State College football’s seniors reach new milestone with win over Delaware Valley

Four first-half turnovers, a blocked punt and poor field position would be tough for any football team to overcome. Doing that against a team like State College made it downright impossible for the Delaware Valley Warriors.

The Little Lions turned all four DV turnovers and the punt block into scores — including three touchdowns in a two-minute stretch of the second quarter — in building a 38-0 halftime lead Friday night. From there, they cruised to a 38-7 opening-round win that put the Little Lions into the Class 6A state quarterfinal round next week. State College (11-1) will play the winner of Saturday night’s Pittsburgh Central Catholic vs. Pine-Richland game in the round of eight.

“Our defense played lights-out from the opening snap,” State College head coach Matt Lintal said.

The Little Lions held the District 2-champion Warriors to just four first downs and 108 yards from scrimmage, most of those coming with the game already in hand.

“We just continually shot ourselves in the foot over and over again,” said Delaware Valley head coach Keith Olsommer, whose Warriors started at their own 1- and 4-yard lines for two of their first-half possessions. “When you play elite teams, you can’t turn the ball over and you have to hope for good field position, and we had neither.”

Linebacker Jimmy Manyak pounced on two fumbles, and defensive backs Lokey Howell and Dresyn Green each picked off passes to set up first-half scores for the District 6 champs, making things easy for a Lions offense that put up 331 yards and punted just twice all night.

State College overcame two early turnovers of its own to take control early. Delaware Valley recovered a squib kick on the opening kickoff, but was unable to pick up a first down. Later, the Little Lions fumbled while going in for an apparent touchdown, and DV’s Preston Machado recovered in the end zone for a touchback.

But with the Lions’ swarming defense holding DV in check, the offense finally got things going when Howell broke free on a reverse play and raced 39 yards for the game’s first score with 4:53 left in the opening quarter.

“We’ve started slow a lot, but we can’t let it faze us,” Howell said, alluding to last week’s playoff win over Erie McDowell. “We just keep our heads in the game and keep going.”

Manyak’s first fumble recovery at the DV 10-yard line set up QB Brady Dorner’s 5-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0 after one quarter.

Although Delaware Valley dodged a bullet with Jawon Foushee’s interception inside the Warriors’ 5-yard line, it was unable to move the chains. State College crashed in and blocked DV’s punt. After taking over at the 20, the Lions needed just five plays to reach paydirt, with Green’s 9-yard scoring run upping the lead to 21-0.

Two plays later, Howell intercepted a DV pass at the 40. Lintal called Howell’s number on the very next play, and the senior wideout delivered. He broke open on a slant pattern, and Dorner hit him in stride for a 40-yard touchdown and a 28-0 lead.

“I saw the quarterback look my way and I knew he was going to throw it. I just jumped it,” Howell said of his interception. “Then Coach Lintal wanted to reward me, I guess, with the touchdown pass.”

While Lintal said his team needs to clean up the turnovers, he was pleased with how the Little Lions were able to make the most of changing the field, getting the offense back out there and making big plays in a hurry.

“Lokey Howell had a nice touchdown, which was real similar to a touchdown we had like that last year off of a turnover,” he said. “It was nice to have that opportunity for him to get into the end zone there. Credit to Brady Dorner and our offensive line, which I thought really controlled things.”

Manyak’s second fumble recovery led to an Isaiah Edwards 7-yard touchdown run, and later Green’s interception set up Aiden Spitler’s 30-yard field goal, sending the game to the half at 38-0.

Delaware Valley managed just yards and one first down in the opening half.

“They’re a very good football team,” Olsommer said. “Good teams take away what you’re normally good at doing, and they put you into trying to doing things you’re a little uncomfortable doing. When we needed to execute at doing those things, we were not good at them.”

With the Lions’ second units in and the game clock moving via the mercy rule, Delaware Valley got on the board late in the third quarter on Jason Henderson’s 5-yard touchdown run. From there, the Little Lions ran out the clock and started looking ahead to the state quarterfinals.

For the State College seniors, the win marked their 33rd as a group these last three seasons.

“This was a really great win because the Class of 2020 just became the winningest class in State High history today,” Howell said.

“It’s a special group of kids,” Lintal said. “They’ve been grinding for years, and this is their payday.”

The game marked the end for Delaware Valley’s senior class, one that had a great deal of success as well.

“We had a great season,” Olsommer said. “The seniors are a really great group of kids. They’re going to go out with three district championships and two league championships. All they ever did was everything we asked them. When you have a group of guys like that, you’re going to win a lot of football games, you’re going to have a lot of fun. We’re going to miss those guys.”

State College 38, Delaware Valley 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

DV 0 0 7 0 — 7

SC 14 24 0 0 — 38

First Quarter

SC — L. Howell 39 run (Spitler kick), 4:53

SC — Green 5 pass from Dorner (Spitler kick), 3:23

Second Quarter

SC — Green 9 run (Spitler kick), 6:37

SC — L. Howell 40 pass from Dorner (Spitler kick), 6:15

SC — Edwards 7 run (Spitler kick), 4:26

SC — Spitler 30 field goal, 0:25

Third Quarter

DV — Henderson 5 run (Oliver kick), 2:41

DV SC

First Downs 4 15

Rushes-Yards 23-65 39-219

Passes 3-17-2 7-12-1

Passing Yards 43 112

Total Yards 108 331

Punts-Average 6-36.5 2-40.0

Fumbles-Lost 3-2 3-3

Penalties-Yards 5-50 5-48

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING: Delaware Valley — P. Machado 5-47, J. Henderson 7-27, J. Foushee 1-6, S. Croll 1-2, N. Barie 1-1, J. Balcarcel 3-0, Z. Scillia 5-(-18). State College — N. Howell 8-61, D. Green 14-48, L. Howell 2-39, I. Edwards 3-32, B. Dorner 5-27, C. Moore 3-14, J. Morris 2-2, Team 2-(-4).

PASSING: Delaware Valley — Z. Scillia 3-16-2, 43; A. Oliver 0-1-0, 0. State College — B. Dorner 6-10-1, 103; J. Morris 1-1-0, 9; C. Moore 0-1-0, 0.

RECEIVING: Delaware Valley — J. Henderson 1-26, J. Foushee 1-14, M. Callanan 1-3. State College — L. Howell 3-62, I. Edwards 1-26, C. Moore 1-10, C. Franks 1-9, D. Green 1-5.

INTERCEPTIONS: Delaware Valley — J. Foushee. State College — L. Howell, D. Green.

Steve Stallone is a reporter for the Hazleton Standard-Speaker. Follow him on Twitter at @sstallone5.

This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 10:52 AM.