor Young seeing the field at home for the first time. Williams said about getting to play at home for the first time, “It feels great to play out there in front of State High, all the love and support is awesome and I will always be appreciative of them.”
Williams didn’t do much but hand the ball off to backup running back Travis Bechtel, but standing at just 5’10” and 151 pounds managed to look at very comfortable on the field. Williams said, “I definitely feel a little bit small out there, but my great teammates that uplift me everyday and every game make me feel like a senior.”
State High showed out in front of the home crowd and couldn’t have done much better in their Mid-Penn Conference opener. The Little Lions are back in action next Friday, Sept. 22 on the road against Central Dauphin.
