GREENCASTLE — The Mid Penn Colonial football game between East Pennsboro and Greencastle-Antrim included 96 plays, 49 for the Panthers and 47 for the Blue Devils.

If G-A could only change the outcome in one of two huge plays, it might have been celebrating a win.

Jeremiah Fogle

Instead, East Pennsboro (2-2, 2-1 MPC) played strong defense, had the better of field position in the second half and snuck out of town with a 7-3 victory Friday night at Kaley Field.

Greencastle (1-3, 1-2 MPC) did well to stay in the game, having to overcome a long list of injuries that decimated the starting groups.

“Even though we lost a bunch of guys, the kids still played hard and kept us right there in the game,” Blue Devil coach Devin McCauley said. “It felt like a triage unit out there — we had kids in different positions, but they hung tough. I was really proud of them.”

The first play that G-A would like to have back came mere moments after the Blue Devils had driven from their own 9 to the East Penn 11, where they were stopped on third down and Andrew Bowers entered to kick a 27-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

The drive churned out four first downs and used up more than half of the second period.

McCauley said, “We got some stuff going on the ground and the offensive line was playing well.”

However, just three plays later, Panther quarterback Turner Barlup flipped a short pass out to speedy Danyell Everett. He slipped a tackle behind the line of scrimmage and took off down the right sideline to the end zone, and EP had its 7-3 lead with 2:29 left in the first half.

One missed tackle led to the game’s only TD.

On East Penn’s first possession of the second half, the second game-changing — or in this case, a non-game-changing play — happened. After a holding call put the Panthers behind the sticks, Barlup tried another pass out to his right. A Greencastle back read the play, stepped in front of the pass — with nothing but green grass and an inviting end zone ahead of him — but he dropped the interception.

The Blue Devils threatened only one time in the second half, taking the ball from their own 20 to the Panther 23 with a 2nd-and-3 play. But the next play lost a yard, then G-A was nailed for holding, and on third down, QB Sean Marshall was picked off by Ali Alima.

Greencastle was hampered on offense in the second half because star receiver Carter McCauley went out late in the first half with a possible concussion.

Coach McCauley said, “We were one dimensional on offense with him not out there.

“Our defense played pretty well considering all the guys not in there. Their backs ran hard and efficiently, They didn’t throw much at all (just 4 passes), but they spread the ball out to their athletes well.”

NOTES: Before Bowers’ field goal, Marshall hit McCauley in the end zone from 17 yards out, but EP’s Marcel Reed made a great play to knock the ball free … Unofficially, Jeremiah Fogle led Greencastle with 5 tackles, and Ben Belleau and Noah Shifflett had 4 each … Aaron Angelo led the Panthers with 9 tackles and an interception, and also ran for 58 yards.

East Pennsboro 7, Greencastle-Antrim 3
East Pennsboro                0     7     0     0     —     7
Greencastle                       0     3     0     0     —     3
Second Quarter
GA — Andrew Bowers 27 field goal, 3:25
EP — Dayrell Everett 56 pass from Turner Barlup (Raj Collotia kick), 2:29
Team Statistics
                                                 EP                       GA
First downs                            12                       10
Rushes-yards                      45-202               33-154
Passing                                   1-4-0                 6-14-2
Passing yards                          56                      43
Total offense                          258                     197
Fumbles-lost                           0-0                     0-0
Punts-average                      4-42.3                4-35.0
Penalties-yards                     5-45                     3-20
Individual Statistics
Rushing — EP, J.J. Gossard 19-96, Aaron Angelo 11-58, Everett 5-23, Elliot Bruhn 6-17, Ryan Potts 1-6,Barlup 3-2. G-A, Blake Reuter 10-47, Noah Shifflett 7-44, Lars Galinanes 7-32, Sean Marshall 5-27, Asher Whitson 3-(-1).
Passing — EP, Barlup 1-4-0-56. GA, Marshall 6-14-2–43.
Receiving — EP, Everett 1-56. GA, Carter McCauley 2-25, Shifflett 2-12, J.D. Flynn 1-3, Reuter 1-3.
Missed field goal — EP, Collotia 27 (wide left).
Inteceptions — EP, Ali Alami, Angelo.