CHAMBERSBURG — Central Dauphin East roared to a 21-0 lead over Chambersburg in a Mid Penn Commonwealth football game at Trojan Stadium on Friday night, and looked to be in complete control.

It was starting to look like last year’s 50-2 blowout win by East.

Cobe Penick

But this is a different Trojan team in 2025.

Chambersburg (2-0, 1-0 MPC) gradually worked itself back in the game with two scores before halftime, then turned two fourth-quarter touchdowns and a swarming defense into a thrilling 26-21 victory.

“The kids believed they could do it,” Trojan coach Gary Carter said. “The coaches and I told them,  we don’t want to have anybody thinking, ‘Here we go again.’ We told them just keep playing one play at a time.

“Once we got the first touchdown, it gave us some confidence, and the defense really stepped up.”

The game-winning points came on a 13-yard pass from Ceagan Truett to Cobe Penick with 0:57 left to make it 26-21. But the Panthers drove the ball to the Chambersburg 15, and the home crowd had to hold its breath through two incompletions, the last as the clock ran out.

Trailing 21-0, a pair of scores got Chambersburg close, the last with 1:22 left in the first half. Then Cobe Penick picked off a pass and returned it to the Panthers 21, but East held and kept its lead.

Chambersburg’s first possession of the third quarter went all the way to the CDE 5, but again, the Panthers (1-1, 0-1 MPC) held.

Finally, a 10-play drive early in the fourth period was finished by the Trojans when Truett hit Penick on a slant from 6 yards out, making it 21-20. When East was penalized for encroachment on the kick, Carter and staff decided to go for two and the lead. But a pass was broken up.

“We wanted to win the football game, and we had two or three plays we thought would work,” Carter said. “We didn’t want to play for a tie at that point.”

Central Dauphin East got to the Trojan 19 before being halted, giving Chambersburg 7:40 to work with. It took 13 plays, but they got the job done.

Frank Barrientos

East gave up a first down on third down with a pass interference penalty, Truett ran for a first down on fourth down, and he hit Isaiah Tasker for 17 yards on 4th-and-6. Davonte Scott made a great catch over the middle with two defenders draped on him for 14 yards to the CDE 13.

On the next play, Truett lofted a perfect pass to the back right corner of the end zone and Penick caught it for the go-ahead points with 57 seconds left.

Penick said, “They showed man press coverage on that play, then there was a timeout. We said if they do that again, we would run the fade. They did and we made it work.”

The offensive line allowed only two sacks of Truett, and settled in as the game went on.

Center Frank Barrientos said, “They have a great defensive line, but as the week went on, we were able to figure out and read when they were coming and when they weren’t.”

After an offsides penalty and a kickoff out of bounds, the Panthers started on their own 40. QB Makai George hit Amir Lemelle for 17 yards, then Landen Moore for 25 to the Chambersburg 23.

With 18 seconds left, George connected with Brandon Boyd, who tried desperately to get out of bounds, but Tavian Ferguson helped hold him in and East had to use its last timeout with 7 seconds remaining.

On the next play, George misfired on a pass over the middle. On fourth down with 3 seconds left, a George toss into the end zone was covered well by the defense and the game was over.

Penick said, “We were watching for No. 5 (Lemelle) at the end — you knew the quarterback would be looking for him.”

Carter said, “Yeah, we figured they’d go to No. 5 and the kids were all over him. The defensive line got just enough pressure on him at the end to make him uncomfortable.”

Truett connected on 20 of 35 passes for 237 yards and four touchdowns, the first of which went to Scott for 13 yards. Scott had 112 yards of offense, including 8 catches, and Penick had 8 grabs for 95 yards.

“We had guys making plays all over the field,” Carter said. “I can’t single one of them out.”

CD East’s Avery Romain busted the first play from scrimmage for an 80-yard touchdown — zipping past a blitz by Chambersburg — and later scored from 25 and 4 yards. He finished with 214 yards on the ground.

NOTES: The Trojans play at Bishop McDevitt on Friday, 7 p.m. … Ayden Sylvestre made 2 point-after kicks for the Trojans … Enoch Keath and Cooper Stockslager had sacks and Ray Williams and Eli Vosburg shared one.

Chambersburg 26, Central Dauphin East 21
CD East                     14       7     0       0     —     21
Chambersburg         0     14     0     12     —     26
First Quarter
E — Avery Romain 80 run (kick failed), 11:47
E — Romain 25 run (Landen Moore pass from Makai George), 5:54
Second Quarter
E — Romain 4 run (Leo Fure kick), 11:19
C — Davonte Scott 13 pass from Ceagan Truett (Ayden Sylvestre kick), 8:03
C — Isaiah Tasker 28 pass from Truett (Sylvestre kick), 1:22
Fourth Quarter
C — Cobe Penick 6 pass from Truett (pass failed), 9:54
C — Penick 13 pass from Truett (pass failed), 0:57
Team Statistics
                                                     CDE                   Chbg
First downs                                 12                        17
Rushes-yards                            25-199                29-83
Passing                                      12-24-1              20-25-0
Passing yards                              215                     237
Total offense                               414                      320
Fumbles-lost                                0-0                       2-0
Punts-average                            3-28.3                 4-39.5
Penalties-yards                           9-82                     2-30
Individual Statistics
Rushing — CDE, Romain 19-214, Jaeden Chase 3-6, George 3-(-21). Chbg, Truett 15-32, Scott 2-37, Malachi Tasker 10-16, Nicholas Pompeii 2-(-2).
Passing — CDE, George 12-24-1-215. Chbg, Truett 20-35-0-237.
Receiving — CDE, Chase 3-92, Amir Lemelle 6-84, Moore 1-25, Boyd 2-14. Chbg, Penick 6-95, Scott 8-75, I.Tasker 5-65, Cooper Stockslager 1-2.
Interceptions — Chbg, Penick.