GREENCASTLE — Greencastle-Antrim was facing one of the two powers of the Mid Penn Colonial Division on Friday at Kaley Field, yet the Blue Devils played one of their best games of the season.

Cameron Medina

But Northern York scored three consecutive touchdowns between the end of the second period and early in the fourth and held off G-A, 34-27.

“We were ahead at halftime (20-17), but we couldn’t stop their run in the second half,” Greencastle coach Devin McCauley said. “Our kids played really hard and made it into a really good high school football game. I was much happier this week with our effort and the level of our play across the board.”

Despite having five starters out with injuries, the Blue Devils (1-3, 1-3 MPC) fought the Polar Bears (4-0, 4-0 MPC) tooth and nail.

G-A quarterback Zach Cole punched it in from the 1 to get his team on the board in the first quarter. After Northern took a 10-7 lead, Cameron Medina flashed into the end zone from 25 yards out, followed by a 6-yard pass from Cole to Adam Root to put Greencastle up 20-10.

McCauley said, “They took Adam (3 catches, 10 yards) away in a couple of different ways, but he made a really good touchdown catch on a jump ball in the corner of the end zone.”

The Polar Bears got it to within 20-17 before halftime, and a run by Talon Belluscio in the third quarter put them ahead. Then came a scoring run by Zach Mowchan and a second field goal by Mason Yohn to make it 34-20.

“We got behind there, but the kids came right back and scored (on another Cole 1-yard run),” McCauley said. “We made it real close at the end.”

McCauley was particularly happy with the Blue Devils’ running game, which netted 205 yards on 31 carries.

“We were able to run like I said we needed to — we got over 200 yards,” he said. “And Medina had 125 yards on just five carries; he made some nice plays.

“They just wore us down in the second half. They exploited a couple of places where we were missing starters. But all of our kids played their butts off tonight. I challenged them that we need to be better at stopping a power running game.”

Northern 34, Greencastle-Antrim 27
Northern                      7    10    7    10    —    34
Greencastle                 7    13    0      7    —    27
First Quarter
GA — Zach Cole 1 run (Jackson Eby kick)
NY — Tyler Weary 7 pass from Jordan Heisey (Mason Yohn kick)
Second Quarter
NY — Yohn 30 field goal
GA — Cameron Medina 25 run (kick failed)
GA — Adam Root 6 pass from Cole (Eby kick)
NY — Zach Beam 10 pass from Heisey (Yohn kick)
Third Quarter
NY — Talon Belluscio 3 run (Yohn kick)
Fourth Quarter
NY — Zach Mowchan 9 run (Yohn kick)
NY — Yohn 34 field goal
GA — Cole 1 run (Eby kick)
Team Statistics
                                                          Nor                        G-A
First downs                                      20                           13
Rushes-yards                               41-257                     31-205
Passing                                         10-17-0                    11-21-0
Passing yards                                 106                          90
Total offense                                  363                         295
Fumbles lost                                     1                             0
Punts-average                                3-40                        6-38
Penalties-yards                              5-37                        4-28
Individual Statistics
Rushing — Nor, CJ Wagner 12-97, Belluscio 9-50, Sean Sarley 3-20. G-A, Medina 5-25, David Niebauer 14-58, Blake Grove 5-19, Cole 7-3.
Passing — Nor, Heisey 9-16-0-108, Cole Lamb 1-1-0-(-2). G-A, Cole 11-21-0-90.
Receiving — Nor, Weary 4-43, Beam 2-13. G-A, Levi Bingaman 2-38, Grove 3-36, Root 3-10, Medina 1-4, Niebauer 2-2.