GREENCASTLE — In a meeting of a pair of unbeaten teams, East Pennsboro emerged with a still clean slate.
The Panthers scored 15 unanswered points in the third period and took home a 24-13 victory over Greencastle-Antrim in a Mid Penn Colonial clash at Kaley Field on Friday night.
G-A (4-1, 1-1 MPC) held a 7-3 halftime lead and was feeling pretty good about it.
“Up 7-3 at the half, we thought we were in good shape,” Blue Devil coach Devin McCauley said. “We thought we were in position to wear them down a little. But ‘stuff’ happens.”
Logan Alvey
What happened is that East Penn (5-0, 2-0 MPC) put together a long drive to begin the second half, capped by a 20-yard scoring run by QB Keith Oates. Then, after forcing a three-and-out by Greencastle, the Panthers marched down and scored again, this time on a 2-yard run by Oates to take an 18-7 lead.
“We only had the ball three times in the second half, so our defense was on the field too long,” McCauley said. “We did well against their deep passing game, but they got us on some passes into the flat and some screens. We had back-to-back three-and-outs and that hurt.”
The Blue Devils were backed up and faced a third-and-long when QB Logan Alvey hooked up with Carter McCauley for an 84-yard pass play, which set up a 5-yard TD run by Xzavier Ramsey to make it 18-13.
Unfortunately, Oates led another drive for East Penn and he capped it off with a touchdown from the 1, bumping the lead back to 11 points.
“We were only down by five points in the fourth quarter, but then we tried a trick play — a jet sweep pass — and it got picked off,” McCauley said.
“These guys had been scoring a lot of points, so I think we played them pretty tough. But their quarterback (Oates) was able to make a few more plays to extend possessions than we were. Our kids battled and kept it close to the end.”
Carter McCauley finished with 4 catches for 113 yards, including an 11-yard score. Alvey hit on 13 of 15 passes for 149 yards and Ramsey ended with 62 yards on the ground.
For the Panthers, Oates passed for 139 yards and ran for 35, scoring three TDs. J.J. Gossard carried 21 times for 105 yards.
Greencastle hosts Northern York on Friday night in a Colonial game.
East Pennsboro 24, Greencastle-Antrim 13
East Pennsboro 0 3 15 6 — 24
Greencastle 0 7 0 6 — 13
Second Quarter
GA — Carter McCauley 17 pass from Logan Alvey (Andrew Bowers kick), 3:46
EP — Ali Alami 31 field goal, 0:39
Third Quarter
EP — Keith Oates 20 run (2-point conversion good), 7:39
EP — Oates 2 run (kick failed)
Fourth Quarter
GA — Xzavier Ramsey 5 run (2-point conversion failed), 7:35
EP — Oates 1 run (Alami kick), 0:49
Greencastle Individual Statistics
Rushing — Ramsey 15-62, Carter Coons 4-10, Logan Shifflett 2-6, Surzano Solomon 3-1, Alvey 2-1.
Passing — Alvey 11-13-1-149, Solomon 0-1-1-0.
Receiving — McCauley 4-113, Solomon 3-20, Blake Diller 2-10, Coons 1-4, Ramsey 1-2.