BOILING SPRINGS — Greencastle-Antrim jumped all over Boiling Springs early Friday night and it proved to be enough to win its third consecutive football game.

Noah Shifflett

The Blue Devils scored a pair of touchdowns in the first 2-3 minutes to take a 14-0 lead and held the Bubblers at arms length the rest of the way to pick up a 26-13 Mid Penn Colonial victory at Ecker Field.

It gives Greencastle a 4-5 record (3-5 MPC) with one game left on the schedule, and a win at home next Friday against West Perry (7-2) could be enough to qualify for the playoffs.

“We’ve gotten three in a row, and there were a couple of earlier ones I thought we could have won,” G-A coach Jason Thurston said. “But at least it gives us a chance next week.”

On the third play of the game, Greencastle’s Noah Shifflett intercepted a pass — which was the first pick of the season by the Blue Devil defense.

Four plays later, Shifflett took a jet sweep around the end and scored from 7 yards out. Blake Witmer’s kick made it 7-0.

On the ensuing kickoff, G-A tried an onside kick and recovered it at the Boiling Springs’ 48. On the next play, Blake Reuter took a handoff and swept outside left. Then he made a nice cut back to the middle and ended up bursting down the right sideline to the end zone.

Suddenly, it was 14-0.

The Bubblers (1-8, 0-7 MPC) managed a touchdown to make it 14-6, but the Blue Devils produced a quick 7-play drive, culminating on a 17-yard burst on a trap play by fullback Lars Galinanes for a 20-6 lead at halftime.

The only score of the third period was a second TD by Boiling Springs, closing the score to 20-13. But midway through the fourth, Reuter punched the ball in from the 1 and G-A built a two-score lead again.

Thurston said, “We started well, and we were gashing them with running the ball outside because they loaded the box. But once we up two scores, we started making mistakes and penalties, and then there was a lot of jawing going on and we let them get into our heads. That didn’t help us at all.

“But once we stopped talking and started playing football again, we did fine.”