State College Opens Season with Blowout Win

Tagged under: District 6, District 7, Gameday Hub, News, pfn

Noah Radio | August 23, 2025

Friday night lights are back at Memorial Field. After a slow first quarter, State College rode its dominant defense and a 17-point third quarter to a 41-14 win over Gateway.

The direction of the game was clear after the first drive. Gateway muffed Shane Markowski’s opening kickoff, then on third and long, sophomore Elvis Koutsakis Jr fumbled the snap, and the Gators were forced to punt.

10:05 1Q – @KingElvis_jr fumbles the snap and @statehighfball forces a punt on the first drive of the game@PaFootballNews pic.twitter.com/mvLbjvZaY6

— Noah Radio (@noahradio_state) August 22, 2025

The Little Lions took just under three minutes to put their first points on the board. Junior quarterback Kellen Williams led his team down the field and punched it in himself from three yards out to take a 6-0 lead with 7:06 left in the first quarter.

Back-to-back turnovers ended a fairly sloppy first quarter. First, State High junior AJ Fry picked off Koutsakis, then State High senior Hank Lustig fumbled the ball right back.

Fry credited his coaches’ game plan in overcoming the slow start.

“Our coaches prepared us very well for this, and they prepare us for every single week putting the game plan in, so we’re very well coached,” Fry said.

Koutsakis led a lengthy drive to begin the second quarter, but the Gators turned it over on downs with 6:52 left in the second quarter. State College was led back out on offense by sophomore quarterback Connor Kulka.

Head Coach Matt Lintal explained the shift after the game.

“That was kinda in the plan throughout. Kellen [Williams] still has a great skillset and is gonna be a guy we utilize in that position throughout the future as well. Connor [Kulka] came in and made some really nice plays, so we have multiple quarterbacks that can win football games for us, and as we’ve always done throughout my coaching career, if we have multiple guys, we’ll probably play multiple guys,” Lintal said. “I couldn’t be more proud of those kids for being so team-oriented. Kellen was right there ready to go if needed, but also really positive and helping Connor out, then obviously Kellen helping us out on defense as well.”

Kulka showed incredible poise taking his first varsity snaps and marched the Little Lions inside the 10-yard line where senior D’Antae Sheffey scored his first touchdown in the maroon and gray since 2023.

After an athletic sack by junior Rowan Walker forced a Gateway punt, State College ran an eventful two-minute drill from its own 11. Juniors Shane Markowski and Keen Furmanek each converted first downs on fake punts before Markowski knocked in a field goal to put the Little Lions up 17-0 going into the half.

A rare occurrence at State High, the student section hung around and stayed loud for a big Little Lion third quarter. After Markowski drilled a 32-yarder to bring the lead up to 20, the teams traded explosive touchdown drives.

First, Koutsakis threw a bomb to senior Terrance Cole to cut the lead to 20-7, then Kulka hit Daimear Coad with a 50-yard touchdown to bring it right back to 20 points.

Kulka mentioned that he didn’t know what to expect in his first varsity game, but showed that he could adjust and finished with two passing touchdowns.

“I think I was a little sloppy in the first half, but started coming back in the second. First game, you always have that. Next week we bounce back against Altoona at their place, so it should be good,” Kulka said.

Sheffey then scored his second touchdown of the night, this one from nine yards out, but the 34-7 lead lasted just over a minute. Koutsakis and the Gators struck back with a 75-yard touchdown pass to Tyree Gowder with 2:03 left in the third quarter.

State College continued to hold the Gators at arm’s length in the final frame. Kulka opened the quarter with his second touchdown pass of the game, a seven-yarder to Jake Lukac, to extend the lead to 41-14 with 10 minutes to play.

10:23 4Q – @ConnorKulka2028 hits @jake_lukac for a 7-yard touchdown to take a 41-14 lead over @GatewayGatorsFB @PaFootballNews pic.twitter.com/9rqIRKiZfo

— Noah Radio (@noahradio_state) August 23, 2025

Both sides’ starters then exited the game, and the score stayed at 41-14 through the final whistle. It was a dominant victory for State College, but with a number of penalties and near delay of game calls, Kulka is focused on getting sharper for the Mid-Penn Commonwealth slate.

“This week we’ll probably just focus on getting our things more sharp; we had a lot of sloppiness,” Kulka said.

The Little Lions are back in action on Friday, Aug. 29, when they travel to Altoona to open the conference schedule.

Gateway has another tough matchup next week with North Allegheny coming to town at 7:00 on Aug. 29.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews