CHAMBERSBURG — Altoona’s offense did its job late in the game, scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 1:56 remaining.

Then the Mountain Lions’ defense did its job, holding Chambersburg to no points on four plays inside the Altoona 10, the final play as the clock expired.

Trever Luther

The 21-14 result in a Mid Penn Commonwealth tussle at Trojan Stadium on Friday night was the first win of the season for the Mountain Lions, put a halt to the Trojans’ two-game win streak, and likely snuffed out any possible playoff notions they had.

“This one hurts more than those losses at the beginning of the season,” Chambersburg coach Mark Luther said. “We had been going in a positive direction, but to win a football game, you have to make plays and they did, and we didn’t.”

The Mountain Lions entered the game scoring just over 4 points per game and had not done much at all in the passing game.

But QB Mark Harrington (6-3, 225), a converted tight end, who also played the whole game at linebacker, was good enough Friday night. He threw only 9 passes, but completed 5 for 95 yards and almost all in key situations. On his two touchdown passes — one caught by Amar Emeigh-Ballos and one by Michael Chisolm — the receiver made a fantastic catch with a defender right on them.

The first catch came on 2nd-and-19 at the Trojan 21, and the second came on 3rd-and-10 from the 16.

“They made those plays and that was the difference in the game,” Luther said. “It seemed like every time we got them in third-and-long, they’d make a play and we couldn’t get off the field.”

Altoona (1-7, 1-6 MPC) converted on four third-down plays on its first scoring drive, and also converted on a 3rd-and-14, 2nd-and-19 and 2nd-and-20.

Chambersburg (3-5, 2-5 MPC) had a golden opportunity to break ahead early when Altoona fumbled the ball away on its own 21 on the first play from scrimmage, with the recovery going to Kevin Demory.

But instead of pouncing on the Lions, the Trojans went backward. A motion penalty, a loss of 2, and a a procedure penalty made it 3rd-and-long and QB Ceagan Truett had his pass deflected and picked off by Logan Wukovich.

Luther said, “That first series was not good. We lined up wrong and had a couple of penalties.”

The Mountain Lions went 14 plays for 90 yards to go ahead 7-0, with Harrington running it in from the 1. Chambersburg did not respond until just before halftime, when Truett flipped a pass over the line to Isaiah Tasker on 3rd-and-goal.

The Trojans scored on the first possession of the second half when Antonio Harrison, who had 124 yards on 17 carries, busted loose for a 41-yard TD jaunt to put his team up 14-7.

Instead of folding, Altoona came right back, overcoming a holding penalty and scoring on Harrington’s pass to Emeigh-Ballos to tie the game.

The Mountain Lions nearly went ahead early in the fourth quarter, but the Trojan defense stopped Harrington on 4th-and-1 at the 2, forcing a fumble.

But Altoona scored the game-winner on its next possession, with Chisolm holding onto the ball in the end zone despite being crunched by two defenders.

The Trojans had only 1:52 and 2 timeouts to work with, but reached the Mountain Lion 8 on a pass of 23 yards from Truett to Trever Luther with 23 seconds left.

But a pass to Harrison that lost 2 yards, a spike and two incompletions in the end zone ended the game.

Coach Luther said, “We saw (Altoona) make plays tonight that they hadn’t made all year, especially in the passing game. But we needed our guys to do their job, and too many times they didn’t.”

NOTES: Truett was 16-for-28, for 168 yards, but was picked off twice … Trever Luther had 6 catches for 68 yards … Chambersburg plays at Cumberland Valley next Friday.

Altoona 21, Chambersburg 14
Altoona                    7     0     7     7     —     21
Chambersburg       0     7     7     0     —     14
First Quarter
Alt — Mark Harrington 1 run (Cody Chathams kick), 2:42
Second Quarter
Ch — Isaiah Tasker 2 pass from Ceagan Truett (Trever Luther kick), 0:39
Third Quarter
Ch — Antonio Harrison 41 run (Luther kick), 7:12
Alt — Amar Emeigh-Ballos 21 pass from Harrington (Chathams kick), 2:40
Fourth Quarter
Alt — Michael Chisolm 16 pass from Harrington (Chathams kick), 1:56
Team Statistics
                                                          Alt                 Chbg
First downs                                      15                   15
Rushes-yards                                 44-180         21-133
Passing                                            6-10-0          16-28-2
Passing yards                                   128                 168
Total offense                                     308                 301
Fumbles-lost                                     4-2                  0-0
Punts-average                                 2-34.5            3-35.7
Penalties-yards                                 5-50               8-45
Individual Statistics
Rushing — Alt, Harrington 23-83, Noah Stains 11-63, Emeigh-Ballos 3-19, Julian Hazlewood 3-8, Branson Adams 4-8. Chbg, Harrison 17-124, Truett 1-6, Imani Watson 3-5, Evan Brown 1-(-2).
Passing — Alt, Harrington 5-9-0-95, Parker White 1-1-0-33. Chbg, Truett 16-28-2-168.
Receiving — Alt, Emeigh-Ballos 2-48, Jahrell Baker 2-45, Chisolm 2-35. Chbg, Luther 6-68, Brown 3-41, Jason Chambers 2-27, Brycen Murray 1-14, Harrison 2-8, Harrison Benedict 1-6, Tasker 1-4.
Interceptions — Alt, Logan Wukovich, Chathams.