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SELINSGROVE -- Twice, Loyalsock was driving deep into Selinsgrove territory, trying to put an ugly first half behind it. With every chunk play or successful run up the middle, an offense that averaged just 2.4 yards per play in a dismal first half was starting to find traction.
But each drive ended in heartbreak for the Lancers and it might’ve cost them.
Loyalsock turned it over on downs at Selinsgrove's 20 yard line and then an interception at the Seals 10 a drive later sealed the Lancers fate.
While Loyalsock's drives bogged down, Selinsgrove turned those miscues into touchdowns for a 30-13 win on Friday night.
Loyalsock (3-3) was only down two scores for much of the first half. The offense struggled, but the defense held strong, led by a four tackles for loss and two-sack effort from Aiden Gair. But an offense that couldn’t consistently protect its quarterback or open up running lanes hurt for first downs. Loyalsock had just three of them in the first half and had three straight three-and-outs.
The attack came out better after halftime and drove down the field on its first two possessions, but self inflicted errors dropped Loyalsock to its second straight loss.
"The scoreboard reads a lopsided score but I think the game play was much closer. In football it comes down to a couple of things, most exclusively," Loyalsock coach Justin Van Fleet said. "…In the second half, I thought we moved the ball pretty efficiently, just had some issues at the last moments. Those last moments, we get that going and we'll be putting up some points like we've had in the past."
Both of Loyalsock's second-half interceptions were nearly returned for touchdowns. The Selinsgrove offense had short fields on both turnovers and quickly turned those into points. A halfback pass that was nearly picked off and somehow ended up in the hands of Selinsgrove's Christian Kantz paved the way for Nate Schon's second touchdown run.
Loyalsock running back Davion Hill capped an impressive seven-play, 70-yard answer with a three-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit down to 20-6. Chase Cavanaugh ran for 33 yards on the drive and hit Gair for a big catch and run over the middle.
Selinsgrove answered with a short field goal and two plays into Loyalsock’s next drive, Cavanaugh was picked and another touchdown run two plays later ended any chance of a Lancer comeback.
Loyalsock's defense played an inspiring game. Parlante consistently collapsed the pocket despite battling an ankle injury. Gair was everywhere and Selinsgrove had trouble moving the ball and the only reason the Seals put up points was due to short fields. Three of Selinsgrove's five scoring drives started inside the Lancer 40 and two of those were inside the 15.
The Seals didn't even have 200 yards of offense and averaged less than two yards per carry. Selinsgrove quarterback Daniel Shoch made some key throws but was under duress all night and was sacked three times.
"Obviously the offensive and defensive lines have to do their jobs. On both teams, I think both offensive lines had issues that were taken advantage of. Our defensive line had some great opportunities, but so did theirs," Van Fleet said. "However, when you have that kind of balance it comes down to big plays and there were big plays that we made and today they were in red."
Parlante had to be helped off the field by teammates following the postgame huddle. Hill limped his way to the locker room. Rees Watkins lied face down on the field after taking a big hit on a crossing route over the middle during the game. The Lancers were beat down physically and drained emotionally from some on-field extracurriculars. But they're still focused and ready for whatever this season might throw at them.
"Our kids fought, they scraped, they worked hard and tonight was a night as well that we were dealing with some adversity on the field and I'm very happy that they were able to keep their composure and for fighting through some pretty tremendous adversities and pretty frustrating situations. Non Xs and Os but with issues that were ongoing within the game," Van Fleet said. "…I'm proud of them for coming back together. Last week we didn't look like us. This week we looked a heck of a lot more like us but there's work to do moving forward. At this point it's all engines go."