SHIPPENSBURG — A rotten start and a bit too much of Carter Van Scyoc proved to be a bad combination for the Chambersburg football team Friday night.

The Trojans handed Shippensburg a golden opportunity early in the game that the Greyhounds gladly turned into a touchdown and Van Scyoc led two other long scoring drives. And that was enough for the Hounds to hold off Chambersburg, 21-14, in a non-league game at Veterans Stadium.

After the first drive was stopped, Trojan punter Nazeer Taylor hit one off the side of his foot and after it hit and bounced backward it ended up going negative-1 yard and gave Ship the ball on the Chambersburg 16.

On fourth down, Van Scyoc zipped a pass into the left corner and Cain Fridinger made a nice catch for a 7-0 lead.

“Our special teams were disappointing,” Chambersburg coach Mark Luther said. “We let the kickoff get past us and put us in bad position, then got that poor punt.”

The Trojan defense put a lot of pressure on Van Scyoc early, but Shippensburg made adjustments, with a draw play, a couple of screen passes and by rolling Van Scyoc out.

That enabled the senior QB to lead his team on two long drives in the second period. The first went 80 yards on nine plays and culminated with Van Scyoc hitting Fridinger again, this time from 15 yards away.

The next went 72 yards, with Van Scyoc converting two first downs by passing and another by running. Philip Torres finished it off with a 10-yard run and it was 21-0 with 1:49 left in the half.

Luther said, “Van Scyoc just has that knack. He knows where his receivers are and he keeps his eyes downfield. And the receivers come back to the ball well. We got some good pressure on him, but we weren’t quite good enough at the back end.”

From that point on, Chambersburg had the better of the play, but the lead proved too much to overcome.

Sophomore running back Keshawn Jones made his debut after missing last week with an injury, and he was impressive, picking up 111 yards on 16 carries.

“Jones adds a different dimension, even though he’s not 100 percent yet,” Luther said.

The Trojans got back into the game with a late scoring drive just before halftime. Sophomore quarterback Brady Stumbaugh, who had been 1-for-7 to that point, completed 6 of 9 passes on the drive, including three to Devin Carbaugh and two to Seth Brouse, the last of those reaching the end zone from 8 yards out.

Chambersburg had drives reach Ship’s 15 in the third quarter and 26 in the fourth, but the Hound defense held. More than midway through the fourth, Jaime Ramos picked off a Van Scyoc toss.

Stumbaugh hit Carbaugh for 21 yards on a fourth-and-10 play, then hit him again from the 15 for a touchdown with 4:05 left. Clay Myers ran for two points to bring Chambersburg within 21-14.

But the Trojans never got a chance again. Van Scyoc converted a big third down on a pass in the flat to Kyler Brown and Torres ran for another first down to just about run the clock out.

“We moved the football tonight,” Luther said. “Brady made some plays — that drive at the end of the half should help his confidence — and the receivers made some good catches out on the edge.

“At least we saw more fight tonight. That’s something we talked about this week. But we just struggle in crucial situations, like not making a stop on defense.”

Chambersburg (0-2) hosts Red Lion (2-0) on Friday for the home opener, while Ship (2-0) travels to Bermudian Springs.

Shippensburg 21, Chambersburg 14
Chambersburg       0  6  0  8  —  14
Shippensburg        7  14  0  0 —  21
Scoring
First Quarter
S — Cain Fridinger 14 pass from Carter Van Scyoc (Eddie Ocker kick), 8:23
Second Quarter
S — Fridinger 15 pass from Van Scyoc (Ocker kick), 8:03
S — Philip Torres 10 run (Ocker kick), 1:49
C — Seth Brouse 8 pass from Brady Stumbaugh (kick failed), 0:23
Fourth Quarter
C — Devin Carbaugh 15 pass from Stumbaugh (Clay Myers run), 4:05
Team Statistics
                                              Chbg       Ship
First downs                           17            16
Rushes-yards                     32-161     31-111
Passing yards                       143          201
Total yards                            304          312
Passing                                13-30-1    15-23-1
Fumbles                                 0-0             2-1
Punts-avg.                            5-24.0       3-39.3
Penalties-yards                     8-51        13-83
Individual Statistics
Rushing — Chbg, Keshawn Jones 16-111, Stumbaugh 9-32, Myers 7-18. Ship, Torres 15-67. Kyler Brown 7-38, Maxwell Kalb 2-3, Van Scyoc 6-3.
Passing — Chbg, Stumbaugh 13-30-1-143. Ship, Van Scyoc 15-23-1-201.
Receiving — Chbg, Carbaugh 5-72, Brouse 4-34, Justin Reichenbach 2-21, Terrell Williams 1-9, Cota Heckman 1-7. Ship, Nick Gustafson 3-51, Fridinger 4-49, Brown 3-44, Alex Sharrow 1-27, Alaric Hickman 2-17, Torres 1-16, Kalb 1-6.
Interceptions — Chbg, Jaime Ramos.