That sentiment resounded over the Pennsylvania sidelines with about three-and-a-half minutes left in Saturday’s Big 30 Charities Classic at Parkway Field.

PA led New York, 34-27, when it faced a fourth-and-5 from about midfield.

PA head coach Jim Penley went for it, and quarterback Drew Evens (Port Allegany) connected with St. Marys’ Carter Chadsey for a first down. Penley turned to a familiar running back — Eisenhower’s Benji Bauer — to run out the clock down the stretch of a 34-27 win as PA moves its series lead to 24-22-3 over 50 years.

“I would definitely make that call in the regular season or the playoffs,” said Eisenhower’s Penley, PA’s head coach for the third time (2006 and 2105). “I think the last 20 years I’ve shown that I want to win the game and I have to believe in my guys that they will find a way to do it. On that call, we knew we were going to go for a play-action pass as much as we were running it, but I got some great input from Chadsey and we came up with a really nice weak-side route to him, and Evans made a great throw. I did not want to give their quarterback the ball one more play if I didn’t have to. I knew once we got into the fourth quarter with a lead that both of my offensive teams could pound the ball.”

Pennsylvania proceeded to run out the clock short of a pass-play to end the game just shy of the end zone.

Bauer finished with 81 second-half yards on the ground, including four first-downs. In fact, PA approached 200 yards rushing in the second half on the legs of Bauer, Evens, Ricky Zampogna (Kane), Blaine Moses (Port Allegany), Noah Archer (Port Allegany), and Logan Mosier (St. Marys).

“I thought all of our Warren County kids played outstanding, but I was very proud of my young men,” said Penley of five Eisenhower Knights, including three sons of PA coaches. “When we got to the last drive with Conner (Younger, at center) and Benji on the field, I knew we were going to grind that ball… Mike (Vanatta), Caleb (Penley), and Garrett (Jensen) made so many solid plays on defense to help keep us in the game until our offense was able to make the plays we needed. I knew all five of those guys would do what needs to be done to win. And there were so many great plays by all the young men on the Pennsylvania team. And a great job coaching by my staff.”

PA trailed 21-12 at halftime, but rallied for two touchdowns in the final 22 seconds of the third quarter.

Moses scored from five yards out with 23 seconds to play in the third quarter following a 66-yard drive. It was his second touchdown.

Archer, who earlier dropped a fourth-down pass deep in NY territory, recovered a NY fumble on the ensuing kickoff. Bauer rumbled 26 yards two plays later and a 2-point conversion gave PA a 28-21 lead after three.

It was a quick turnaround in a quarter in which New York’s Giancarlo Nuzzo had an apparent 32-yard touchdown pass to Pat Spencer called back due to a holding penalty.

On NY’s first possession of the fourth, Nuzzo connected with Kyle Stover on a 59-yard score, but PA’s Gavin Burgess blocked the extra-point kick.

Pennsylvania’s line took over on a 10-play, 80-yard drive. Zampogna scored his second touchdown of the game on an 11-yard run to lead 34-27.

New York had a chance with six minutes left, but went three and out. Pennsylvania kept possession the rest of the way, doubling NY’s second-half offensive plays. PA sealed it on its second fourth-down conversion of the drive, a fourth-and-1 pass near the end zone from Evens to Elk County Catholic’s Joe Tettis to end the game.

“There was definitely adversity in the first half, not only with the touchdown at the end, but just with some of the mental errors we were making,” said Penley. “When I went into halftime, I already had a number of the players working together on what they were making mistakes on, how they could adjust, and when you have young men who are so focused on just fixing the problems that made me feel really good that if we could get them slowed down in the third quarter we would pull away.”

Pennsylvania finished with more than 200 yards on the ground and St. Marys’ Charlie Coudriet completed 9 of 12 passes for 122 yards, Evens added 68 yards passing, and Zampogna had a pass play for 29 yards.

After 30 years, Frewsburg’s Terry Gray coached New York for his final game. Franklinville-Ellicottville’s Nuzzo finished 9-of-10 passing for 214 yards, and he added 64 yards rushing for NY. Pioneer’s Kyle Stover had five receptions for 137 yards. He had a receiving and rushing score. He also set up the game’s first touchdown with a lateral flip pass from Nuzzo down to PA’s 1-yard line.

NY 7 14 6 0 — 27

PA 0 12 16 6 — 34

First Quarter

NY–Christian Swalcy 1 run, 5:34 (Anthony DeCapua kick)

Second Quarter

PA–Ricky Zampogna 7 run, 12:58 (kick fails)

NY–Kyle Stover 4 run, 6:08 (DeCapua kick)

PA–Blaine Moses 15 pass from Charlie Coudriet, 1:12 (pass fails)

NY–Swalcy 16 pass from Giancarlo Nuzzo, 0:00 (DeCapua kick

Third Quarter

PA–Moses 5 run, 0:22.1 (Coudriet run)

PA–Benji Bauer 26 run, 0:00 (Zampogna run)

Fourth Quarter

NY–Stover 59 pass from Nuzzo, 12:55 (kick blocked)

PA–Zampogna 11 run, 6:23 (run fails)

Individual Stats

Rushing: NY–Nuzzo 12-64, Swalcy 9-36, Stover 7-9, Draven DeJesus 6-(-1), Eric Furlong 2-5. PA–Bauer 11-87, Zampogna 8-64, Moses 5-28, Drew Evans 10-23, Logan Mosier 5-10, Noah Archer 1-10.

Receiving: NY–Stover 5-137, Cade Anastasia 2-49, Swalcy 1-16, Pat Spencer 1-12, Gabe Ramadhan 1-8, Furlong 1-7, Dominic Bello 0-26. PA–Zampogna 4-31, Carter Chadsey 3-85, Mosier 2-33, Moses 2-27, Archer 1-21, Scott Szymanski 1-14, Joe Tettis 1-4, Bauer 1-4.

Passing: NY–Nuzzo 9 of 10 for 214 yards, DeJesus 2 of 7 for 41 yards. PA–Coudriet 9 of 12 for 122 yards, Evans 5 of 10 for 68 yards, Zampogna 1 of 1 for 29 yards.