By Ed Gotwals of The Sports Page 

CHAMBERSBURG — Let's start with the positive — Chambersburg and Central Dauphin East played a wildly entertaining Mid Penn Commonwealth football game Friday night at Trojan Stadium on Senior Night.

The Trojans prevailed in overtime, 34-33, when Jake Folmar hauled down a floating pass from Riley Harmon in the end zone, Trever Luther kicked the extra point and Rhaigeon Parker intercepted CD East's pass for a two-point conversion to end the game.

Rhaigeon Parker

It was one of the craziest, up-and-down, back-and-forth games you'd ever want to see, with twists and turns in seemingly every series.

Luther's game was particularly up and down. He made an interception in the end zone to stifle a scoring threat, Three plays later he fumbled a punt snap and gave the ball back to CDE on the Trojan 12, leading to a touchdown.

But he rallied to connect on a clutch 36-yard field goal try with just 10 seconds left in regulation to tie the game 27-27 and send it to overtime.

"I felt confident from there," Luther said. "I just had to trust my ability and follow through."

The game was marred, however, by a ton of penalties. The officials threw the flag 27 times that rolled up 236 yards.

Both teams, with nothing to lose, went all out. The Panthers (3-5, 1-4 MPC) went for it on fourth down eight times. They were successful only once, and that play was called back for a penalty. East was stopped four times by an inspired Trojan defense and three times Chambersburg thought they'd stopped the Panthers, only to have a defensive penalty called.

Brady Deneen

Chambersburg (4-4, 2-3 MPC) tried twice in fourth down. One was stuffed; the other, a fake punt, turned into a 37-yard run by Stanley Lozius that led to a field goal.

Chambersburg coach Mark Luther said, "The guys gave a hell of an effort. Yeah, we made some mistakes, but we had a different mentality and attitude tonight."

That showed particularly on defense, which gave up some yards but made East earn them. CDE star running back Jared Porter was held to 62 yards on 19 carries, and the Trojans were particularly tough on key downs.

Linebacker Brady Deneen said, "We played our hearts out. We stopped their running game and we knew they'd pass a lot. It was just so frustrating those times we stopped them and then had a penalty called."

Chambersburg led 24-20 with time running out in the fourth quarter when Luther lost the handle on a punt snap. The Panthers took over at the Trojan 12, but it took 12 plays to score.

CD East had a TD catch nullified by penalty. Then the Trojans had pass interference called against them. On fourth-and-9, a pass fell incomplete, but Chambersburg was called for holding. On fourth-and-3 from the 5, the Trojans jumped offside. QB Demaj Jalloh then ran it in from the 2 to give East a 27-24 lead with 1:34 left.

Trever Luther

"The thing is, we practiced our two-minute drill on Thursday, and we had about 1:45 to use, with three time outs and needed a field goal," Coach Luther said. "Tonight, we had almost that much time, but only one time out. And the kids made it work."

Harmon hit Luther for 12 yards and ran for 5 more. Then came a potentially killing Trojan holding call. But a 15-yard pass to Jermere Jones produced a first down at the CDE 45.

A nifty screen pass to Dayre Senft on 3rd-and-10 gained 18 to the 27 and on third down, Harmon ran for 8 to set up the tying field goal.

Chambersburg had the ball first in the overtime. The first play lost 5 yards. On second down, Harmon was rushed hard by two Panthers, but he got off a floating pass to the back of the end zone that Folmar stretched high to catch.

"Tonight, we were able to make plays that we haven't been making," Luther said. "Folmar's catch was one of them."

CD East wasn't done yet, however. On third down from the 5, Jalloh zipped a perfect to Steven Zerbe, who made the catch despite being well-covered.

Then East coach Lance Deane decided to go for the win with a two-point conversion. Jalloh rolled to his right and threw, but his pass was intercepted by Parker to finally bring an end to a three-hour plus game.

Parker said, "I couldn't believe it, but he threw it right to me. I was standing in my zone coverage and the receiver came in that zone and I guess the quarterback never saw me."

Coach Luther said, "(CD East) had a tough loss last week (to Harrisburg) and when they went up 14-0, they were probably thinking this would be an easy win. But we made some plays and got back to 14-14 by halftime, and you could feel a difference in the locker room.

"Then they had those very short fields late and we kept stopping them, and they kept throwing penalty flags and it felt like the universe was telling us that you won't win this. But we hung in there."

"We had 19 seniors on the team and this group is very close," Parker said. "We had a task ahead of us –we really wanted a W on Senior Night."

Trever Luther said, "When we were out there (late in the game), I was thinking, 'This would be a terrible game to lose.' But I knew my boys would come through."

NOTES: Parker scored on a 2-yard pass from Harmon, Harmon scored from 2 yards out and Antonio Harrison burst through the line for a 14-yard scoring run … Luther also kicked a 25-yard FG … Jalloh was 18-for-36 for 242 yards … Chambersburg plays at Harrisburg next Saturday, 1 p.m.

Chambersburg 34, Central Dauphin East 33
CD East                       14      0     0     13     6     —     33
Chambersburg           0     14     3     10     7     —     34
First Quarter
CDE — An'Tiyah Neal 19 interception return (Kyle Bloss kick), 6:35
CDE — Xavier Armstrong 3 run (Bloss kick), 2:48
Second Quarter
Ch — Antonio Harrison 14 run (Trever Luther kick), 7:40
Ch — Rhaigeon Parker 2 pass from Riley Harmon (Luther kick), 0:53
Third Quarter
Ch — Luther 25 field goal, 5:47
Fourth Quarter
Ch — Harmon 2 run (Luther kick), 11:00
CDE — Demaj Jalloh 2 run (kick failed)
CDE — Jalloh 2 run (Bloss kick), 1:34
Ch — Luther 36 field goal, 0:10
Overtime
Ch — Jake Folmar 15 pass from Harmon (Luther kick)
CDE — Steven Zerbe 5 pass from Jalloh (pass intercepted)
Team Statistics
                                                  CDE                     Chbg
First downs                              20                         13
Rushes-yards                         36-116                 36-97
Passing                                   20-38-1                12-27-0
Passing yards                           251                       180
Total offense                            367                        277
Fumbles-lost                            2-1                         2-1
Punts-average                         0-0                       3-35.3
Penalties-yards                      10-91                   17-145
Individual Statistics
Rushing — CDE, Jared Porter 19-62, Armstrong 9-25, Jalloh 7-24, Darrien Cofield 1-5. Chbg, Stanley Lozius 1-37, Harmon 11-35, Harrison 14-21, Dayre Senft 6-9, Imani Watson 3-7, Luther 1-(-12).
Passing — CDE, Jalloh 18-36-1-242, Armstrong 2-2-0-9. Chbg, Harmon 12-27-0-180.
Receiving — CDE, Neal 4-74, Zerbe 6-73, Sody Chea 4-36, Ardyce Arp 2-29, Armstrong 2-14, Porter 2-9. Chbg, Parker 3-66, Luther 4-33, Andy Jean 1-23, Senft 1-18, Folmar 1-15, Jermere Jones 1-15, Matt Silvestre 1-10.