State College stays undefeated after 19-8 win over Central Dauphin at Memorial Field
It wasn’t pretty, but State College Area High School remained undefeated Friday night.
Freshman running back D’Antae Sheffey’s 46-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run helped put away the Little Lions’ 19-8 win over Central Dauphin at Memorial Field.
After a blocking a punt on the first drive of the game, State High was set up deep in Rams territory but couldn’t punch it in, settling for a field goal after a holding penalty set the squad back on second down.
On the next drive, the Little Lions forced a three-and-out and set themselves up near midfield after a decent run back on the punt, but the ensuing drive was somewhat of a roller coaster. To kick things off a false start set the team back five yards before it could run its first play.
After a net loss of two yards on first and second down, the squad converted on third and long with a screen pass to Sheffey for 24 yards. Unfortunately for the home team, from there the drive only went downhill. Sheffey laid on the ground after the big play and had to be helped off by the training staff. Three plays later, an interception thrown by senior Finn Furmanek gave the Rams the ball back.
This interception proved to be one of two thrown by State High quarterbacks, while the holding infraction was one of several drive-impeding penalties committed by the offense throughout the night. Despite these mistakes, Little Lions coach Matt Lintal was focused on appreciating the end result.
“We’re gonna celebrate the win and the positives, first and foremost. I’m proud of these kids. It’s the first time in a while we’ve beat (Central Dauphin), so we’re gonna celebrate that,” Lintal said. “Obviously any game that we have, we want to improve upon the mistakes — and we will. These kids are driven, they’re motivated, so we’ll clean those things up.”
To be exact, it had been four years since the Little Lions took down the Rams. Across those three losses Lintal’s squad was outscored 111-47 by Central Dauphin.
The team from Harrisburg didn’t come anywhere close to that average of 37 points it put up over those three wins, though. The unit’s only score came in what was effectively garbage time at the end of the game, after three more scores from State High — a 9-yard pass from Furmanek to sophomore wide receiver Michael Gaul, a 32-yard field goal and Sheffey’s run — put it up 19-0.
Aside from the late touchdown and 2-point conversion, the defense was dominant — something that isn’t uncommon from the Little Lions thus far this season. The team’s defense has allowed more than 14 points just once this year and has held its opponent to single digits twice in five contests.
With Sheffey battling injuries for much of the night, the defense stepped up and took care of business to bring State High to 5-0.
“They play with passion and energy. And our defensive staff, (assistant coach) Mark Baney and his crew just did a phenomenal job,” Lintal said. “To keep them out of the endzone until late in the fourth was spectacular by those guys.”
