Tucker Perry

STATE COLLEGE — Chambersburg’s first loss of the season came with some mistakes, too many penalties and some really, really bad breaks.

But the Trojans can also take some positives out of their 35-16 Mid Penn Conference loss to the unbeaten State College Little Lions at Memorial Field on Friday night.

Chambersburg quickly fell behind 21-0 before the first quarter was halfway over. But from that point on, the Trojans outscored State College, 16-14. And they held the Little Lions scoreless in the second half.

“I’m proud of the kids, because we came out and battled in the second half,” Chambersburg coach Mark Luther said. “We didn’t hang our heads. We made it a goal to give up no more points, and we did that. We wanted to score at least a touchdown, and we did that. Just too many mistakes early.”

Trojan linebacker Tucker Perry, who returned a fumble 28 yards for the only points in the second half, said, “They’re a great team, but we 100% think we could beat them. We did, after we beat ourselves early.”

In the second half, Chambersburg ran the ball well, with Keyshawn Jones picking up 128 of his 176 yards and Brady Stumbaugh running for 46 of his 71 yards. But the Trojans’ offense could not produce a touchdown to get the score closer.

Luther said, “Our kids will never be happy with a loss, but I think they believe that if we could play them again, we’d be right with them. We took it to them in the second half.”

The first 7 1/2 minutes were basically a nightmare for Chambersburg.

On the Little Lions’ first play, quarterback Tommy Friberg rolled right and never stopped until he was in the end zone 53 yards later. SC then did an onsides kickoff and recovered the ball at the Chambersburg 43 — six plays later Friberg hit Keaton Ellis for a 9-yard TD.

On the Trojans’ third play after the kickoff, Stumbaugh tried a short pass in the flat; unfortunately it went right to the Little Lions’ Nathan Lusk and he took it in from 29 yards out for a TD and a 21-0 bulge.

“State College came out fast and came right after us,” Luther said. “They are a good team, but you can’t win a game like that when you have the penalties we had, you have two interceptions — one for a pick six — and make the mistakes we did early. We were doing everything to not win the game.”

Before the first period ended, Chambersburg got on the scoreboard on an eight-play drive, with Stumbaugh crashing over from the 1.

When SC went to punt on its next possession, the ball was snapped well over the head of punter Addison Darcy and through the end zone for a safety and a 21-9 score.

But State College was able to score again early in the second period before a very weird and meaningful play happened.

With the score 28-9, the Trojans were forced to punt. Returner Cohen Russell bobbled the ball, was crushed by a big hit and the Trojans’ Alex Lapinski recovered the ball. But a holding penalty stalled the drive and Tyler Luther had to punt again.

This time he hit a high spiral deep in SC territory. Cohen called for a fair catch at the 5, but the wind moved the ball and it bounced off his hand and into the end zone where Chambersburg’ DaQuan Rogers caught it for an apparent TD.

The officials signaled touchdown, then huddled. After a few minutes, they agreed it was a touchdown. But after a strenuous argument from the SC coaching staff, the officials huddled again for another 3-4 minutes and eventually ruled a touchback, with the Lions taking over at their own 20.

Luther said, “It’s a crappy rule, but I understand. In high school, if you muff a punt, you never had possession, and every time the ball goes into the end zone, it’s a touchback. In college or the pros, that would have been a touchdown.”

“That really made us mad,” Perry said.

It was made worse when State College marched down the field for its last points, with the TD coming on a pass from running back Isaiah Edwards to Ellis for a 35-9 lead.

After a promising Trojan drive was halted, State College took over on its own 20. On the first play, Edwards rolled to his left, but he lost the ball to Perry, who motored 28 yard for a touchdown.

Perry said, “I moved up and he was coming my way and I just took the ball out of his hands. I saw it, and I took it.”

Chambersburg had two more chances to score, but came up short both times.

The Trojans (4-1) will host 0-5 Cumberland Valley on Friday at 7 p.m. for Homecoming.

State College 35, Chambersburg 16
Chambersburg               9   0   7   0   —   16
State College                  21  14  0   0  —  35
First Quarter
SC — Tommy Friberg 53 run (Cam Renfrew kick), 11:40
SC — Keaton Ellis 9 pass from Friberg (Renfrew kick), 8:58
SC — Nathan Lusk 29 interception return (Renfrew kick), 7:51
Ch — Brady Stumbaugh 1 run (Tyler Luther kick), 5:39
Ch — Safety, ball snapped out of the end zone, 3:45
Second Quarter
SC — Dresyn Green 5 run (Renfrew kick), 8:46
SC — Ellis 4 pass from Isaiah Edwards (Renfrew kick), 1:10
Third Quarter
Ch — Tucker Perry 28 fumble return (Luther kick), 7:33
Team Statistics
                                                    Chbg                 SC
First downs                                13                     17
Rushes-yards                         40-256              40-210
Passing yards                             3                       152
Total offense                            259                     362
Passing                                    4-13-2               11-13-0
Fumbles                                    1-1                      4-2
Punts-avg.                               3-26.7                 3-40
Penalties                                  5-39                   8-73
Individual Statistics
Rushing — Chbg, Keyshawn Jones 21-176, Stumbaugh 17-71, Kyere Morton 2-9. SC, Edwards 12-73, Friberg 13-66, Green 5-36, Ryan Domico 4-24, Cohen Russell 4-11, Ellis 2-0.
Passing — Chbg, Stumbaugh 4-13-2-3. SC, Friberg 10-12-0-148, Edwards 1-1-0-4.
Receiving — Chbg, Jones 1-3, Morton 1-3, Garner Funk 1-1, Carmen Pompeii 1-(-4). SC, Russell 2-37, Ellis 3-25, Brady Dorner 1-23, Jeremy Bullock 1-19, Chase Longenecker 1-18, Conrad Moore 1-9, Green 1-5.
Interceptions — SC, Russell, Lusk.