Greencastle falls to Milton Hershey despite late game comeback
Despite a late game comeback, the Greencastle Blue Devils failed to overcome careless turnovers and missed opportunities as they fell to the Milton Hershey Spartans by a score of 23-34 Friday night.
The Blue Devils, who defeated the Chambersburg Trojans 28-7 in their season opener, trailed by double digits at the half but brought the game within single-digits in the fourth quarter behind the strong play of quarterback Cade McDowell, who finished the game completing exactly half of his passing attempts (10/20) for 208 yards while throwing one touchdown and one interception. McDowell also rush for along with two touchdowns on the ground for the Blue Devils.
McDowell, a duel-threat quarterback, threw only four passes in Greencastle’s victory over the Trojans, compared to the 20 passes he attempted against the Spartans.
“They [Milton Hershey] were jamming everyone on the inside so we decided to spread them out, try something else,” Blue Devils coach Chuck Tinninis said, “We had a little bit of success with that.”
Photo gallery: Greencastle falls to Milton Hershey (story continues below)
Both teams started out the game looking strong on defense, with Greencastle ending the first quarter with a three-point lead thanks to a 39-yard field goal by Ian Gelsinger. Things began to unravel for the Blue Devils in the second quarter as the Spartans scored two touchdowns off Greencastle turnovers.
Milton Hershey’s first touchdown, a 32-yard touchdown on a Shamar Manning-Chiago Anyanwu connection, was aided by a costly Blue Devil fumble, which gave the Spartans the ball on GA’s side of the field.
Greencastle then turned the ball over on the very next drive as Spartans linesman Xavier Oliver sniffed out a screen attempt and capitalized with a 44-yard pick-six.
“We gave them field position on their first score,” Tinninis said, “And we gave them the second score, threw it right into their hands. I thought we came out flat, but we won’t come out flat again, we’re going to work too hard to come out flat.”
Despite being down 27-3 late in the third quarter, the Blue Devils put together an impressive drive that landed them on the Spartans one-yard line. Greencastle was looked set to get their first touchdown of the game on the board, but Milton Hershey’s defense had other thoughts. The Spartan’s defense held the Blue Devil’s offense on four straight possessions, forcing a turnover on downs.
“That interception return really propelled us, but that defensive stand that we had there was just a great job,” Spartans coach Jeff Boger said, “Who knows how things would’ve went if they would’ve scored there, that was definitely a big momentum moment for us.”
Shamar Manning lead the way for Milton Hershey, throwing for 85 yards and three touchdowns in the Spartan’s victory.