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Loyalsock reacts well to adversity in first-round loss

A man who normally exudes all the hostility of a ham sandwich was being pulled back to his own sideline by two assistant coaches. He marched up and down the sideline after being pulled off the field having a stern conversation with any official within earshot.

Justin Van Fleet has never been the reactionary type during a Loyalsock football game. He’ll have his disagreements and discussions with officials, but nothing has ever approached the borderline apoplectic fit of rage the Lancers’ head coach tumbled into Friday night at Williamsport’s STA Stadium.

Jacob Waltz had just intercepted his first pass of the season for the Loyalsock defense. He set up the Lancers, trailing Scranton Prep by 10 points, with tremendous field position after a near 30-yard return. But at the end of the play, the football came loose from his arms. Waltz appeared to have been down before the ball came loose. One official appeared to be marking him down with no regard for the fumble.

Another official came into the conversation an overruled the initial call. Instead of knocking on the door of the red zone with a chance to cut into the deficit, Loyalsock was going back on defense. The officials ruled there was an inadvertent whistle and Scranton Prep had recovered the fumble before the whistle.

That’s when Van Fleet went off.

But it wasn’t because of just this one call during last night’s PIAA Class AAA opening-round game. Another momentum-shifting call was made early in the second quarter which changed the course of the game. Neither Van Fleet nor his players would say the calls cost Loyalsock in its 31-28 season-ending loss to the Cavaliers. But it was tough not to give the thought credence.

Who can blame them?

“It certainly is tough not to think that. But if I did, then I’ve be going against literally everything I try to teach these kids,” Van Fleet said. “If you’re going to have a message, then live it. So I’m living it.”

“We’re not a team that likes to make excuses. And myself, personally, I hate to make excuses,” Loyalsock’s Hunter Webb said. “They’re tough calls and it’s hard not to think about that.”

There are any other of a number of instances during Friday’s game Van Fleet could just as easily point to as reasons the Lancers fell by three points to the No. 2-ranked team in the state. Those two calls by the officials were so momentous, though, it’s where the eyes of even the most novice of football fans would be pointed to following a game as tight as that.

Loyalsock lived their coach’s mantra last night. At no point did the Lancers allow two questionable calls to dictate their effort, their enthusiasm, or their will to win. If nothing else, that has been Van Fleet’s biggest accomplishment since taking the reigns of the Loyalsock program. It’s been a complete attitude overhaul.

Each player on the field has bought into the creed of controlling only what they can control. When that third quarter fumble call took away a scoring opportunity for the Lancers, the team didn’t sulk. Anger quickly dissipated and focus returned.

The Lancers’ defense, which had been gouged by a strong Cavaliers run game most of the night, earned a three-and-out. Webb, made a terrific open-field tackle on a drag patter on third down to force a punt and set up another Lancers’ scoring opportunity. And that entire sequence allowed Loyalsock to flip field position, setting up what eventually became a 6-yard touchdown pass from Connor Watkins to Sam Newton.

“There are so many times this season where we’ve put our head down. In each game we lost we put our head down and it ended up costing us the game,” Waltz said. “We understood tonight that if we put our head down, we’re not going to win the game.”

So the Lancers found ways to rally. When the officials gave Scranton Prep’s Carter Odell credit for an interception on a ball which clearly short-hopped to him early in the second quarter, the Cavaliers turned the break into a touchdown, pushing its lead to 17-7 over the Lancers.

The Loyalsock coaching staff, Van Fleet included, immediately went in to damage control mode on the sideline, pointing out how much time was left in the game and how it was more than possible to erase the deficit.

Watkins responded by putting together a brilliant drive, completing 4 of 8 passes for 38 yards and rushing four times for 26 yards on a 16-play drive which finished with the second of Cole Cavanaugh’s three touchdown runs.

“I told these kids the whole season, and it’s a lesson for life, that you can only control what you can control,” Van Fleet said. “You then have to act appropriately, and those reactions are what really make you into what you become as a person.”

“We get really high at times, and that’s one of our great qualities,” Webb said. “But when stuff is going bad, we don’t do a lot of pointing fingers. We don’t do a whole lot of blaming. We just come together. Our attitude is everything up, and control what we can control. I’m so proud of our attitude and the way we reacted in this game.”

It would have been easy in the afterglow of a heart-breaking loss to point fingers at anything other than themselves. Two tough calls from the officials were prime material for blame. But none of it came from the Lancers.

Instead, they came together one final time. They hugged each other. They cried together. They appreciated the effort which made last night’s game as exciting as it was. And they appreciated that they did everything they could to extend the football season one more week.

There’s a lesson there, one which Van Fleet has been selling to his teams since he took over. Looks like his players are buying in.

Mitch Rupert can be reached at 326-1551, ext. 3129, or by email at mrupert@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Rupert.

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