Little Lions fend off CD East

Rod Frisco

HARRISBURG — In 98, 99 percent of football games, a loss is a loss is a loss. The famous moral victory? Just another feel-good euphemism for a tough defeat.

But every once a while, something happens that is so out of character, so completely diametric to convention, that it falls into a very narrow, select category.

CD East’s 21-3 “loss” to State College Sunday afternoon at Central Dauphin’s Landis Field is one of those exceptions.

Strictly in black-and-white terms, the loss is indeed a loss. Come today, East is 0-7, having failed to win any of its last 18 football games.

And State College is 6-1, basically qualified for the post-season and gearing up for a closing stretch that includes next week’s game with rival Altoona (2-5), the Week 9 scrum at home with unbeaten Bishop McDevitt and a very interesting finale at 4-3 Chambersburg.

But this game, postponed from Friday because State College was snow-bound, isn’t about soulless facts.

This is about a team deciding, against all odds, not only to shun quitting, but to alter its entire demeanor.

East, a team that had shown no defensive potency all season, outplayed and outhit State College for three periods, and carried a 3-0 lead into the final quarter.

That statement is stunning. The Panthers came into the game not only winless, but hapless, having yielded averages of 53 points and 478 yards per game. Those staggering numbers were accumulated not in two gigantic blowouts, but as a matter of, well, consistency.

Yet here were the Panthers on this crisp fall afternoon tagging the Little Lions as if they were the Swatara freshman team.

Not only did East lead 3-0 on Cody Webster’s 37-yard field goal with 3:20 left in the third quarter, the Panthers were winning in virtually every measurable category, including net yardage. Heading into the final period, East had limited State College, which averages 365 yards per game, to 67 yards.

In the end, it all fell down. The Litle Lions finally started rolling downhill and scored three times in the fourth quarter on runs of 1 and 10 yards by quarterback Dom Mills and an unnecessary 5-yard score by Alex Kenney with 21 seconds left to claim the victory.

But for the first time in this difficult season, East left the field with a sense of genuine accomplishment.

“I love the way we played,” said CD East head coach George Landis. “I’ve told these kids I always respect them. Always. After today, I respect them even more.”

Ditto State College head coach Al Wolski, notwithstanding his team’s failure to take a knee in the final seconds.

“They have good athletes on that team, and they had a good scheme and executed it well against us,” Wolski said. “You have to establish your base plays, and we never really did that today.”

State College barely moved forward during the first three quarters; CD East’s suddenly oppressive defensive front had nine tackles for losses and constantly frustrated Mills and his backs by stringing out plays along the line of scrimmage.

But CD East had similar problems. Despite better field position, the Panthers were unable to punch in a touchdown, which ultimately killed off their chance for what might have been the state’s biggest upset this year.

The game turned late in the third period after Webster’s field goal. State College had fumbled away a bad pitch at its 27 and Bryan Carter, who played a superb game, returned to the 20.

But the Panthers fumbled it back the State College 8 with 15 seconds left in the period, and the Little Lions suddenly found running room. They pounded out a 92-yard scoring drive that Mills capped with a 1-yard sneak with 8:12 left, then took advantage of short fields to add the clinchers.