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Williamsport advances to District 6 Class 6A championship game in football

By EVAN WHEATON 5 min read

Williamsport football had a chip on its shoulder. The Millionaires were hungry. Starving.

Altoona ended Williamsport's season last year, and came out with a 31-24 win over the Millionaires in Week 2. Senior quarterback Frankie Morrone learned from his losses to the Mountain Lions. He was ready to rewrite the script.

"I think a lot of the faults of my past were lack of confidence and being nervous," Morrone said. "This game, I came in with the most confidence I've ever had and I knew we were gonna blow out because once our team comes together like that, it's a dangerous team. It is a dangerous team."

Behind four consecutive touchdown drives, Williamsport defeated Altoona, 36-14 in the District 4-6 6A semifinal at STA Stadium. With the win, the Millionaires will face No. 1 State College for the title.

Williamsport and Altoona traded touchdowns on each of their opening drives. The Mountain Lions came out with an 11-play, 60-yard march that ended in a 1-yard QB sneak from senior quarterback Aidan Steinbugl. The Millionaires responded with an 11-play drive of their own for 70 yards, capped off by a 10-yard rushing touchdown from Nasir Hennigan.

It was a good response for Williamsport, but having to come up with answers early wasn't part of the plan.

"You know what's amazing? We always seem to come in with a game plan against Altoona, and it doesn't seem to work. Then we go to something else, and then it works," Millionaires coach Chuck Crews said. "It was the same thing, we went with one look and they went down the field on us. Then we came back with another look and pretty much shut them down."

The Mountain Lions were forced to punt four times. Both teams fumbled the ball three times and turned it over on two of them apiece.

The Millionaires were given the ball on their 8-yard line with one minute, 40 seconds left before the half when the tides turned in their favor.

With one timeout left to burn, Williamsport needed to run a two-minute drill with out routes in order to get some last minute points before the break. With the game tied 7-7, Morrone threw five straight completions to work the Millionaires downfield, all the receivers getting out of bounds after the catch to stop the clock.

Stationed 13 yards out with 10 seconds left, Morrone found a wide open Sebastian Robinson in the right corner of the end zone and threw him a touch pass to take a 14-7 lead heading into halftime.

"I just looked at my linemen because they carry everything, they're our boat," Morrone said. "I said, 'Look, we go 100% right now, we get a touchdown, get points on the board, we come back after half time and this game's in our hands.’ That's exactly what happened, I've never been more proud of a team in my life. This is a great win."

With a 14-7 lead coming out of the break, the Millionaires ran it back with a 13-play, 49-yard scoring drive that ended in a diving leap across the plane from Hennigan on 4th-&-goal at the 1-yard line.

For Williamsport, it wasn't so much about padding its lead.

"It was Tuna getting a dose of their own medicine," Crews said. "I think it was sobering for them. Like, 'Oh my God, we can't stop these guys.'"

Senior running back Lajear Whaley added a 2-yard rushing touchdown on the Millionaires' following possession, complemented further by a 47-yard run down the sideline and to the house by Jamaire Harden on the next one after with a two-point conversion reception from Elijah Frierson.

Morrone, like the rest of the program, took a lot from the previous losses to Altoona. Finding a way to wrap up the Mountain Lions' triple option offense and finding ways to move the chains has been a project in the making for Williamsport.

"It all started with our practices and learning their schemes. These guys ended our season last year. We played them earlier in the season, they had their number on us and I think I learned a lot from those two games," Morrone said. "Especially from this past game. And I know that when my number's called, I can make the right reads, I can use my IQ and the people around me can make money for me."

After recovering a fumble from the Millionaires, senior running back Ethan Stroup found the right hole and ran up the middle for a 39-yard rushing touchdown on the first play of Altoona's drive with five and a half minutes left.

Needing a spark to get the best of the Mountain Lions and not come up short once again, that spark came early with the two-minute drill.

"That might've been the greatest drive of our career," Crews said. "It was vindication for the offense and vindication for Frankie."

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