COLONIAL PARK — Central Dauphin East simply had too much.
Too much size, too many athletes, too much skill, too much height.
Elijah Owens
And it was too much for Chambersburg to handle in a 40-7 Mid Penn Commonwealth football defeat Friday night at Landis Field.
“They have such good size with their receivers and big linemen and that’s just something we don’t have,” Trojan coach Mark Luther said.
The Panthers (6-2, 4-1 MPC) exploited several of those size advantages to their favor. On East’s first score, 6-foot-6 receiver Tymere Thornton went up against Chambersburg’s 5-9 corner Malachi Scott and after a not-called push in the back, reeled in a pass from Terrance Jackson-Copney for a 44-yard touchdown.
Later, 6-3 Mehki Flowers, the Panthers’ Penn State commit, was matched against a smaller defender and after some contact, caught the pass. Later still, Thornton went right over the top of a defender to snag a high pass for a TD. The bigger linemen cleared holes for running back Marcel McDaniels, who scooted for 195 yards and is now over 1,000 for the season.
“We had kids in position, but they couldn’t make the play,” Luther said. “We don’t have any 6-3 guys like that.”
Then look at CD East’s hard-hitting defense that held the Trojans (2-6, 0-5 MPC) to just six first downs and 155 total yards. Chambersburg was unable to slow down a furious pass rush that gave little time to the quarterbacks to throw.
Riley Harmon played quarterback most of the game for the Trojans and connected on 7 of 22 passes for 60 yards, and had an interception returned for a touchdown (46 yards by Jekari Rivera-Mauldin). Jermere Jones was 1-for-1 for the team’s only touchdown, a 65-yarder to Rhaigeon Parker on the first play of the fourth period.
“Riley stands in there and doesn’t panic,” Luther said. “We had a couple of passes dropped — one for a touchdown — but our offensive line is not strong enough or aggressive enough to handle the pressure they were bringing, so it wouldn’t have mattered who was at quarterback.”
East had a pair of 2-yard scoring runs in the second quarter, by Flowers and Jackson-Copney, then the pick six (the fourth straight game for a pick six against the Trojans) for a 26-0 halftime lead. The second TD pass to Thornton and a 4-yard run by McDaniels made it 40-0 before the Jones-to-Parker hookup.
On defense for Chambersburg, Shea Makosy made his third interception of the season and also had 11 tackles and a fumble recovery. Grant Hopple and Bryce Folmar each had 7 stops and Elijah Owens had six tackles.
The Trojans host Cumberland Valley next Friday at Trojan Stadium.
Central Dauphin East 40, Chambersburg 7
Chambersburg 0 0 0 7 — 7
CD East 7 19 14 0 — 40
First Quarter
E — Tymere Thornton 44 pass from Terrance Jackson-Copney (Nick Bloss kick), 5:32
Second Quarter
E — Mehki Flowers 2 run (kick failed), 11:30
E — Jackson-Copney 2 run (run failed), 5:14
E — Jekari Rivera-Mauldin 46 interception return (Bloss kick), 3:43
Third Quarter
E — Thornton 16 pass from Jackson-Copney (Bloss kick), 4:18
E — Marcel McDaniels 4 run (Bloss kick), 1:07
Fourth Quarter
C — Rhaigeon Parker 65 pass from Jermere Jones (Teegan Humelsine kick), 11:48
TEAM STATISTICS
Chbg CDE
First downs 6 20
Rushes-yards 20-30 36-233
Passing 8-23-1 12-19-1
Passing yards 125 235
Total offense 155 451
Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-2
Punts-average 7-40.1 2-36.5
Penalties-yards 6-57 6-30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Chbg, Rashawn Williams 11-16, Riley Harmon 3-7, Bryce Flenory 5-4, Jones 1-3. CDE, McDaniels 23-195, Xavier Armstrong 4-20, Flowers 2-4, Jackson-Copney 5-4, Aidan Chandler 1-0, Jayden Winters 1-0.
Passing — Chbg, Jones 1-1-0-65, Harmon 7-22-1-60. CDE, Jackson-Copney 7-11-1-141, Tony Powell 5-8-0-94.
Receiving — Chbg, Parker 1-65, Isaiah Brumfield 2-27, Andy Jean-Baptiste 3-19, Dominic Barbagallo 1-9, James Lilley 1-5. CDE, Thornton 3-83, Flowers 3-52, Chandler 2-69, Harris Brajion 1-30, Thaddeus Krebs 1-3, Jackson-Copley 2-(-3).