State College Rolls Wilkes-Barre 52-0

Tagged under: District 2, District 6, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

Noah Radio | November 15, 2025

State College continued its dominant playoff run on Saturday afternoon with a 52-0 victory over Wilkes-Barre. The game was competitive for no more than half a quarter, and Wilkes-Barre totaled just 35 yards of offense and one first down.

State High got up 21-0 with three D’Antae Sheffey rushing touchdowns in the first quarter. Sheffey scored a one-yarder with 9:33 left in the quarter, a five-yarder at the seven-minute mark, and a two-yarder with 2:00 to play.

Starting hot and leaning on Sheffey early were key pieces of State High Head Coach Matt Lintal’s game plan coming into the matchup.

“We knew we wanted to come out and dominate the line of scrimmage. We felt like we had an advantage there with our guys up front, and obviously getting Tae the ball is always a key to victory,” Lintal said. “From the first drive on, I think it was really evident that our guys up front were really paving the way.

Sophomore quarterback Connor Kulka closed the quarter with a 55-yard touchdown pass to senior Hank Lustig to extend the lead to 28-0.

“That was our goal, to get out fast, we got the ball, so we just wanted to start early and score, and that’s what we did,” Lustig said. “I feel like after that we had our momentum going, and we were able to have our foot on the gas.”

It was Lustig again just 30 seconds into the second quarter, this time extending the lead to 35-0 with a 75-yard punt return touchdown.

After forcing another punt, State College embarked on a clock-chewing, methodical drive, and Sheffey finished it off with his fourth rushing touchdown of the game. The nine-yard score extended the lead to 45-0 heading into halftime.

In one word, Lintal called his team’s performance “dominant.” He continued, “Our kids, from the opening snap to the end of the day, whether it was our starters out there or our JV kids out there, they were dominant. Dominating the line of scrimmage on the offensive side, and defensively, they were eliminating what the opponent loves to do.”

Much of State High’s JV team took the field for the second half, and the Little Lions took their foot way off the gas. Zach Spicer and Jayden Byrd carried the load on the ground for the rest of the game, and Spicer provided the only score of the second half. After a drive in which he carried the ball on all but one play, Spicer punched it in from seven yards out to extend the lead to 52-0 late in the third quarter.

Junior safety Kellen Williams played a big part in shutting down Wilkes-Barre’s star quarterback, Jake Howe, and commented on the shutout.

“We put in a great game plan, coaches set it up beautifully this week, guys executed, just came out hard. We just came out and dominated today, excellent,” he said.

State College now awaits the winner of Pittsburgh Central Catholic and North Allegheny. The expectation of the State High players is that it’ll be PCC, and while it’s a tall task, there’s a quiet confidence emanating from the Little Lions. Junior captain Matt Gaul gave a fiery postgame speech about believing they can win regardless of last year’s result.

Lustig said, “Like he [Gaul] was saying, it just starts with belief. Everybody on the team’s gotta believe we’re gonna win this game, and I feel really confident in the guys we have, and I think we’re gonna go out there and get the job done, we just gotta believe and play as a group.”

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