GREENCASTLE — Greencastle-Antrim could not get its running game going against a stout Northern York defense.

But that didn’t stop the Blue Devils from claiming a 24-14 Mid Penn Colonial football victory over the Polar Bears in a Homecoming game at Kaley Field on Friday night.

Connor Rennenkamp

The reason: G-A (5-1, 2-1 MPC) made the majority of big plays.

The offense scored two touchdowns on long plays, the defense contributed a score and another huge play and even special teams got in on the act.

“We were not happy about how we ran the ball,” Greencastle coach Devin McCauley said. “But they had a good game plan, and we took what they gave us with the passing game. We did make some splash plays.”

Big play No. 1: On Northern’s third play on offense, an option pitch was mishandled and G-A’s Connor Rennenkamp found the ball bouncing right to him. He grabbed it, hesitated, then ran 29 yards to the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

“Stuff like that just happens,” Rennenkamp said. “I wasn’t really sure what to do for a second or two, then I was looking for some blocks and tried to get to the end zone. I don’t think my nerves were even settled down yet.”

McCauley said, “He did a nice job being there on the option. Right place, right time.”

Carter McCauley

Big play No. 2: The Blue Devils drove into Polar Bear territory and faced a third-and-6 at the 34. Trickery ensued.

QB Logan Alvey found Carter McCauley in the left flat and G-A pulled off the ol’ hook-and-ladder play, with McCauley lateraling the ball to Xzavier Ramsey, who ran the final 20 yards for the TD.

Big play No. 3: Early in the third quarter, Greencastle was forced to punt. Andrew Bowers punted the ball and Magarrin Macke fielded it. Except it fell out of his hands and Carter McCauley — who had snapped the ball on the play — hustled downfield for the recovery at the Northern 49.

Big play No. 4: Four plays later, on play action, Alvey led McCauley perfectly and he hauled in the catch for a 35-yard scoring play that upped the Blue Devils’ lead to 24-7.

Big play No. 5: Northern worked itself back into the game, with Cole Bartram scoring his second TD of the game with 8:36 left in the game. The Bears then held Greencastle and forced a punt.

Northern (1-5, 0-3 MPC) took over on the G-A 37, but the defense played tough and produced a fourth-and-8 situation with 5:50 left. QB Gavin Bonin rolled to his left, chased by Rennenkamp.

When Bonin finally decided to throw, Rennenkamp was able to block the ball. It was tipped up in the air and Bonin caught it. But Rennenkamp made the tackle for an 8-yard loss and that was pretty much it.

“I was just trying to stop the quarterback,” Rennenkamp said. “I saw an opportunity when he tried to throw and when he caught it, I just needed to make the tackle.”

Bartram was held to 77 yards on 21 carries and he never broke “the big one.”

Coach McCauley said, “He came in with like 750 yards already. We didn’t stop him, but we did pretty well, and he never broke one.

“It was really good that we held the lead for most of the game, because they could have used him more if they had the lead.”

NOTES: Northern held G-A to only 26 yards on 22 carries … But Alvey was 17-for-24 for 200 yards, including 6 balls to McCauley for 98 yards … Parker Funk and Sal Bandura each made several disruptive plays in the Northern backfield … Andrew Bowers nailed a 39-yard field goal in the first half … The Blue Devils travel to Susquehanna Township next Friday.

Greencastle-Antrim 24, Northern York 14
Northern             7      0     0     7     —     14
Greencastle         7    10     7     0     —     24
First Quarter
GA — Connor Rennenkamp 29 fumble return (Andrew Bowers kick), 9:31
NY — Cole Bartram 2 run (Anna Lehman kick), 3:59
Second Quarter
GA — Xzavier Ramsey 20 run after Carter McCauley pass from Logan Alvey (Bowers kick), 11:11
GA — Bowers 39 field goal, 4:18
Third Quarter
GA — McCauley 35 pass from Alvey (Bowers kick), 3:49
Fourth Quarter
NY — Bartram 8 run (Nolan Wimbrough kick), 8:36
Team Statistics
                                                NY                G-A
First downs                           14                   11
Rushes-yards                      41-109           22-26
Passing                                12-21-0          17-24-0
Passing yards                        122                 200
Total offense                          231                 226
Fumbles                                  4-2                  0-0
Punts-average                      4-32.8             5-31.2
Penalties-yards                     4-20                4-46
Individual Statistics
Rushing — NY, Bartram 21-77, Gavin Bonin 13-21, Magarrin Macke 4-13, Jake Bechtel 1-(-1), Tim Gunning 1-(-1). G-A, Ramsey 11-18, Carter Coons 6-6, Logan Shifflett 3-4, Alvey 1-0, Surzano Solomon 1-(-2).
Passing — NY, Bonin 12-21-0-122. G-A, Alvey 17-24-0-200.
Receiving — NY, Bartram 1-36, Bechtel 4-33, Jake Kazakavich 2-30, Macke 3-28, Gunning 1-3, Bonin 1-(-8).  G-A, McCauley 6-98, Blake Diller 3-25, Solomon 3-25, Trent Merrilat 2-19, Rennenkamp 2-7, Garrett Blubaugh 1-6.