CHAMBERSBURG — Chambersburg had its best offensive game of the season, the defense made some key stops, special teams scored a touchdown and the Trojans seemed to get nearly all of the breaks.
Stanley Lozius
That proved to be too much for Cedar Cliff to handle, and Chambersburg put together an impressive 38-13 victory for Homecoming at Trojan Stadium on Friday night.
“We finally made some plays,” Trojan coach Mark Luther said. “The defense made some big stops, and the offense converted some third downs, and then got some big plays. It was a fun game for us in a lot of different aspects, and the kids played well.”
It didn’t start that way.
The Colts (2-4, 1-4 MPC) had a 46-yard run by P.J. Dent and a pass interference call and were at the Chambersburg 19 in two plays. But the defense allowed only 2 more yards in four plays to halt the drive. Also, on the last play, Dent was tackled by Evan Brown and injured his leg, leaving the game for good.
Luther said, “Early in the game we made that stop, and that was big.”
Cedar Cliff took a 6-0 lead on a 30-yard counter by Keegan Maley, but the Trojans came right back when Ceagan Truett hit Brown. The catch would have gotten a first down on third-and-6, but Brown shrugged off his defender and outran the secondary 61 yards for a touchdown and a 7-6 lead.
The Colts then scored after a weird play. QB Bennett Secrest was chased to his left and threw a wobbling pass across his body and way up into the air. Playing man-to-man, none of the defenders reacted quickly and Amarion Autry caught it for 43 yards. Cade Finkboner scored from the 4 to make it 13-7.
Ceagan Truett
A 31-yard scoring pass on a post from Truett, who was 11-for-14 for 191 yards, to Jason Chambers finished off a 9-play drive to put Chambersburg into the lead for good.
Then came the wildest play of the game. The Colts were forced to punt from their own 20 and backup punter Guner Hiller bobbled a low snap. When he picked it up, he tried to get the kick off quickly. Unfortunately, the ball went off his foot almost sideways and it went right to Chambersburg’s Dylan Panfili, who gratefully made the catch and ran 11 yards for a score, making it 28-13.
It was just one of those rare games in which the Trojans were getting the good bounces.
— From the Colts’ 2, Stanley Lozius took a handoff and was close to scoring when he fumbled the ball. Teammate Brady Rosenberry fell on it for a TD.
— Devonte Scott caught a short pass from Truett and fumbled when he was hit — the ball went right to Trever Luther for a first down.
— Luther ran a fake punt for a first down, but a blocking in the back penalty wiped it out. So Luther than belted a 64-yard punt.
A 3-yard run by Imani Watson and a 35-yard field goal by Luther closed out the scoring.
“We played physical tonight — we had to — did you see the size of some of their guys?” coach Luther said. “We had Stanley and Seth Gilliam coming off the end and Cedar Cliff struggled to stop them. We had more pressure on the quarterback tonight than we’ve had in all the other games combined.
“I think (Cedar Cliff) thought this would be an easy game for them, but as the game wore on and we got a decent lead, then their attitude changed. Our kids gave a good effort tonight.”
Chambersburg 38, Cedar Cliff 13
Cedar Cliff 13 0 0 0 — 13
Chambersburg 7 13 14 3 — 38
First Quarter
CC — Keegan Maley 30 run (run failed)
Ch — Evan Brown 61 pass from Ceagan Truett (Trever Luther kick)
CC — Cade Finkboner 4 run (Wyatt Easton kick)
Second Quarter
Ch — Jason Chambers 31 pass from Truett (Luther kick)
Ch — Dylan Panfili 11 punt return (Luther kick)
Third Quarter
Ch — Brady Rosenberry fumble recovery in end zone (Luther kick)
Ch — Imani Watson 3 run (Luther kick)
Fourth Quarter
Ch — Luther 35 field goal
Team Statistics
CC Chbg
First downs 10 13
Rushing 39-211 31-102
Passing 7-14-0 12-15-0
Passing yards 61 204
Total offense 272 306
Fumbles-lost 2-2 4-1
Punts-average 4-26.0 4-43-0
Penalties-yards 5-30 9-95
Individual Statistics
Rushing — CC, Finkboner 17-83, P.J. Dent 2-47, Maley 2-30, Alex Otero 7-26, Blake Secrest 1-21, Khymeir Richardson 4-4, Bennett Secrest 8-0. Chbg, Watson 7-54, Antonio Harrison 10-46, Corvin Edwards 3-7, Luther 1-3, Stanley Lozius 2-2, Camryn Green 1-1, Truett 7-(-11).
Passing — CC, Be.Secrest 7-14-0-61, Jaden Hinton 0-1-0-0. Chbg, Truett 11-14-0-191, Green 1-1-0-13.
Receiving — CC, Amarion Autry 2-45, Owen Anastasi 1-7, Julius Tirado 1-7, Dent 1-2. Chbg. Brown 1-61, Luther 5-45, Lozius 1-39, Jason Chambers 2-38, Brycen Murray 1-13, Devonte Scott 1-10, Watson 1-(-2).