State College tops feisty Kish team in JVFL Midget title tilt

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: October 22, 2018

LEWISTOWN – Sunday night’s Juniata Valley Football League Midget Super Bowl wrapped up a weekend of big games, hard hits , amazing plays and close games.

In the finale,State College met up with a spunky Kish team that battled through the playoffs to earn a Super Bowl bid, coming in with two losses while State College came in as the top seed.

After a very defensive contest, the Little Lions picked up the 14-0 victory over the Indians.

“They (Kish) are well coached, great kids and a great place to play football. It was a great night and we can’t complain,” State College coach Jay Kisslak said. “It was a solid effort by all the coaches on both coaching staffs. I can’t more happier for everybody that plays with the JVFL. This game was everything you’d expect in a championship game like this.”

From the coin toss, the defenses made its presence known on both ends.

The Kish Indians got a strong defensive effort by Derek Swanger who frustrated the Little Lions defense all evening.

Same could be said about the State College defense as they had different names at different times step up and keep the Indians off the scoreboard.

After a first quarter that produced any points for either team, the second quarter would finally produce some points.

Starting with the ball on the Indians 38, State College started to get things going offensively.

Ty Salazar got things rolling calling his own number on third down to capture a first down at the 27.

Charles Yartz then went to air and found an open Owen Yerka. But he would be quickly tackled.

After working the ball down to the Kish four, Salazar would bust through the middle putting the Little Lions the 6-0 advantage.

That would be all the scoring in the first half, as Kish would go into the locker room trailing by only six points.

“This was a tough State College team that we lost to twice earlier in the season. They put up 26 points on us in two games, both games,” said Kish Coach Eddie Rhodes said. “We played tough defense but we just couldn’t get the offense started.”

Kish came out offense and started to drive down the field. The offense started on its own 30.

Quarterback Landon Eichhorn handed the ball off to Parker Kearns five of six plays and put the ball around midfield.

Facing fourth and five, the Indians handed the ball to Trace Brought on a sweep and he muscled his way for the first down.

Kish would get as close as the 37 but gave the ball back on downs as State College was able to make another big stop.

Unfortunately for the Indians, they took most all of the time of the third quarter clock.

However, it’s defense was able to get the ball back by the beginning of the fourth quarter to make one last attempt of tying the contest.

With the ball at midfield, the State defense forced the Indians backward and forced them to punt.

The Indians gave the ball back to the Little Lions at the Kish 26 after a strong runback by the secondary.

From there, the Little Lions added a second touchdown with 3:04 left to ice the contest.

DJ Warren broke through the middle for the 2-yard touchdown run. State went for the 2-point conversion as Yartz hit Yerka, to end the scoring at 14-0.