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Veteran Lions too much for upstart Huskies

By BRIAN CARSON

STATE COLLEGE – Speed kills and State College showcased its swiftness in a 35-12 victory over Mifflin County to open the 2018 high school football season Friday night at Memorial Field.

The Little Lions (1-0), ranked sixth in the state in the preseason, used their quickness and athleticism to jump out to a 35-0 halftime lead and then played reserves the rest of the way.

“They weren’t more physical than us. They are well coached but the difference in the game was their speed,” Mifflin County coach Scot Sechler said. “State College has a ton of speed and they showed it. That was our main concern coming into tonightand you can see why.”

State College had two touchdowns from running back Isaiah Edwards as the Little Lions opened up a 14-0 lead after one quarter. The Little Lion senior scored his first on a four-yard run and the second from 10 yards out.

The home team brought out the big play in the second quarter when quarterback Tommy Friberg connected with Cohen Russell down the middle of the field for a 75-yard score. Friberg finished the game 7-for-7 for 146 yards and one TD.

Next up was the Keaton Ellis show. Ellis, a Penn State recruit, destroyed the Huskies last season with three touchdowns in a 56-7 victory, took an end around 73 yards to daylight, giving the Little Lions the 28-0 lead with 8:30 left until half. Ellis ran around the right end, cut back into the middle of the field, shrugged a would-be tackler at the 50, and scampered down the left sideline for the score.

State College made it 35-0 with 4:43 to go in the first half when Dresyn Green scampered nine yards to cap off an 8-play, 65-yard drive.

The Little Lions missed a 33-yard field goal and had two punt return touchdowns – a 59-yarder by Edwards and a 55-yard return by Ellis – called back on penalties. Even so, Sechler was optimistic at halftime.

“I told them I thought we played a good seven minutes in the first half. Once they got a few scores on us, I noticed some down heads and a little bit of disappointment,” Sechler said. “At halftime we talked about the adjustments we needed to make and I told them, right now it’s 0-0, let’s win the second half, and we did.”

Mifflin County (0-1) played the never-say-die role to the hilt, scoring twice in the second half to make the final score respectable.

On the first scoring drive, Husky QB Noah Wright faked a handoff to tailback Gage Schaeffer and took it in from the 10 with 2:34 left in the third quarter The extra point was blocked, making it 35-6.

“We had heart. That’s one of the things I took away from this game. You have to have heart to win games and we showed that tonight,” Sechler said. “The guys never quit. We kept plugging away. In the second half, we started to make things happen. We got the running game going in the second half and that opened up the playing action passing.”

The Huskies added another score late in the game when Wright hit Wyatt Henry on a 12-yard slant for a touchdown. The pass conversion failed setting the final score at 35-12.

Schaeffer led the Mifflin County offense with 67 yards rushing in 14 carries to go along with four receptions for 32 yards.

“We have to get better. We have to clean things up. We were a little but sloppy offensively. We are only three weeks into this thing with a brand-new offense and defense. We’re still figuring things out,” Sechler said. “We did all right. We have a lot of things to clean up. I’m always happy but never satisfied. We can always do better and we’re going to strive to be the best. We’re going to keep plugging until we get there.”

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