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Shippensburg pulls off wild comeback to stun McDevitt


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In one of the most amazing comebacks you will ever see, Shippensburg scored two touchdowns in the final 30 seconds Friday night  to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Clayton Stine's two touchdown catches in the last 30 seconds capped an incredible rally as the Greyhounds won 29-28 over Bishop McDevitt in a District 3 Class 4A football semifinal at Shippensburg Memorial Park.

The win ensured Shippensburg's first-ever trip to the district championship, which will be played Friday afternoon against Berks Catholic (11-1) at Hersheypark Stadium at 1 p.m.

Cameron Tinner provided the winning point with a 1-yard plunge for a two-point conversion with 17 seconds left after Stine's final score.

"We have the best athlete around in Cameron Tinner; it's his game," Shippensburg coach Eric Foust said.

However, the opportunity would have never arrived had it not been for Stine. After being held without a catch for the first 46 minutes, Stine hauled in a seemingly unimportant 8-yard catch with his team down 28-14. A few plays later on fourth down, Stein took a short pass from quarterback Carter Van Scyoc and ran 30 yards down the sideline for a touchdown.

Suddenly, Shippensburg had a pulse at 28-21, with 31 seconds to play.

"This team never gives up and I felt like it was my time to come up big," Stine said.

On the ensuing onsides kick, the ball bounced through several Crusaders and headed toward the sideline, then Shippensburg sophomore Naz Miner jumped on it. After a brief discussion by the officials, they determined the ball did not go out of bounds and Shippensburg took over at the McDevitt 34.

After an incomplete pass on first down, Van Scyoc lobbed a pass to Stine streaking past two defenders down the middle of the field. The ball fell into his hands as he crossed the goal line for his second touchdown in 14 seconds.

"I saw the outside back was playing to my outside and they didn't have a safety (there), so I figured why not just run down the field and hope for the best?" Stine said.

That made the score 28-27 with 0:17 left, and when Jackson VanHorne kicked the extra point, an ecstatic crowd cheered thinking the game was tied.

However, encroachment was called on McDevitt, one of 14 penalties the Crusaders committed.

"We weren't ready all night. We committed way too many penalties (14 for 122 yards)," McDevitt coach Jeff Weachter said.

Now Shippensburg had a decision to make: With the ball on the 1, going for two seemed a little more reasonable.

"To be honest I wanted to go for two before they jumped, but I was overruled on that one," Foust said.

Foust got his way on the second chance. Shippensburg lined up in an I-formation and quickly handed the ball to Tinner, the up back, and he plowed in for the most exciting 1-yard run of the Greyhound's season.

Nobody could believe it.

"To be honest with you, I didn't think we were going to win. But we never stopped fighting," Van Scyoc said.

For McDevitt, going for it's seventh consecutive D-3 title, it was a heartbreaking way to have its 25-game district tournament winning streak snapped.

"Give Shippensburg all the credit - they won the game," Weachter said.

The Crusaders had all the chances in the world.

After a scoreless first quarter, they went up 14-0 after scoring two touchdowns in the first four minutes of the second quarter. However, their defense and penalties allowed Shippensburg to come back and tie it on a pair of TD catches by Cody Gustafson (16 catches, 206 yards) going into halftime.

In the second half the Crusader defense looked strong, causing Van Scyoc to throw two interceptions.

Then with three minutes to go in the game, McDevitt running back Matt Geiger scored from four yards out to give the Crusaders the lead at 21-14.

After another interception, Geiger ran 34 yards untouched to the end zone with 1:26 left, seemingly sealing the game. At that point, Geiger was the MVP with 242 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries.

"He's a warrior, that's all you can say," Weachter said.

If the game had ended there, there would have been more to say. But it didn't.

"We stayed calm the whole game," Foust said. "We kept saying, 'Why not us?'"

Now the Greyhounds will get to ask that question for another week.

Bishop McDevitt 28, Shippensburg 29 

Bishop McDevitt _ 0 _ 14 _ 0 _ 14 _ — _ 28

Shippensburg _ 0 _ 14 _ 0 _ 15 _ — _ 29

Second Quarter

BM — Matt Geiger 1 run (Jon Fonner kick) 10:30

BM — T'ynis Becker 20 pass from Chase Diehl (Fonner kick) 8:44

Ship — Cody Gustafson 6 pass from Carter Van Scyoc (Jackson VanHorne kick) 5:10

Ship — Gustafson 22 pass from Van Scyoc (VanHorne kick) 00:30

Fourth Quarter

BM — Geiger 4 run (Fonner kick) 3:10

BM — Geiger 34 run (Fonner kick) 1:26

Ship — Clayton Stine 38 pass from Van Scyoc (VanHorne kick) 00:31

Ship — Stine 34 pass from Van Scyoc (VanHorne kick) 00:17

Team Statistics

_ McD _ Ship

First downs _ 16 _ 18

Rushes-yards _ 34-249 _ 28-80

Passing _ 17-31-1 _ 24-45-2

Passing yards _ 219 _ 350

Total yards _ 468 _ 430

Punts _ 4-30 _ 3-29

Fumbles-lost _ 0-0 _ 1-0

Penalties-yards _ 14-122 _ 5-40

Individual Statistics

Rushing — BM, Geiger 32-242, Diehl 2-7; Ship, Adam Houser 19-64, Van Scyoc 6-8, Tinner 3-8.

Passing — BM, Diehl 17-31-219-1; Ship, Van Scyoc 24-45-350-2.

Receiving — BM, Nazir Burnett 8-140, Geiger 1-15, Becker 4-35, Juquill Adams 3-18; Ship, Gustafson 16-206, Stine 3-80, Houser 4-54, Tinner 1-10.

Interceptions — BM, Aaron Gethers, James Lawson; Ship, Houser.