State College Uses Strong First Half and Special Teams Performance to Beat Carlisle

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Todd Ross | October 7, 2023

State College went to Carlisle and took care of business, a fantastic job by special teams and good overall performances led them to a 55-20 win.

State College started with a bang when kicker John Zipf attempted and recovered an onside kick. This quick start would continue with the very next play, as a little bit of trickery in the backfield and led to quarterback Eddie Corkery finding Michael Gaul wide open for a 51 yard touchdown to start the scoring 7-0 early in the first.

State College followed that up with another touchdown, this one a rushing score as D’Antae Sheffey would take it in after a 3 yard rush. 

The final score of the first quarter came from special teams as senior Owen Yerka blocked a punt and recover it in the endzone for the score making it 21-0 State College.

Carlisle got on the board midway through the second with a touchdown by running back Marquise Miller that would make it 7-21.

Once again, State College’s special teams came up big when Cooper Brushwood would return the Carlisle kickoff for a fantastic touchdown.

On Carlisle’s next possession they had another punt blocked, setting up a 5 yard Lamar Wilson touchdown to make it 35-7 State College midway through the second quarter. 

State College added to their lead a few minutes later thanks to a second successful onside kick and ending the drive with a 5 yard rushing touchdown this time by Travis Bechtel.

The final real action of the half came from Carlisle’s Eli Hargrove, the cornerbacks pick six made the 14-42 with State College leading as they headed towards the second half. 

Carlisle started the second half scoring when Marquise Miller found the endzone for the second time on the night to make it 20-42 midway through the third quarter. 

The third quarter was rather uneventful scoring wise but it did not lack excitement, especially when John Zipf tucked the ball on a punt and turned it into a 40 yard rush. However, State College was unable to capitalize off the punter’s rushing effort.

To start the fourth quarter State College would score a 7th touchdown, this one by Ty Salazer who hauled in a pass from Eddie Corkery for the 30 yard score making it 48-20.

The final score of the game was Travis Bechtel’s second of the night who made it 55-20 which would be your final score.

After the game I was able to catch up with State Colleges punter/kicker John Zipf, and was able to ask him about his performance. When asked about his stellar play on the night, John Zipf had this to say, “I feel great, I was already feeling great after the two onside kicks. I’m really happy that I made those, and on the punt that I ran it was fourth and one and I just thought screw it. They have never seen me punt lefty before and I saw a gap opening so I just took it. It’s unlucky about that PAT. I’ll definitely be out practicing tomorrow, I shouldn’t be letting that happen.” Never satisfied John Zipf. 

Next was my interview with State Colleges head coach Matt Lintal who first shared his thoughts on the game “I’m proud that our guys went out there and got a win, as always you know in the Mid Penn Conference you gotta show up each and every week and we had a really good start, then things got a little bit sloppy so we definitely have things to clean up and lost a little bit of focus here and there, so you know always stuff you have to work on win, loss, or whatever so looking forward to getting back to it.” When asked about the special teams play he shared this, “Yeah we spend a lot of time on special teams. That’s a phase of the game we aim to win each and every week, our coaches do a great job evaluating film and trying to find weaknesses in our opponents and trying to exploit those so I’m really proud of our staff and our kids executing those big plays tonight” and win the special teams battle, they did.

This type of win and performance came at a great time for State College as they have a huge matchup next week at home when they take on the team that took them out of the playoffs and ended their undefeated season in Harrisburg.

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