State College football beats Williamsport to win the District 6 Class 6A championship
You have to capitalize off of mistakes to win a District 6 Class 6A championship game. That’s exactly what State College did in order to beat Williamsport, 17-14, on Friday at Central Mountain for the title.
The Little Lions forced three turnovers on downs in the first half, along with two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery to end the half. Following Jashaun Green’s 31-yard rushing touchdown early in the first quarter, JW Scott recovered a fumbled snap to put State College on the Williamsport 2-yard line. On the ensuing play, Brady Bendik punched the ball in on a rush for a 14-0 lead at the half.
With a 14-0 lead at halftime, State College allowed two touchdowns in the second half. The first one was set up by Williamsport quarterback Frankie Morone’s pass to Jamaire Harden for a 23-yard reception, placing the ball at the State College 3-yard line. Then, Lajear Whaley punched it in with the Millionaires trailing 14-7 with 5:55 left in the third quarter. Morone later hit DJ Greene on a 47-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 14-14.
Quinn Murphy knocked down a 36-yard field goal to give State College a 17-14 lead with 5:37 left in the game. All they needed was a defensive stop to win it — sacking Morone — to end Williamsport’s season.
“It was a battle on both sides,” State College head coach Matt Lintal said. “Credit to Williamsport. They do a great job. They made adjustments and got us trying to reinvent things a little bit and we did. The kids made plays and found a way to get ball and keep it rolling down the field. So, I’m really proud of especially our guys up front. We challenged them in practice the last two weeks, but also out here tonight and they responded.”
State College came out in the first quarter firing on all cylinders. It began with the ball at its own 32-yard line and Green immediately picked up 20 yards on a jet sweep. Setting up at Williamsport’s 48-yard line, Bendik had a 9-yard rush, following an encroachment penalty by the Millionaires. Bendik rushed again for nine yards and another rush of one yard.
With another encroachment penalty by Williamsport, Bendik followed up with a 3-yard rush, but left guard Michael Dincher was penalized for an unnecessary roughness call. While State College backed up to the Williamsport 31-yard line, it didn’t matter much because Green rushed in from 31 yards out to give State College a 7-0 lead with 9:33 remaining in the first quarter.
It was simply the tone-setter for the game in Green’s eyes.
“It was big,” Green said. “We needed that momentum going into the game — it really set us up for this second half of the game and we just went after it.”
It doesn’t hurt when your defense can get big stops. That’s what the Little Lions did by stopping Whaley for no gain on the next drive, then allowing a 6-yard completion by Morone to Sebastian Robinson. Following Morone’s incompletion, Williamsport had an errant snap on the punt, allowing Scott to pounce on the ball at the 2-yard line.
But he had the end zone on his mind.
“I was sick, man — that made me sick,” Scott said of his near touchdown. “That made me sick. I thought I was going to get it. I was trying to scoop it and I had the coaches’ voices running through my head, ‘Just bend your knees.’ Then I was like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.’ Then bam, somebody was on my back, man. I don’t know. I thought that I was about to get a [touchdown]. I was so excited for a second.”
Bendik is often seen as one of the main cogs in the machine that is State College football. Friday night was no different, with the power back running between the tackles to punch the ball in from two yards out to convert on Scott’s recovery. He echoed what Lintal stated about the offensive line.
“It’s all on the O-Line. They do everything,” Bendik said. “Coming into this game, it’s a big game — we play for our pads. This is not something to joke around about and Williamsport was a physical team, they came out strong and we just got some fire at the end. I really think it was a good game and we played very well defensively, offensively, special teams. So, I’m really proud of the team.”
State College will play District 2 champ Delaware Valley in a PIAA sub-regional game next weekend.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 11:05 PM.
