Local Sports

Out of gas

PA stalls NY in 2nd half to win Big 30 game

BRADFORD, Pa. -- Injuries limited the Pennsylvania roster to the minimum size for the Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic football game against New York at Bradford Area High School's Parkway Field on Saturday. The depleted hosts were hoping for an early boost and it came right away.

New York attempted to catch Pennsylvania off guard on the opening kick off, opting for an onside kick attempt, but the kick came too short which would have resulted in illegal touching for the kicking team. However, Landon Cook of St. Marys scooped the ball and ran it back to the house for an early 6-0 lead.

The two sides went back and forth, but the early score gave Pennsylvania the confidence it needed to come away with an eventual 28-20 victory.

"That's exactly what this game needed," Pennsylvania head coach Ryan Yingling of Smethport said about his team's great start. "I told the kids momentum has to live on our sidelines for us to win this football game, it's going to come down to it. With all full respect to the New York staff, they are excellent coaches, you can tell those kids are well coached and the talent level on that New York team was amazing so that's exactly what we needed. We were surprised that they handed us that one early on, but we took it."

From the start, Pennsylvania set the precedent that if New York made a mistake that they would make it hurt.

New York failed to capitalize on the first trip to the redzone as Pennsylvania forced a turnover on downs, standing tall at 4th and 3 on the 16-yard line. Pennsylvania, in large thanks to Frankie Smith of St. Marys had no problem running into New York territory and it was Bradford's Logan Kohler finishing off the drive with a 13-yard touchdown for a 12-0 lead in the first quarter.

New York managed to claw back into the game thanks to a Pennsylvania fumble and even had garnered enough momentum to pull away, but mistakes kept Pennsylvania in the driver seat.

As New York attempted to drive down for a third straight touchdown, Cook continued to make his mark on the game with a huge interception. So instead of New York pulling away, it was Pennsylvania getting on the board as Cook was able to cap off the drive and cash in on his interception for a 20-13 lead in the second quarter.

"We gave up the turnover which was big that they were able to capitalize on," Yingling said about cashing in on the other team's mistakes. "To get that back all I asked from the kids -- nobody gets yelled at -- what I told them was you just owe us a big play. I told them you've got to hate it for a minute and then let it go. Hate yourself for a moment, then forget it and you owe us a big play. And they did it."

The interception got Pennsylvania right back in the game just as it looked like New York found their footing after first getting on the board when Gowanda's Carter Capozzi finished a drive under center by deciding to rely on his legs for a touchdown.

New York then benefitted from the fumble that Pine Valley's Camryn Slade scooped up and finished things off with Olean's Joe Mest going on a quarterback keeper for the 13-12 lead.

"I think a lot of that is on the kids," New York head coach Jake Burkholder of Southwestern/Frewsburg said about his team getting back into the game. "They're very even keeled, were frustrated but wanted to fix it, wanted to find a way to claw back in and make something happen. The quarterbacks are very mellow and don't get very flustered which is awesome to have at the quarterback position and defensively we just had some kids that wanted to go out there and hit."

Pennsylvania managed to get back in front of New York courtesy of the Cook interception, but it did completely erase the momentum of the Empire State.

Before the end of the half, New York was able to orchestrate another impressive drive with the offensive group led by Mest under center. The Olean quarterback found a great connection with Salamanca's Payton Bradley and it resulted in an easy touchdown in the corner of the endzone to bring the score level before halftime at 20-20.

"We had him playing exclusively tight end up until two or three days ago and then decided to rotate him through," Burkholder stated. "He's able to do anything, he's a mismatch that allowed us to get (Adam) Roe on the field and Kingston (Loucks) and all those kids on the field a little bit more. He knows the game, he busts his butt. Coaching against him was a pain because he can do everything, it was great to coach him and get to know him and he's a great person, he's got big things in his future and I'm excited to see where he goes."

After an explosive first half, the correct adjustments were made to bring both offenses to a screeching halt.

"Halftime, the defensive coaches, they drew up and made adjustments," Yingling said about the shutdown performance in the second half. "We drew up a different defensive plan for them on how we were going to try and attack. What they were doing to us and felt was hurting us, we just tried to give them a couple different looks to disguise some of our coverages and they pulled it off and made it work."

It was once again a big defensive play for Pennsylvania that tilted the game in their favor. This time it was Smith coming up with an interception and they quickly cashed in as Cook scored his third touchdown of the game.

Smith again added a 2-point conversion, really putting the pressure on New York to find an answer and then some down 28-20.

"It's great," Burkholder said about the atmosphere of the Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic football game. "There are a ton of people, this is the most people a ton of these kids have ever played in front of. It's for a great cause, it was great to have Cooper down on the field with us today. But it's great to see these kids that have competed against each other come together over the course of two weeks and really not much time to put on a good show for the people."

New York was able to get into the Pennsylvania redzone in the fourth quarter, but a great defensive stand resulted in another turnover on downs. That would be as close as New York got again to tying the game and Pennsylvania evened the series with both teams matching records at 25-25-3.

"It means everything to me for the kids," Yingling stated. "As hard as they worked for the last two weeks and all the trials and tribulations we dealt with up to this. Being one full platoon short, everybody stepped up and made this happen. Coming into this game we were behind because of roster issues and I just told those guys we had the exact roster we needed. I couldn't be more proud of them, I give credit to the kids. They are the ones that made this happen and the assistant coaches."

Next year, Pennsylvania will move back into the home bleachers as they attempt to get back on top of the all-time record in the Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic football game.

"In 2016 when Smethport coached this we were the visitors and we got a win back so the next year we got to go on the home side," Yingling recalled. "PA ripped off 4-5 years of wins and we're just hoping that the future PA teams can follow suit, we got them back on the home side."