HARRISBURG — Harrisburg kept Chambersburg bottled up for most of the first half and that strong defense contributed greatly to a 28-0 halftime lead.
That allowed the Cougars to coast in the second half and capture a 35-14 Mid Penn Commonwealth football victory Saturday afternoon at Severance Field.
Harrison Benedict
"Again, they were aggressive at the line of scrimmage and that set the tone on both sides," Trojan coach Mark Luther said. "We couldn't get our offense going, and then we threw some picks that led to them scoring, one of them directly."
Harrisburg (3-1, 3-0 MPC) got an interception by Trays Walker on the first possession by Chambersburg (1-3, 0-3 MPC), but the Trojan defense held.
The Cougars did score the next time they got the ball, with Nehemiah Ewell carrying it in from the 1 and it was 6-0 after one quarter.
In the second quarter, while the Trojans couldn't get anything going on offense, Harrisburg put up 22 points in a span of less than 5 minutes, to take the big halftime lead. Penn State recruit Messiah Mickens scored on a 13-yard run around right end and Quincy Brannon took a short pass from Jaiyon Lewis and danced through the secondary from 21 yards out.
Then Kymir Williams capped the scoring run by intercepting Ceagan Truett and returning the ball 45 yards for a score.
"The defense did hold them the first time, but they were on the field too much again," Luther said. "Eventually we had some breakdowns on the outside that hurt us.
"We did a pretty good job against their passing game — we held (All-State receiver) Elias Coke down (3-31). But they hurt us with some runs."
Harrisburg scored on its first possession of the latter half when Mickens took it in from 25 yards out.
In the second half, with the clock running, Chambersburg did find some life on offense. First, a long drive, that was helped by a Harrisburg penalty, ended when Truett threw into the middle toward Brycen Murray, who caught the ball and had an easy trot to the end zone when two Cougar defenders collided.
After forcing a short Harrisburg punt, the Trojans hit pay dirt again when Antonio Harrison took a sweep to his right and beat the defense to the corner flag from 15 yards out to make it 35-14.
"We did some good things in the second half," Luther said, "like sustaining that one long drive. But we're struggling on both sides of the line of scrimmage."
NOTES: Chambersburg hosts State College on Friday and the first class of the Chambersburg Athletics Hall of Fame will be inducted at halftime … On defense, Brady Rosenberry had 7 tackles (one for a loss), Jude Grillo had 6 tackles (one for a loss) and Jason Chambers had 2 tackles for a loss … Chambers also had a 47-yard punt return … Harrison Benedict blocked an extra point.
Harrisburg 35, Chambersburg 14
Chambersburg 0 0 0 14 — 14
Harrisburg 6 22 7 0 — 35
First Quarter
H — Nehemiah Ewell run (kick blocked), 2:09
Second Quarter
H — Messiah Mickens 13 run (kick failed), 9:53
H — Quincy Brannon 21 pass from Jaiyon Lewis (Lewis run), 7:30
H — Kymir Williams 45 interception return (Lewis run), 5:26
Third Quarter
H — Mickens 25 run (Darwin Lopez kick), 9:50
Fourth Quarter
C — Bryson Murray 17 pass from Ceagan Truett (Trever Luther kick), 10:30
C — Antonio Harrison 15 run (Luther kick), 4:43
Team Statistics
Chbg Harr
First downs 9 8
Rushes-yards 72 130
Passing 10-18-3 7-12-0
Passing yards 72 82
Total offense 144 212
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1
Punts-average 3-28.7 2-39.5
Penalties-yards 4-35 3-30
Individual Statistics
Rushing — Chbg, Harrison 8-40, Imari Watson 6-24, Truett 7-6, Justin Deneen 3-1. Harr, Mickens 9-78, Ewell 7-13, Zymere Hill 5-28, Lewis 3-6, Amauri Oliver 2-5.
Passing — Chbg, Truett 8-16-3-66, Deneen 2-2-0-13. Lewis 6-10-0-83, Mikal Shank Jr. 1-2-0-(-1).
Receiving — Chbg, Luther 3-38, Murray 1-17, Harrison 2-9, Harrison Benedict 2-6, Devonte Scott 1-3, Stanley Lozius 1-(-1). Harr, Brannon 3-52, Elias Coke 3-31, Hill 1-(-1).
