Mifflin County football falls to Hollidaysburg

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: August 31, 2019

By BRIAN CARSON

HOLLIDAYSBURG – To paraphrase the great Charles Dickens, it was a tale of two weeks for the Mifflin County football team.

The Huskies played with a clean sheet against State College last Friday, giving up only one penalty with zero turnovers in a loss to a squad with superior size and speed.

This week was far from perfect against a team equal in talent to the Mifflin County. The Huskies shot themselves in the foot repeatedly committing 10 penalties for 90 yards with one turnover in a 27-0 loss to Hollidaysburg Friday evening at Tiger Stadium.

“Penalties killed us. We can’t play from behind the chains. We played a sloppy game and that’s how we practiced this week,” Mifflin County football coach Scot Sechler said. “We have to clean it up. We have to be a lot better if we want to win games”

Mifflin County came out with an impressive drive to open the contest and looked like a team ready to play.

The Huskies, behind a stack backfield of two fullbacks (Rodney Henry and Gage Schaeffer) and a tailback (Brycen Hassinger) drove down the field on a 13-play 71-yard drive before a couple penalties stalled the drive at the 8-yard line. A 25-yard field goal attempt by Reese Carter hit the right upright ending a golden scoring opportunity.

“We moved the ball. If we stop shooting ourselves in the foot, keep things moving, complete drives and score touchdowns or kick field goals to make things easier, we’d be okay. It just didn’t happen for us tonight,” Sechler said.

The Golden Tigers scored two touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 14-0 lead at the half. Hollidaysburg (2-0) did it with the arm and legs of quarterback Brice Martellacci. The junior made it 7-0 at 8:53 of the second with a six-yard touchdown on the QB draw.

Late in the second, he hit Tristain Chaney in the back of the end zone for the 4-yard TD, Martellacci finished with 56 yards rushing with two scores, while going 11-of-15 for 149 yards and a touchdown through the air.

The second touchdown drive got some help by the officials on a controversial call when an illegal hit on Hassinger gave Hollidaysburg the 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down in Husky territory.

Hassinger appeared to hit Deshawn Moss cleanly with his left shoulder pad striking Moss in the chest. Sechler disagreed with the call but didn’t use it as an excuse for the loss.

“I can’t wait to see some of the penalties on film. I don’t think that was a legitimate call on Hassinger. It was bang, bang,” Sechler said. “The ref said his feet were down, but Hassingerhad no idea where the ball was at. I watched it on video about 10 times already. I thought it was a clean hit, but at the end of the day, you can’t change the call and I voiced my displeasure with it. It still boils down that we have to be better. We didn’t have a great week of practice and it showed tonight.”

Things only got worse for the Huskies in the second half. On the opening drive for the Golden Tigers, Martellacci connected with Evan Brozenich on a 49-yard strike down to the Husky 11. Martellacci capped the 5-play, 60-yard drive with a 2-yard TD run, making it 20-0 with 9:42 left in the third.

Hollidaysburg closed out the scoring when 6-6, 225-pound running back Trent Paddock bulled in from three yards out for the score. Paddock, a world-class Rugby player, finished with 127 yards on 24 carries, his second straight 100-yard game of the young season.

Mifflin County (0-2) mustered one last attempt at a scoring drive in the third, but the drive stalled on a 4th-and-3 from the Golden Tiger 8.

Hollidaysburg out-gained the Huskies 370-210. Hassinger led the Mifflin County offense with 67 yards rushing and 45 passing.

“We started making mental errors and that continues to compound if you keep making mental mistakes,” Sechler said. “All week long there was a lot of chatter at practice. I think the kids thought we’re done with State College and it’s all easy from here on out and that’s not the case. We have to be better from a coaching perspective. We have to do a better job of keeping them in line in practice, working them harder. We’re going to get back to playing the right way. I guarantee it.”

Mifflin County travels to Northeastern for a non-conference contest Friday, September 6, Game time is 7 p.m.