Dropping the ball

Turnovers costly in Little Lions' loss to rival Altoona

By Ron Bracken

- rbracken@centredaily.com

ALTOONA — If you had to pick out one statistic that told the story of Friday night’s football game between State College and Altoona at Mansion Park it would be this one: Fumbles lost — State College 4, Altoona 0.

Because on a night of big plays, of great defense, of gritty efforts, it was Altoona’s ability to separate the State College runners from the football that ultimately separated the Mountain Lions from Little Lions 24-17.

It started early with a promising State College drive ending when Terna Itokymbul’s fumble was recovered in the end zone to kill a 67-yard drive. “I’d like to see the tape on that,” said Little Lion coach Al Wolski. “I’d like to see if he was stretching to get the ball into the end zone. You can’t take the opening drive to the two-inch line and not score. But playing on that surface is like playing on concrete.”

The next time the Little Lions got the football they lost it again when Larry Ryland fumbled at the his 18. The Little Lion defense hung tough, forcing Altoona to kick a 27-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead with :25 left in the first quarter.

Then things got a little out of hand as the two teams traded touchdowns in the next 49 seconds.

State took its only lead in the game when, following the kickoff, Ryland got loose on an option left for 68 yards to the Altoona 8 and Alex Kenney went the last eight yards on the next play. The PAT kick was blocked, giving the Little Lions a 6-3 edge. Ryland finished the night with 154 yards rushing on 16 carries.

State’s strategy for the game was to avoid kicking the ball anywhere near Altoona standout A.J. Alexander so the kickoff was short. But Joe Mummert fielded it, tossed it to Alexander and he cut across the field and he went down the right sideline for a 78-yard score.

“We tried to do what we could to keep it away from him but they found a way to get it to him anyway,” Wolski said. Scott Andrews made it 10-6 with 11:40 to go in the half.

That left plenty of time for each team to mount a long scoring drive.

Altoona went first, marching 77 yards on 17 plays to take a 17-6 lead when Jarryd Burkett found Neal Huynh in the left corner of the end zone from eight yards out with 3:11 left. Andrews made it 17-6.

But the Little Lions answered right away, driving 65 yards to the 1. Itokymbul slammed in from there and Ryland ran for the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 17-14 with :09 showing on the clock.

Altoona went for broke on the first play of the second half but Ryland intercepted Burkett’s pass at the State 13 and from there State launched a 14-play drive , 13 of those plays on the ground. But Altoona’s defense stopped the march at the 12 and Russell Nye booted a 28-yard field goal to forge a 17-17 tie with 4:01 left in the quarter.

“We wanted to loosen them up,” Altoona coach Phil Riccio said of the decision to throw deep on the first play of the half. “We thought we might as well take a shot. But we stiffened up at the end of the drive. They did a nice job on that drive.”

The score stayed knotted at 17 until late in the third quarter, when the Mountain Lions forced Kenney to fumble at the State 46 and Altoona went for the jugular.

With Alexander at quarterback in place of the ailing Burkett Altoona moved to the 21. . On a second-and-seven call, Alexander went off the right side and weaved his way into the end zone with 11:24 to go in the game. Andrews made it 24-17.

Andrews finished the night with 53 yards on 15 carries but still managed to score a pair of touchdowns.

“I was surprised we were able to contain him as well as we did,” Wolski said. “He’s such an explosive runner.”

With 8:20 to go State mounted its last march, starting at its own 20. It reached the Altoona 43 where, on fourth-and -8, Jamar Smack went down under a heavy Altoona rush for a nine-yard loss with 4;08 left.

“We felt like we had to go for it there,” Wolski said.

But it was the lost fumbles that haunted the Little Lion coach.

“We have to work on ball security,” he said. “We did that all last week. We worked on it every day. And we’ll work on it every day next week.” It’s a safe bet Altoona will work equally hard at stripping the ball, especially when it paid dividends like it did Friday night.

“That’s something we stress on defense,” Riccio said. “We want the kids to be physical and force the other guy to put the ball on the ground. We were real successful with that tonight.”