Article by Andy Shay, The Patriot-News

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Football is still a high priority for Sam Marlin, but the Mechanicsburg senior was thinking beyond his playing days when he recently chose to become a student-athlete at FCS Fordham University.

The 6-7, 275-pound Marlin has been a three-year starter for head coach Chris Hakel and the Wildcats – going both ways each of the last two seasons. At Fordham he’ll be an offensive tackle.

Marlin chose the Rams over Robert Morris and Wagner along with offers from several PSAC schools.

“Football is not going to be able to last me forever,” Marlin said. “I wanted a school that carried some weight with it for the future. I’m planning to major in business. And being in New York City you can’t beat the location for internships and experience in the business world.”

Fordham, a member of the the Patriot League, had shown interest in Marlin since the end of his junior season. He sent the Rams a highlight tape during the regular season, went on an unofficial visit in late November. Fordham offered him a scholarship in early December.

“Fordham was a lot different than what I expected. I went up there thinking it would be more like Temple,” Marlin said. “But when I got up there, the campus is all fenced in inside 85 acres. You can see the grass and trees and it still has the feel of a college campus.

“For a while I was looking at the PSAC schools. But it’s always been a dream of mine to play Division I football. And it’s hard to pass up this kind of education.”

Article by Christopher Hopkins, The Sentinel/Photos by Matthew O’Haren, The Sentinel

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HARRISBURG — Any time a team can put up 40 points in a game, they are going to give themselves a great chance at winning. Scoring that many in one quarter, though, that’s a new District 3 record.

When Marcel Brown crossed the goal line late in the second quarter, it may have been just his first score of the game, but for Harrisburg, it was its eighth touchdown. The Cougars scored at will in the first half of Saturday’s District 3-AAAA first round game against Mechanicsburg, setting a new District 3 record for points in a half with 53, and rolling to a 53-22 win at Severance Field.

The Cougars (9-2) ran just 12 plays in the second quarter, not because they couldn’t get the ball, but because they were scoring right away.

In a total of five series, Harrisburg never needed more than four plays to get into the end zone — twice scoring on the first play from scrimmage. Mix in an interception returned for a touchdown and that was all the Cougars needed.

“It’s one of those things where I really can’t explain it,” Harrisburg coach Calvin Everett said of his team’s performance in the second quarter. “Everything’s just working well. The kids were executing.”

Early on, the Wildcats (5-6) looked to be in good shape. On the first drive of the game, the Wildcats used seven plays to drive all the way to the Harrisburg 27. But the ensuing field goal attempt fell short of the goal posts and gave Harrisburg the ball.

From there, Cougars running back Robert Martin took over. Martin went for 78 yards on five carries to give Harrisburg the ball on their own 2, setting up its first score of the game.

“I think we came out and then they go down and score and it just takes the wind out of your sails,” Mechanicsburg coach Chris Hakel. “It puts that little shadow of doubt in your head.”

The Wildcats could never really get a drive going again in the first half as the Harrisburg defense picked up the intensity. Mechanicsburg quarterback Mitchell Ramsey scrambled for a 54-yard touchdown run at the start of the second quarter, but the rest of the first half was a struggle for the Wildcats. Out of seven possessions, there were five three-and-outs, a pick six and a drive that ended as the half expired.

“The defense stepped up and played well,” Everett said. “They’ve been playing well all season long, so it wasn’t surprising. They just did a good job.”

Mechanicsburg didn’t fade away in the second half, though, keeping Harrisburg out of the end zone through the last 24 minutes while tacking on 15 more points of its own. In an up-and-down season where the Wildcats had trouble closing out games, the sign of life in the second half was a positive for Hakel in an otherwise rough outing.

“That’s what I’m most proud of these kids is they could have easily came out in the second half and said, ‘I’m done,’ but they didn’t,” he said. “They continued to fight and play hard until that very last whistle.”

With the win, Harrisburg advances to play No. 6 Cumberland Valley in the quarterfinals. Moving forward, Everett said the most important thing for his team is to stay level-headed and not look too far ahead in the tournament. While a 31-point first round win is undoubtedly convincing, the Cougars will need to keep following the same mentality they have all year long.

“It’s the same motto that we’ve had since the beginning of the season,” Everett said. “Just take it one game at a time. We’re not worrying about Central Dauphin or anyone else. We’re worrying about Cumberland Valley right now. That’s our focus. We just got past Mechanicsburg, that’s been our focus all week long.

“Now our focus is Cumberland Valley.”

COUGARS 53, WILDCATS 22

Mechanicsburg 0 7 7 8 – 22

Harrisburg 13 40 0 0 – 53

First Quarter

H – Kyle Cook 1 run (kick failed), 4:16

H – Jalen Kent 59 pass from Cook (Mekhi Hicks kick), 0:40

Second Quarter

M – Mitchell Ramsey 54 run (Ben Dubas kick), 11:44

H – Robert Martin 63 run (Darian Davis-Ray run), 11:26

H – Cook 1 run (kick failed), 9:32

H – Jalen Williams 8 run (Hicks kick), 6:38

H – Chris Britton 20 interception (kick failed), 6:19

H – Davis-Ray 50 run (Hicks kick), 3:58

H – Marcel Brown 4 pass from Cook (kick failed), 0:10

Third Quarter

M – Swahneek Brown 13 pass from Tyler Schubert (Dubas kick), 7:18

Fourth Quarter

M – Andrew Spanos 30 pass from Schubert (Breon Coke run), 7:35

Team Statistics M H

First downs 6 13

Rushes-yards 21-93 32-335

Passing 8-16-2 8-11-0

Passing yards 111 150

Punts-avg. 4-23 1-15

Penalties-yards 3-15 8-75

Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-1

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: Mechanicsburg, Joe Hennessy 5-17; Shyheim Brown 7-14; Mitchell Ramsey 5-64; Cooper Miller 3-7; Tyler Schubery 1-(-9). Harrisburg, Robert Martin 12-165; Darian Davis-Ray 3-74; Kyle Cook 3-3; Jalen Williams 3-33; Domonique Shurns 3-12; Malik Potter 3-27; Kani Little 2-9; Jakodi McCraw 2-7.

PASSING: Mechanicsburg, Mitchell Ramsey 0-1-0, 0 yards; Tyler Schubert 8-15-2, 111 yards.Harrisburg, Kyle Cook 8-11-0, 150 yards.

RECEIVING: Mechanicsburg, Ben Dubas 1-4; Shyheim Brown 1-(-5); Andrew Spanos 2-68; Camryn Rice 2-31; Swahneek Brown 1-4. Harrisburg, Jalen Kent 2-66; Domonique Shurns 2-35; Robert Martin 1-38; Marcel Brown 3-11.

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Article by Andy Shay, The Patriot-News

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Once the Harrisburg arsenal unleashed all those weapons, there was literally nothing Mechanicsburg could do Saturday afternoon.

Two long runs for scores, a blocked punt that came up a yard shot of a touchdown and a pick-six all in a span of less than eight minutes of the second quarter added up to 40 points for the Cougars.

Throw in a pair of touchdown passes by quarterback Kyle Cook and Harrisburg put up 53 first-half points on its way to a 53-22 District 3-AAAA victory over the Wildcats at Severance Field.

Harrisburg (9-2) plays Cumberland Valley (8-3) in the quarterfinal round Saturday at Severance Field. Kick off is 1 p.m.

“The kids came out focused in the first half and executed well,” Harrisburg coach Calvin Everett said. “But I reminded them it will only get tougher from here as teams keep going so we have to stay focused.”

After Mechanicsburg (5-6) missed a 43-yard field goal after a solid opening drive, Harrisburg handed the pigskin to Robert Martin six straight times.

Martin, who finished with 201 total yards on 14 touches and one touchdown, took the Cougars from the Harrisburg 20 to inside the Wildcats’ 10.

That first touchdown wasn’t easy, as Cook had to bull over from a yard out on fourth down.

But it was just the beginning and easy touchdowns — lots of them — were on their way.

Cook, who finished with 149 yards passing with a couple scores, hit Jalen Kent in stride for a 59-yard touchdown pass late in the first quarter to make it 13-0.

Then Harrisburg went nuts.

But first Mechanicsburg had to get their attention. And when Wildcats quarterback rumbled 54 yards for a touchdown on the second snap of the second quarter it was 13-7.

From that point until halftime, the Cougars ran 11 offensive plays that produced 34 points. Chris Britton added an 20-yard pick-six that deflected off Joe Adams’ hands to give Harrisburg a District 3-AAAA record 40 points in one quarter.

Nobody in District 3 had scored 40 in quarter at any level before Saturday.

“The first half, for the most part, they played focused. It was difficult up 53-7 to focus because the outcome of the game was decided. It was natural for their focus to slip a little bit,” Everett said. “The defense again played well. They’ve been playing well all season.”

Mechanicsburg kept firing in the second half, though. Sophomore QB Tyler Schubert threw for 141 of his 145 yards and both touchdowns in the second half. A nifty grab by Swahneek Brown 13 yards out in the third quarter and a nice post pattern to Andrew Spanos for 30 yards in the fourth quarter.

Harrisburg finished with 320 rushing yards on 32 carries and piled up 469 total yards of offense. Most of that total, 362 yards, came in the first half on only 24 plays.

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Article by David Rung, The Sentinel/Photos by Matthew O’Haren, The Sentinel

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Mechanicsburg has had some frustrating losses this season.

Close games seemed to slip away from the Wildcats each week as they went from undefeated through their first three games to 4-5 and on the bubble of the District 3-AAAA playoffs.

It may have took 10 weeks, but Chris Hakel’s squad finally used some of that frustration to its advantage, putting together a thrilling comeback to dispatch Cedar Cliff 38-34 Friday night at John H. Frederick Field.

“I think it’s a lot of pent-up emotion,” Hakel said. “There was a lot of frustration throughout the course of the year. We lost some close games that we should have won. We have the game against Hershey where we don’t really show up then last week (against Susquehanna Twp.) we don’t play as well as we should have.

“There were a lot of pent-up emotions and they all came out.”

Sophomore quarterback Tyler Schubert, who finished with 301 yards through the air on 15-of-20 passing, led the charge, tossing the ball up 13 times in the fourth quarter.

When Schubert and the Mechanicsburg offense were handed the ball down 17 points with only 4:07 left in the contest, they went to work, with an 11-yard fade to Andrew Spanos capping a seven-play, 64-yard drive to pull within 10 points.

With the Wildcats needing to recover an onside kick to have any chance, they won out on the bottom of the pile, coming up with the ball on the Cedar Cliff 29.

“When we recovered the onside kick, then we kind of knew we had the chance,” Spanos said. “I propelled us to getting the next two touchdowns.”

On the second play of the ensuing drive, Schubert hit Swahneek Brown on a hitch in the middle of the field, and Brown turned to see an open path to the end zone, cutting the deficit to 3.

The next onsides kick wouldn’t fare as well for the Wildcats — with Cedar Cliff’s Nathan Orris coming down with the perfectly placed kick from Ben Dubas on the Mechanicsburg 25.

That meant it was time for the defense to step up, and they did, stuffing two runs and sacking signal-caller Andrew Ford to take the Colts out of field-goal position.

After an incompletion on fourth down, the ball went back to the Wildcats with 66 seconds remaining and no timeouts, and 70 yards between them and the goal line.

Schubert would complete passes of 18, 13, 17 and 24 yards around three clock-stopping spikes to move to the 1-yard line. When Joe Hennessey barrelled in behind the left side of his offensive line, Mechanicsburg took its first and only lead of the game.

“I just felt like we had to keep going,” Schubert said of the Wildcats’ comeback. “I felt great, we just needed to keep working. This is the best I’ve felt all season. All the hard work is paid off and now we get another shot in the playoffs.”

A solid first half from the Wildcats had them trailing the high-powered Colts just 21-17 at the break, but it appeared to fall apart as the second half got underway.

Mechanicsburg turned the ball over on each of its first three possessions of the half, and the Colts responded with 13 points off the takeaways to begin pulling away. The visitors even started pounding the line of scrimmage with their running game to take a lead of 34-17 at the 4:07 mark.

“We took advantage of some things when they were there,” Hakel said. “Sometimes theirs someone looking down on you, and tonight (former coach) Rich (Lichtel) was looking down on us and he’s saying, ‘I told you so.’ and he’s smiling.”

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Article by Andy Shay, The Patriot-News

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Somebody forgot to tell Mechanicsburg to go away quietly when trailing by 17 points with four minutes to play Friday night.

A full season worth of frustration found a target — Cedar Cliff.

The Wildcats scored three touchdowns in a span of 137 seconds to pull off a stunning come-from-behind 38-34 Mid-Penn Keystone victory over the Colts at John H. Frederick Field.

“I told the kids after the game in all my years of coaching I don’t know if I’ve ever been rendered speechless. I didn’t know what to say,” Mechanicsburg coach Chris Hakel said. “With everything we’ve been through, I’m so happy for these kids.”

Mechanicsburg (5-5, 2-5) was teetering on being playoff eligible when this one kicked off. The No. 1 of this goal of these Wildcats was to qualify for the postseason.

And they earned their spot the hard way.

“It was unbelievable. We’ve been working so hard all year, for it finally to come together like this feels awesome,” said Mechanicsburg sophomore quarterback Tyler Schubert, who threw for 301 yards and was 9 of 11 for 153 yards with two touchdowns passes in that wild final four minutes.

“It feels great to finally get over the hump.”

Cedar Cliff (5-5, 2-4) has lost four straight. The Colts took a 34-17 lead with 4:07 to play when kicker Leo VanBuskirk knocked home a 23-yard field goal.

A defense that has struggled mightily the second half of the season saw its wheels come flying off.

“I’ve been around a long time, and in all my years of coaching I’ve never been part of a team so snake bitten. We average nearly 40 points a game and we can’t win the close games,” Cedar Cliff coach Jim Cantafio said. “Give full credit to Mechanicsburg for the way they came back.”

Innocently the Wildcats scored what appeared to be an oh-by-the-way touchdown on a 12-yard wheel route from Schubert to Andrew Spanos with 2:46 to play.

But when Mechanicsburg recovered the onsides kick, it became a little more interesting.

Two Schubert completion’s later — the second covering 24 yards to Swahneek Brown for a touchdown — it was suddenly 34-31 with still 2:07 to play.

Cedar Cliff’s Nate Orris recovered a well executed onsides kick by Ben Dubas when he soared into a pile of Wildcats and nabbed the ball to give the Colts possession at the Mechanicsburg 25 with 2:03 to play.

With two timeouts in his pocket, Hakel watched his defense come up huge to give Mechanicsburg the ball back 70 yards from a potential winning touchdown with 1:06 showing on the clock.

Schubert directed his offense like a seasoned veteran — alternately completing passes and spiking the ball to slow down the clock.

Schubert was 4-for-4 on the final march — including a 24-yard laser to Camryn Rice that put the ball inside the Cedar Cliff 5-yard-line.

“I just needed to relax in there. When I relaxed I found the holes,” Schubert said. “We have good skill guys and I just got them the ball. Our seniors calmed me down in the huddle.”

A spike and the Colts having too many players on the field moved the ball to the 1, where Joe Hennessy pushed the ball across the goal line with 29 seconds left for the winning touchdown.

“There’s a lot of credit to go around. We talked about putting it all together once and let’s see what happens. And for those four minutes we put it all together,” Hakel said. “There was a lot of close games throughout the season we should have won. Last week against Hershey we really didn’t’ show up. There was a lot of pent up emotions and they all came out.”

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Article by David Bohr, The Patriot-News/Photography by Chris Knight, The Patriot-News

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Susquehanna Twp. overcame 12 penalties, three turnovers and a blocked punt to post a 48-19 win over Mechanicsburg in Mid-Penn Keystone Division football on Friday night.

The Indians (7-2, 5-1) built a comfortable 28-3 lead in the second quarter, but the Wildcats (4-5, 1-5) cut it to 28-13 and appeared to recover an onside kick with 1:28 left in the half.

However, the officials ruled that the ball had not traveled 10 yards, so the Indians got the ball back.

Four plays later, Jordan Baskerville hit Colby Grant for a 36-yard gain to the Wildcats’ 14-yard line. On the next snap, Takhi Turner ran it in straight up the middle for a 34-13 lead with 23 seconds to go before intermission.

Susquehanna Twp. kept its foot on the proverbial gas pedal in the third quarter, converting a fake field goal into an 18-yard touchdown pass from Jaquan Blair to Justin Gassert with 17 seconds left in the period. That made it 42-13 and essentially put the game out of reach.

“I don’t think anyone saw it coming,” Indian head coach Joe Headen said of the fake. “It was something we wanted to keep the game rolling. We’ve been practicing it all season long, and the kids said let’s give it a shot.”

The Indians put up some impressive numbers, including Colby Grant’s 123 rushing yards on 13 carries. He had a 68-yard touchdown run in the first quarter that put Susquehanna Twp. up 7-3 with 5:58 to go in the first quarter, and a 13-yard touchdown run for a 20-3 lead with 10:55 left in the second.

Quarterback Jordan Baskerville was 8-for-13 for 185 yards and two touchdowns. He hit Jordan Millberry with a floating lob for a 7-yard touchdown in the first quarter and connected with Jordan Banks on a deep throw for a 34-yard touchdown in the second period.

Banks had two catches for 76 yards, and Mike Jones had three receptions for 42 yards.

“It stresses you on every play,” Mechanicsburg head coach Chris Hakel said of containing all of the Indians’ weapons. “You’ve got to keep on your assignments, and you’ve got to maintain containment. It’s hard to replicate it in practice.”

But Susquehanna Twp. did also have 110 yards in penalties, and two Indian turnovers led to scoring drives for the Wildcats. Also, there was a blocked punt in the fourth quarter that was returned by Evan Lechthahler 20 yards for Mechanicsburg’s last score with 2:31 left in the game.

“We got sloppy there at the end of the game,” Headen said. “If we want to be a good team in November, we can’t do that.”

Mechanicsburg’s only offensive touchdown was on a 42-yard touchdown pass down the right side of the field by Tyler Schubert to Andrew Spanos, which made it 28-10 with 5:18 left in the second.

Spanos caught 6 passes for 75 yards.

Ben Dubas made two field goals for the Wildcats, from 36 yards in the first quarter and 23 yards in the second.

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