State College’s D’antae Sheffey, team run wild over Altoona in Friday-night rout
The meaning of perfection is the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.
On Friday night, State College ran freely and seemed to only have a couple of miscues in a 55-14 rout of Altoona at Mansion Park.
The Little Lions’ miscues were a missed extra point kick, one penalty and an interception thrown in the red zone. However, coach Matt Lintal was very pleased with how his team did against the unique triple-option offense that the Mountain Lions run.
“I’m really proud of our kids’ effort. Our coaches did a fantastic job this week,” he said. “Our defensive staff, Mark Baney, and his staff, did (a fantastic job) preparing for the triple-option offense. I couldn’t be more proud of our coaches in their preparation and our kids. We had a great week of practice. The kids really came out and showed it here.”
State College showed it to the tune of 259 yards on the ground and seven rushing touchdowns — four by quarterbacks. Freshman phenom D’antae Sheffey had 118 yards rushing on 13 carries, and one score.
Quarterbacks Finn Furmanek and Owen Yerka split reps for most of the first half. They each had two rushing scores, and Furmanek added one through the air.
It wasn’t just the starters getting in on the action either. With the game in hand, most of the backups saw playing time in the second half and Matt Wall and Sahleek Wilson each picked up scores on the ground.
“Our team did great. Our second team did outstanding,” Sheffey said. “The second team running backs were really good. (Matt Wall) did very good. It’s really exciting (to see backups excel), because they show all the hard work in practice and they got their chance. Our (offensive) line was pushing forward every play. Our defense was doing everything right.”
The Little Lions got their preparation put to the test right away as their defense held Altoona to three straight three-and-outs. In between the defensive stops, State College scored to grab a 21-0 lead with just under nine minutes to go in the first half.
After the first three-and-out from the Mountain Lions, the Little Lions used a six-play drive capped off with Furmanek taking a quarterback sneak up the middle from the 1-yard line. After the second stop on defense, a five-play drive that chewed up 42 yards saw Yerka go in from 17 yards out for a score.
“If you are playing one of those games where they get up, and it’s a possession game, they can eat a lot of clock with the offense they run,” Lintal said of the quick start from his offense and defense. “Being able to get those first two touchdowns on the board was huge. The first defensive stop was big. They then had to play a little out of their game.”
The third possession for State College ate up 5.5 minutes off the clock with Furmanek again being shoved in from the 1-yard line for a score. Altoona responded with a quick three-play drive, but the Little Lions roared right back.
State College started at its 30-yard line. Yerka connected with Donte Nastasi for a 30-yard connection through the air. The next play saw Sheffey go 40 yards untouched for a score. The freshman had 74 yards on seven carries in the first half.
“D’antae is special. We are really proud of him. He’s athletic and talented,” Lintal said, “but above that he is very humbled. He’s got a tremendous work ethic. His football IQ is really high for a young kid. He gets it and makes plays on the fly. He cleans me up sometimes, when I mess up some plays.”
Sheffey credited his offensive line for his early success not only in Friday’s game, but the previous three games played.
After Sheffey’s score, the Little Lions defense stopped Altoona again. The offense went to work and looked poised to put their team up 28 points, but Yerka threw an interception at the Mountain Lions’ 12-yard line to stop the drive.
After another defensive stop, State College got the ball near midfield with 22 seconds remaining in the first half. It was able to score at the buzzer thanks to a 35-yard Hail Mary pass from Furmanek to sophomore Michael Gaul, who said after the game that it was the first touchdown he has scored. He had roughly six Altoona defenders around him and even drew a pass-interference penalty.
The Little Lions led 35-7 at the break.
The second half saw State College start with the first possession, and it chewed up over half of the quarter on an 11-play drive. Yerka finished it off with a quarterback keeper from 1-yard out. It was the final action of the night for the Little Lions’ starters.
Altoona scored on its first possession of the second half, but that was it for the rest of the night.
State College’s next drive was two plays by the same player. Wall had two carries for 50 yards — the second was for 43 yards and a score.
Two Mountain Lions’ possessions later, the Little Lions forced a fumble on the second play of that possession that was recovered by Cody Dietz at Altoona’s 15. State College’s Sahleek Wilson needed just one carry to go the 15 yards, and cap the scoring off for the night.
The Little Lions will look to stay perfect next week when they host Mid Penn rival Central Dauphin.
“The kids played hard. We’ve just been really focused on staying present on each play ahead of us,” Lintal said. “I don’t think we had any missed assignments from the get-go.”
STATE COLLEGE 55, ALTOONA 14
Friday at Altoona
SCORE BY QUARTERS
State College 14 21 13 7 -- 55
Altoona 0 7 7 0 -- 14
First Quarter
SC--Finn Furmanek 1 run (Kajetan Kaszubowski kick), 7:48
SC--Owen Yerka 17 run (Kaszubowski kick), 3:43
Second Quarter
SC--Furmanek 1 run (Kaszubowski kick), 8:59
A--Alexander Yost 5 run (Ian Palilla kick), 7:45
SC--D’antae Sheffey 40 run (Kaszubowski kick), 6:57
SC--Michael Gaul 35 pass from Furmanek (Kaszubowski kick), 0:00
Third Quarter
SC--Yerka 1 run (Kaszubowski kick), 5:22
A--Kolin Hite 15 run (Palilla kick), 1:30
SC--Matt Wall 43 run (Kaszubowski kick), 0:11
Fourth Quarter
SC--Sahleek Wilson 15 run (John Zipf kick), 4:25
TEAM STATISTICS SC A
First downs 17 9
Total yards 405 208
Rushes-yards 36-259 37-118
Yards passing 146 90
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 9-12-1 2-4-0
Punts-avg. 1-48 6-33.7
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-1
Penalties-yards 1-15 4-22
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--State College, Sheffey 13-118, Wall 5-52, Yerka 5-38, Furmanek 6-30, Donte Nastasi 4-20, Stephen Scourtis 1-4, Will Stone 2-(-3). Altoona, Brennen Freiwald 8-22, Yost 8-21, Christopher Seward 2-18, Hite 2-15, Zion Warthen-Patterson 4-15, Tyson Reid 3-9, George Jackson 4-5, Amar Emeigh-Ballos 2-5, Bron Mosley 2-3, TEAM 2-4.
PASSING--State College, Furmanek 6-7-100-1 TD, Yerka 3-5-46-1 INT. Altoona, Freiwald 2-4-90-0.
RECEIVING--State College, Nastasi 4-59, Gaul 3-58, Scourtis 1-21, Furmanek 1-8. Altoona, Warthen-Patterson 1-57, Mark Harrington 1-33.
INTERCEPTIONS--Altoona, Branson Adams 1.
Records: State College 4-0, Altoona 3-1
Next game: Central Dauphin at State College, Friday, 7 p.m.
This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 11:46 PM.
