State College football closes regular season with road win over Carlisle
State College closed out its regular season with a win in a rare Monday night high school football game. The Little Lions took down the Carlisle Thundering Herd, 38-29, in a game that was rescheduled from Friday to Monday due to COVID-19 concerns. The suspected case ended up being negative.
It didn’t take long for the scoring to begin in the game. Senior Sammy Knipe returned the game’s opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to give the Little Lions a 7-0 lead just 17 seconds into the action. Carlisle didn’t take long to answer the score. They moved down the field in 3:59 and closed out a long drive with a 1-yard rushing touchdown by senior Sean Smith to cut the lead to one.
State College was ready to answer on its first offensive drive of the game, with senior quarterback Conrad Moore leading the way. Moore threw for 50 yards on the drive, including a 28-yard pass to Jashaun Green to build the Little Lions’ lead to eight.
Not to be outdone, the Thundering Herd continued to dominate the State College defense with a run-heavy attack. They gashed the Little Lion front seven several times on their way to a 5-yard touchdown run by Braydon Keller. A run by Ezeekai Thomas on the two-point conversion attempt tied the game at 14, which is where it stayed until the end of the first quarter. Each team scored one more time in the second quarter — a 2-yard run by Moore for State High and a 1-yard run by Smith — to leave the game tied at 21 when the teams went into their locker rooms for halftime.
The narrative of the game quickly shifted in the second half with 6:49 coming off the clock before the Little Lions broke the second-half scoring seal with an 8-yard touchdown run by Moore. He hit Green for a 10-yard score with 1:19 on the clock in the quarter to make it a two-score game and give State High a 35-21 lead.
That proved to be enough for the Little Lions on Monday. They added a 35-yard field goal by Aiden Spitler and Carlisle added a two-yard touchdown run by Thomas to round out the scoring in the game.
The win is State High’s first game of the week, as they’ll now head to Altoona on Friday to take on the Mountain Lions for the District 6 Class 6A Championship game.
State College 38, Carlisle 29
(Friday at Carlisle)
SCORE BY QUARTERS
State College 14 7 14 3 — 38
Carlisle 14 7 0 8 — 29
First Quarter
SC — Knipe 100 kick return (Spitler kick), 11:43
C — Smith 1 run (PAT failed), 7:44
SC — Green 22 pass from Moore (Spitler kick), 6:35
C —Keller 5 run (Thomas run), 1:43
Second Quarter
SC — Moore 2 run (Spitler kick), 10:58
C — Smith 1 run (Keller kick), 5:26
Third Quarter
SC — Moore 8 run (Spitler kick), 5:11
SC — Green 10 pass from Moore (Spitler kick), 1:19
Fourth Quarter
SC — Spitler 35 field goal, 6:53
C — Thomas 2 run (Thomas run), 3:00
Top Rusher: SC: Green 19-106 C: Thomas 17-133-1.
Top Passer: SC: Moore 10-16-2 165. C: Thomas 14-35-1 213.
Top Receiver: SC: Green 6-93-2. C: Dominic Morano 2-32
Next Game: State College at Altoona, Friday. Carlisle at Cedar Cliff.
