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Huge fourth-down stand gives Spartans dramatic 10-7 win against Loyalsock

By Jon Gerardi 8 min read

Loyalsock was gaining momentum and picking up first down after first down on its final drive. Trailing by just three points as the clock ran under two minutes, the Lancers were hoping to punch in the go-ahead, game-winning score.

On a short two-and-2, Dyson Dupont found Zion Cobb for an 11-yard reception and got into Hughesville territory. Dupont then had a five-yard run on third-and-two for another first down to get to the 33.

A penalty moved the Lancers to the 13 and a few plays later, Loyalsock had a fourth-and-1 from the Hughesville 4.

The game came down to less than a yard, and Hughesville's defense made the biggest play of the night. Dupont tried sneaking up the middle for a short-yardage gain to get the first down and get a first-and-goal from the 3, but the Spartans stuffed Dupont up the middle.

It took a few moments for the referees to signal the turnover on downs, but Hughesville's players started celebrating once they did. It was a massive stop against a Loyalsock team which had driven more than 80 yards on that possession from their own 14 and gave Hughesville a dramatic 10-7 win on Friday in Week 9.

It was the Spartans' first win against Loyalsock since 2015..

"Our defense has been the best since I've been at Hughesville. Six years and its always our defense that carries our games for us," Hughesville coach Howard Rainey said. "It's been like that since I've been here."

Loyalsock got a first-and-10 from the 13 and had back-to-back plays on runs by Cayden Sones and Dupont to get a third-and-1 from the four.

On third down, Dupont tried to run it up the middle for no gain. On fourth, it was a quick QB sneak that was also stuffed by the Spartans. A kneel down later, Hughesville exited as winners.

"Our defense, like I say, when we stack up, it's hard to get through us. Our guys were really good. Our d-backs are young this year," Rainey said. " We got some good kids and they're a very good team. They're young, we're young, so that's going to be a lot of fun in the future."

The Spartans nearly sealed the game with a little under three minutes to play when Dupont tried a quick pass to Carter Brown that was picked off by Hughesville's Carter Gordiner, but a penalty erased the pick and kept the ball in Loyalsock's hands.

"I was incredibly happy with the effort. I'll roll the dice with these kids any time we get the chance. Obviously, as we go through and trying to get yards and first downs, you find ways to push the ball down the field. We were able to run some pretty good capacity and I really thought we were in a situation where we were wearing them down," Loyalsock coach Justin Van Fleet said.

"Out of every game that we've played here, and it's a lot, it's 150 of them this one honestly hurts the most because we were in a spot potentially we could be playing right now still. I'm really frustrated and I have to do better," Van Fleet continued. "We're all going to try to do better. I'm really frustrated at this point with not being able to find a plan of attack. This group has fought so hard. No matter how many guys drop (with injuries), they keep running and keep believing in each other and believing in us. I really love that culture."

Loyalsock tied the game up with a lengthy, 12-play, 85-yard drive to open the second quarter. It culminated with Dupont finding Sones for a five-yard touchdown with 6:52 left to make it a 7-all game.

But from there, Loyalsock wasn't able to get back in the red zone. The Lancers' possessions from there resulted with two turnovers on downs, two punts and a lost fumble.

"We didn't necessarily get the consistency we were looking for in terms of offense. In a game like this when you're out there and fighting, the difficult part is we really are inches away the entire game. We ended up a few short," Van Fleet said. "That's it. They say the sport is a game of inches and today was one of those things with inches, they don't just accumulate on the last play of the game. They happen throughout. We have to find ways to get those couple inches better and continue to do so."

Hughesville's first drive resulted in the Spartans getting to the 24 and trying a field goal, only for it to sail wide left. But after recovering a fumble defensively on Loyalsock's ensuing possession, Hughesville saw Chase Shrawder run from 14 yards out to score a touchdown and give Hughesville an early 7-0 lead.

Shrawder had a monster day as he had 34 carries for 130 yards and consistently moved the chains and picked up key yardage.

"Chase, the second-half of the year he's been unstoppable. He just wants it. He's a senior ad he wants to get to that 1,000-yard mark," Rainey said. "He's got a couple hundred yet to get, but didn't come alive until that Midd-West game (earlier in year)."

After Loyalsock tied the game up, the two went into the break knotted at 7-7. For the Spartans, the halftime talk was keep doing what was working and that was running the ball.

"Just keep pushing the ball, keep doing what we're doing. We had one called back we thought was kind of bogus, but we thought if we kept pushing, we were going to be OK," Rainey said. "We thought we'd score a few more in the second half, but they're a tough team."

Hughesville knew that Sones and Dupont, in addition to receiver Zion Cobb, would be tough to contain. Dupont led Loyalsock with 79 yards on 22 carries and threw for 73 yards, going 5 for 15. Sones, meanwhile, had 17 rushes for 70 yards.

"We figure if we can stop them, slow them down, we have a really good chance. We knew we could power on them. We've seen how they've been tackling in other games and stuff. They're decent outside and onside, but up the middle we thought we'd be OK."

Loyalsock had a near touchdown pass with just under two minutes to go in the third quarter on a long 50-plus yard pass, but the ball was unfortunately dropped for Loyalsock and resulted in a punt and no points coming from the drive.

Hughesville ran a quick offense throughout the game and ended with 58 rushing attempts for 203 yards. The game was close offensively as Hughesville had a narrow 215-202 edge in yards.

"It was pretty obvious that we had to stop the run. After that initial sequence, I thought we did a much better job of that throughout the competition," Van Fleet said. "Just limit our opportunities to get the ball and, offensively, we really struggled. We really struggled to move the ball at times today and other times, we were slicing through."

"We tried to do that, too (running a no-huddle offense). We thought maybe they wouldn't get set and adjusted to it. we stayed in one formation pretty much the entire game," Rainey said. "We thought they wouldn't be able to adjust and stay with our motions if we did it faster."

Hughesville took the lead for good with a 29-yard field goal by Connor Anstadt with 4:48 remaining in the third quarter. Anstadt missed two field goals earlier in the game, but came up clutch in the third quarter for the go-ahead points.

Both defenses played well in limiting their opposition from huge, momentum-shifting plays and moments.

After Anstadt's go-ahead field goal, Loyalsock limited the Spartans and forced three straight possessions with punts, including back-to-back three-and-out possessions.

But the Lancers couldn't capitalize in those moments as the Spartans defense played just as solid and prevented a score.

"I taught them about individual accountability. They've taken themselves accountable and we have to take accountability for this and move forward and get better," Van Fleet said. "But this is a difficult one to swallow and in large part of what we need to do is get our feet back on the ground and push and move forward."

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