CHAMBERSBURG — The Chambersburg football team gave their fans lots to like at its first home game of the season Friday night.

Unfortunately, the Trojans wilted in the fourth quarter, getting outscored 18-0 by Central Dauphin East, and the Panthers left Trojan Stadium with a much-harder-than-expected 36-26 Mid Penn Commonwealth victory.

Chambersburg, now 0-5 (0-2 MPC) and on a 14-game losing skid, played well on its way to a 26-10 lead midway through the third quarter.

But CD East (4-1, 1-1 MPC) moved its big-time star, Kane Everson, from receiver to quarterback at that point and he directed the Panthers to four scores, constantly confounding Trojan defenders with his elusiveness and speed on scrambles and QB draws. He finished with 236 yards of offense, 202 of which came in the game’s final 16 minutes.

“No. 7 (Everson) can change direction so quickly and we just couldn’t get blue jerseys there in time,” Chambersburg coach Mark Luther said. “In the first half we did a good job of controlling him. But in the end, we got a little tired and started missing some tackles.”

Thanks to numerous penalties, including five holding calls, East faced plenty of second- and third-and-long situations, and Everson was able to come up with big plays.

In the drive that got the Panthers back in the game, which ate up the final 7:27 of the third, Everson overcame three East penalties and a second-and-28. In the drive for the go-ahead touchdown, CDE had a second-and-31 and got the first down on a 57-yard Everson scamper.

Chambersburg did plenty of good things to earn that healthy lead. The first score, which came after a poor punt snap, came on a 20-yard option pass from running back Keshawn Jones to a wide-open Seth Brouse.

“We thought it might work because they were really pressing up,” Luther said.

Jones, who finished with 169 yards on 21 carries, electrified the crowd with an 80-yard burst up the middle for a score, and later scored on an 11-yard run. On both occasions, the offensive line opened up a nice hole and Jones was barely touched.

Luther said, “The offensive line did a good job. We thought we could get something going up front. East has a lot of speed, but they’re not real big inside and we thought we could get onto them with our bigger guys. They did do a few stunts with their tackles that caught us.”

The touchdown that made it 26-10 came on a fourth-and-5 play from the East 32. The Trojans bunched three receivers on the left side and quarterback Tyler Collier hit Kyere Morton in the flat. Morton made one defender miss, then broke a tackle to reach the end zone.

However, Chambersburg’s last four possessions netted — including penalties — minus-11 yards total and Collier was intercepted twice.

Luther said, “I was proud of our guys. We played well early and built some confidence. But we just couldn’t get them off the field on third down in the second half. It was our game for about 40 of the 48 minutes.”

The Trojans host powerful Harrisburg next Friday for Homecoming.

CD East 36, Chambersburg 26
CD East                10   0   8   18   —   36
Chambersburg   13   7   6   0    —    26
Scoring
First Quarter
E — Anthony Calamia 45 field goal, 9:21
C — Seth Brouse 20 pass from Keshawn Jones (Nazeer Taylor kick), 6:06
E — Elijah Armor 16 pass from Jaylen Hawthorne (Calamia kick), 2:19
C — Jones 80 run (kick blocked), 2:06
Second Quarter
C — Jones 11 run (Taylor kick), 1:37
Third Quarter
C — Kyere Morton 32 pass from Tyler Collier (kick blocked), 7:29
E — Kimarea Patterson 3 run (Kane Everson run), 0:02
Fourth Quarter
E — Everson 3 run (run failed), 5:37
E — Everson 3 run (pass failed), 2:28
E — Michael Jones 6 run (kick blocked), 1:04
Team Statistics
                                                  CDE          Chbg
First downs                              19               10
Rushes-yards                         41-217      25-188
Passing yards                          201              65
Total offense                           418             253
Passing                            16-27-1-201   3-12-2-65
Punts-average                      2-26.5          4-34.5
Fumbles-lost                           2-0                1-0
Penalties-yards                    11-101         8-79
Individual Statistics
Rushing — CDE, Everson 15-154, M.Jones 13-53, Baron McKinney 2-15, Hawthorne 6-10, Patterson 4-3, Team 1-(-18). Chbg, K.Jones 21-169, Clay Myers 1-12, Collier 3-7.
Passing — CDE, Hawthorne 11-21-1-140, Everson 5-6-0-61. Chbg, Collier 2-11-2-45, K.Jones 1-1-0-20.
Receiving — CDE, Armor 4-54, Terrance Danner 3-49, Larry English 2-32, Tyreese Lewis 2-17, Everson 2-21, McKinney 1-23, M.Jones 1-3, Layton Butts 1-2. Chbg, Morton 2-45, Brouse 1-20.
Missed FG — CDE, Calamia, 48 (short).
Interceptions — CDE, Lucas Waters, Lewis. Chbg, Brady Stumbaugh.