Skip to main content

Chambersburg can't keep up with CD East


Here's what seems to be the story for Chambersburg's football team: When one thing goes right, three things go wrong.

Take for example the sequence of events that unfolded for the Trojans late in the second quarter of a 41-19 Mid Penn Commonwealth Division loss against Central Dauphin East on Friday night.

With just a few minutes left in the half, Chambersburg caught a huge break. Mason Deshong fell on a Panther fumble in the end zone, and the Trojans unexpectedly held a 13-10 lead.

But when the Trojans walked into the locker room less than five minutes later, they faced a two-score deficit after giving up a pair of late touchdowns.

"It was a great feeling having that play, but it seemed like it all went downhill after that," Deshong said, "I mean, we even had a chance after halftime to come out and score, but they stopped us. We still had a chance after that, but it felt like it was going down the drain for us."

Just two and a half minutes after Deshong's heads-up play, the Panthers (4-1, 1-1 MPC) had moved all the way downfield on a trio of long runs by Tyshaun Pollard, who capped the drive with a 3-yard catch for a touchdown.

CD East pinned Chambersburg (1-4, 0-2 MPC) and forced the Trojans to punt, and it looked like that would end the half when Nazeer Taylor booted his best of the day - a 52-yard punt to put East at its own 38 with less a minute to go in the half. But Kane Everson needed just two completions to Baron McKinney for the Panthers to score yet again for a 24-13 lead at the half.

"When you're a team that hasn't had a lot of success over the last few years, these guys don't know how to compete play after play," Chambersburg coach Mark Luther said. "You have to compete 48 minutes, and that's every snap. We do a good thing, but then we just turn around and make a mental error that gives up a big play."

Chambersburg did have some sparks offensively, but it wasn't consistent enough. Tyler Collier hit a beautiful pass to a wide-open Sean Vessah, who broke through a shoestring tackle on the way to a 79-yard touchdown. Clay Myers also gained 84 yards on 18 carries and scored once.

"You gotta try to put the ball in the hands of the players that can make things happen, and right now, (Clay) is one of them," Luther said.

Taylor said, "We stopped them a lot, I thought, and I think we played really good at times today, but we made a lot of mistakes that shouldn't have happened. A lot of those special team returns, we could've stopped, and a lot of those deep balls shouldn't have happened."

Chambersburg's defense did keep it in the game for as long as it could, but the Panthers eventually finished with 443 yards of offense, led by Pollard's 146 rushing yards on 21 carries.

"(Chambersburg) was aggressive up front," CDE coach Aaron Blanding said. "We knew they had a pretty good defensive line, but we didn't realize they were that good. (Myles Braxton and Kelton Chastulik) were coming off the ball pretty quickly. They were two strong guys, and they gave us some problems up front."

CD East 41, Chambersburg 19

Chambersburg _ 0 _ 13 _ 6 _ 0 _ — _ 19

CD East _ 7 _ 17 _ 7 _ 10 _ — _ 41

First Quarter

CDE — Terry Danner 3 pass from Kane Everson (Anthony Calamia kick), 1:05

Second Quarter

CDE — Calamia 44 field goal, 7:49

Chbg — Clay Myers 34 run (kick failed), 5:45

Chbg — Mason Deshong fumble recovery in end zone (Nazeer Taylor kick), 3:53

CDE — Tyshaun Pollard 3 pass from Everson (Calamia kick), 1:14

CDE — Baron McKinney 49 pass from Everson (Calamia kick), 0:14

Third Quarter

CDE — Jeremiah Christian 10 run (Calamia kick), 10:17

Chbg — Sean Vessah 79 pass from Tyler Collier (kick failed), 9:22

Fourth Quarter

CDE — Calamia 30 field goal, 11:54

CDE — Mahki Moore 20 run (Hossam Aly kick), 1:08

Team Statistics

_ Chbg _ CDE

First downs _ 11 _ 19

Rushes-yards _ 19-145 _ 40-259

Passing _ 9-20-0 _ 11-16-0

Passing yards _ 179 _ 184

Total yards _ 324 _ 443

Punts _ 8-31.3 _ 4-33.5

Fumbles-lost _ 0-0 _ 2-2

Penalties-yards _ 3-15 _ 4-37

Individual Statistics

Rushing — Chbg, Myers 18-84, Kammeron Green 7-71, Jack Kunkleman 1-2, Andrew Shetter 1-(-1), Tyler Collier 2-(-11); CDE, Pollard 21-146, Everson 5-55, Moore 3-32, Christian 4-29, Dijuan Gibson 5-7, Jaylen Hawthorne 1-(-3), Team 1-(-7).

Passing — Chbg, Collier 9-20-179-0; CDE, Everson 10-15-143-0, Pollard 1-1-41-0.

Receiving — Chbg, Sean Vessah 3-134, Shetter 2-32, Seth Brouse 1-8, Trayton Barnette 1-4, Spencer Seaman 1-2, Green 1-(-1); CDE, Aaron Arp 4-109, Pollard 3-2, Baron McKinney 2-62, Danner 2-11.