With the excitement of a new season comes a large crowd ready for some State High football. On Aug. 30, the 2024 home opener was played against the Altoona Mountain Lions at Memorial Field.

The Little Lions kicked the ball off to Altoona to begin the first quarter. On the opening drive, senior Sam Mayer recovered a fumble to set up the Little Lions in great position on the Altoona 22-yard line. On the very next play, senior quarterback Eddie Corkery slung a pass to senior receiver Michael Gaul for a touchdown.

The Mountain Lions again could not pick up a first down on their second drive and were forced to punt. On a messy snap, the ball bounced out of the back of the endzone for a safety giving State College a 9-0 lead with 8:58 left in the first quarter. State College was set up with great field position again after the safety and capitalized with a quick score. This time, Corkery hit senior receiver Ty Salazer with a 30-yard strike to extend the lead to 15.

The Little Lion defense continued its great night and got off the field quickly once again. Salazer was quickly back in the end zone after a 47-yard touchdown pass from Corkery, putting State College ahead 22-0 after one quarter.

It didn’t take long for Salazer to make another highlight play, this time on defense. Salazer intercepted Altoona quarterback Mark Harrington’s pass and ran it all the way back to the Altoona 12-yard line. Salazer again could not be denied on offense, connecting with Corkery for their third touchdown of the night to make it 29-0 with 10:53 left in the half.

After another fumble by Altoona, senior wide receiver Cooper Brushwood was able to find the endzone to make the score 36-0. The next drive for State High, Salazer finds the endzone again for another touchdown. A few minutes before half, Thomas Keller gets a scoop and score to put the Little Lions up by 50 at halftime.

In the second half, senior Levi Mellott came up with a one-yard touchdown run 57-0. That ended up being the final score of this rivalry game, sending the State High faithful home happy.

The State College crowd showed up and showed out, especially the student section. Gaul, a State High captain, was very happy to see the students showing support. “I love our crowd. I think we have the best crowd in the entire world,” Gaul said. “They get into it, they help the momentum swing. Whenever we get turnovers or we cause punts or whatever, they’re loud, they’re screaming. It just demoralizes the other team.”

“It means a lot, me personally, I’ve never lost to Altoona so to keep that streak going does definitely mean something. Obviously, first conference game, we got a lot of those to go, so we’re looking to keep rolling into conference play and we’re looking for that conference championship,” Salazer said, describing what the win meant to the team.

The Little Lions are back in action on Sept. 7 when they travel to Harrisburg for another Mid-Penn Commonwealth matchup.