DILLSBURG — Greencastle-Antrim battled back from a 14-0 deficit to make a close game of it, but Northern York had a little bit extra at the end and pulled away for a 24-13 victory Friday at Bostic Field in a Mid Penn Colonial football game.
David Niebauer
“Our kids played so hard and battled for four quarters,” G-A coach Devin McCauley said. “We’re just going to have to regroup for the final two games.”
The Polar Bears (5-2, 3-1 MPC) took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to a pair of individual efforts. On a 63-yard scoring play, Cole Bartram took a short pass and broke multiple tackles on his way to the end zone. Later in the quarter, Greencastle’s defense appeared to have a running back halted behind the line of scrimmage, but he broke free for a 10-yard touchdown run.
“We did a nice job early against their power running, but then they scored on that pass play,” McCauley said. “And then we had their kid stopped in the backfield until he got loose. Those two plays really flipped the game.”
But the Blue Devils (3-5, 1-4 MPC) fought to get back into the game., finally scoring on a 1-yard plunge by QB Taylor Conrad to make it 14-7 at halftime.
McCauley said, “We got that big touchdown before the half. I think we went 81 yards and we had to convert two short fourth-down plays. Then we got the ball to start the second half and scored again to make it 14-13.”
David Niebauer rumbled 44 yards for the score, but the kick was blocked.
That’s where the score stayed until the Polar Bears got a 32-yard field goal from Mason Yohn early in the fourth period, and then tacked on a short TD run after hitting a long pass to set it up.
“We had them fourth-and-1 and they did a play-action pass and converted it,” McCauley said. “I thought we played well on defense except for about three plays. A couple of times we nearly got picks, but the ball just went off our hands. They also put the ball on the ground twice, but we couldn’t recover it. We had a short field once and we couldn’t finish it, and we had a couple of passing plays we dialed up that we just couldn’t quite complete.
“It’s kind of been the story of our year — we’re right in the game, but we can’t seem to take that next step to close out the game.”
The Blue Devils host West Perry next Friday night.
Northern York 24, Greencastle-Antrim 13
Greencastle 0 7 6 0 — 13
Northern 14 0 0 10 — 24
First Quarter
NY — Cole Bartram 63 pass from Timothy Bodin (Mason Yohn kick)
NY — N/A 10 run (Yohn kick)
Second Quarter
GA — Taylor Conrad 1 run (Nate Kirkwood kick)
Third Quarter
GA — David Niebauer 44 run (kick blocked)
Fourth Quarter
NY — Yohn 32 field goal
NY — N/A 2 run (Yohn kick)
Greencastle Individual Stats
Rushing — Tavon Cooper 18-83, Neibauer 8-58, Conrad 17-71, Mason Bowers 1-3, Brady Diller 2-(-1).
Passing — Conrad 4-13-0-36.
Receiving — Diller 2-32, Cooper 2-4.