‘It’s a special place’ | State College takes loss to Downingtown East in stride with fans, students looking on

Even before the Little Lions — flanked by their marching band and cheerleaders — ran out onto the Memorial Field turf ahead of their tilt with Downingtown East Friday night, State College’s energy was palpable.

High schoolers were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the packed student section (it just so happened to be Hawaiian Night), the line for concessions was noticeably long and, perhaps most importantly, the Memorial Field bleachers were filled up with State High supporters on the home side.

High school football was back to normal in the borough.

State High would eventually drop its affair with the Cougars 42-21 to pick up its first loss of the young season, falling to 1-1 early in the 2021 campaign after a Week 1 51-6 blowout win at Mifflin County last Friday.

Though any loss may be demoralizing under normal circumstances, the Lions embraced the opportunity to play in front of their home crowd with open arms.

“It was crazy, I haven’t had a full stadium since my sophomore year,” said State High senior wide receiver Jashaun Green. “It was a great experience, and I loved the crowd. They brought the energy — we thought we were gonna win the ballgame.”

Memorial Field was operating at full capacity for a State High football game for the first time since the end of the 2018 season. The Little Lions played the entire 2019 season — with the exception of the Beaver Stadium Classic against Cumberland Valley — at the South Track while Memorial Field underwent renovations.

And even though State High returned to Memorial Field in 2020, admission was limited due to COVID-19 and the regular atmosphere of its home games wasn’t matched.

That is, until Friday.

“It’s a special place, Friday nights here are unique,” head coach Matt Lintal said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our fans and our students for coming out and supporting our guys. We were down at the half, and coming out you could hear the students encouraging our players. I love to have that.”

The home-opening loss was the Lions’ first since the 2011-12 season, when they conceded their contest against Father Judge in a 34-24 decision.

According to Lintal, one of the factors that heavily contributed to the Lions’ failure to find rhythm was out of the Lions’ hands: injuries.

“We had some injuries that kind of plagued us. We had a great game going on, and they brought a lot of pressure, so we had to find some one-on-one matchups,” Lintal said. “We did for a good time, and then we had some injuries that kind of put a damper on that.

“But credit to them — great team, really physical up front and brought a lot of pressure. We gotta get better, and we will.”

Downingtown East got the scoring started with a quarterback sneak from junior field general Jamy Jenkins at the 1-yard line in the waning moments of the first quarter.

Green was the catalyst for the Lions’ first score of the matchup, catching two straight passes from junior quarterback Finn Furmanek for 50 total yards to even the score at 7-7 early in the second quarter.

In Green’s eyes, that ability to will his team into the end zone is simply routine.

“I just know that I’m gonna get the ball, and I’m gonna do what I have to do,” Green said. “Nothing else, I just worry about me.”

The Downingtown East starpower on offense proved to be too much for the Lions, who allowed three Cougar touchdowns in the span of 10 minutes in the second quarter.

Cougar tight end George Bousum began the Downingtown East scoring barrage with 10:04 remaining in the second frame, rising for a 23-yard grab to reclaim a 14-7 lead. That run would continue with a fourth-and-6 lob from Jenkins to senior wide receiver Michael Giardino with 5:45 left in the half to make it a 21-7 lead.

Furmanek halted the Cougar momentum with a one-yard sneak of his own to bring his Lions back within one touchdown at 21-14 with 3:22 remaining in the first half.

On the very next drive, though, Downingtown East would take a firm grasp of its lead after State High committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that put the Cougars in their opposition’s territory. They would capitalize with another Jenkins touchdown run in the final 28 seconds of the first half, taking a 28-14 lead into the locker room.

That two-touchdown lead would prove to be insurmountable, as the Lions scored just one more touchdown in the final 24 minutes of action.

“We had this game, and we just gave it to them,” Furmanek said. “I feel we gotta work a lot harder next week, we definitely have to clean up a lot of stuff. We’ve just got to produce on both sides of the ball and play how we can play.”

The defensive struggles continued into the third quarter for the Lions when Downingtown East’s Jenkins found his favorite target Giardino yet again for a 47-yard touchdown grab, giving the Cougars a 35-14 lead with 7:04 to play in the third.

Down 35-14, Lintal found it necessary to make a substitution at the quarterback spot.

“Honestly, we needed a wideout,” Lintal said. “Finn obviously performed out there, but he’s the dominant wideout with his one-on-one matchups — we wanted to get him out there. Jack [Morris], we have full faith in him.”

Furmanek, who made the switch from quarterback to wide receiver late in the third quarter in favor of junior quarterback Jack Morris, didn’t find trouble in changing positions at a critical junction in the game.

“It doesn’t take a toll. At QB, I know every position so I was ready for it,” Furmanek said. “Our quarterback Jack Morris put me in positions where I could make plays.”

Morris connected with Furmanek during crunch time two times in the fourth quarter, one being for 40 yards and the second totaling 29 yards.

The 40-yarder eventually resulted in a four-yard touchdown run for Morris, cutting into the Downingtown East lead to make it 35-21 with nine minutes to play in the contest.

The Cougars would close out the scoring in garbage time, as junior running back Bo Horvath found paydirt in the final minutes of the game.

Sitting at 1-1 ahead of a Week 3 matchup at Hollidaysburg, State High isn’t overthinking its first loss of the year.

“We’ll definitely bounce back from it,” Furmanek said. “It was our first home game, we still had jitters — we’ll start working on it and get our minds right.”