MILTON – Flashiness will get noticed, but more often than not, slow and steady with a dose of consistency wins the race, especially if it’s of the long distance variety.
Flash and steadiness dotted both halves of Friday’s PIAA Class 3A first round game between Scranton Prep and Mifflinburg. For the Wildcats, which entered the game 10-2 after winning its first-ever outright district championship last week, their passing game has been responsible for a lot of that success and it has done so with a lot of flash all year.
But for Scranton Prep, its running game has been responsible for its success this year against a very tough schedule, but it has hit a new level in the playoffs.
After a first half filled with Mifflinburg’s offensive flashiness that Scranton Prep managed to escape down by just a touchdown, the Cavaliers’ steady and consistent running game proved to the difference in the game as the Cavaliers scored a pair of second half touchdowns and held Mifflinburg to just 33 yards in the second half after a 278-yard first half, as the Cavaliers ended Mifflinburg’s historic season with a 28-21 victory.
“I feel like this was the best season in our program’s history and it’s because of the work that they put in, the senior class especially,” said Mifflinburg coach Cody Botts. “It’s a special class with a lot of talent and they put this program back on the map and they’re going to leave a trail for the underclassmen and it’s cliche, but it’s back to work and the success is there for the next class to take and continue to build.”
“It was ugly at times, the kids rallied around each other and I thought we controlled the second half up front, physically,” said Scranton Prep coach Terry Gallagher. “We made a couple small adjustments, and I’m obviously happy with the win but we’ll need to fix a lot of stuff if we want to keep playing.”
It was the Chad Martin-Landen Murray show for most of the first half as Martin threw for 266 of his 298 yards on the night while Murray hauled in six passes for 233 yards and three touchdowns. For the game, Murray finished with seven catches for 245 yards.
Mifflinburg forced and recovered a Scranton Prep fumble on the Cavaliers’ first drive of the game, and then on the first play of the ensuing possession – the Wildcats’ first of the game, Martin hit Murray for an 88-yard pass and perfectly thrown ball that just eluded the Scranton Prep defensive back.
Scranton Prep then turned the ball over on downs on its next drive, giving the ball to the Wildcats at their own 24. Mifflinburg lined up with four receivers in a diamond formation to the right, with Murray isolated to the left against two defenders. Murray split them and ran past both before hauling in another precise delivery from Martin, which he turned into a 76-yard touchdown reception.
“They are like a lot of high school teams, just like us, in that they want to rely on being in their base defense and they have really good athletes just like us, so they were trusting in their athletes and in their scheme to work, but I haven’t seen a better athlete in the state of Pennsylvania than Landen Murray,” said Botts. “Obviously, any time we can get him a deep shot in a one-on-one, we’re going to do it.”
Despite having the ball for a grand total of just :24, and running just two plays to 23 for the Cavaliers, Mifflinburg led 14-0 after the first quarter.
“We came out flat, they caught us on it and did a good job,” said Gallagher. “Murray is a really good player and their quarterback made some great throws.”
Scranton Prep was finally able to finish a drive on its next possession as quarterback Will McPartland capped a 10-play, 65-yard drive that took 5:31 with a five-yard touchdown run at the 9:15 mark of the second quarter.
Mifflinburg then picked up a couple of first downs and drove the ball down to the Scranton Prep 33 before Martin dropped back to pass and was stripe-sacked as he was flushed out of the pocket. Ricky Dewey scooped up the fumble and returned it 49 yards to tie the game 14-14 with 4:52 remaining in the first half.
The Wildcats would answer back immediately as they put together a seven-play, 69-yard drive capped by Martin hitting Murray in the corner of the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown. Murray also hauled in a 43-yard pass on a third down play earlier in the drive.
Mifflinburg then picked off McPartland on the first play of Scranton Prep’s next drive, giving the Wildcats the ball near midfield with 1:30 left in the half.
But the Cavaliers were able to keep the Wildcats from any further scoring. A false start penalty, one of just two assessed to the Wildcats all night, pushed them from a fourth-and-2 to a fourth-and-7 that they failed to convert, and Scranton Prep escaped into the locker room down by just a single score.
“They had us on our heels but we battled back and made some plays and in the second half, I thought we imposed our will physically with the run game and stopped them and did a much better job containing them in the passing game,” said Scranton Prep coach Terry Gallagher. “We threw a couple of different coverages at them in the second half and did a much better job adjusting in the second half.”
The Cavaliers made Mifflinburg go three-and-out on the Wildcats’ first second half drive, and then proceeded to go 86 yards in 11 plays in just under five minutes to tie the game on a McPartland one-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter.
Another three-and-out by the Wildcats gave Scranton Prep the ball at its own 41 with 4:21 left in the third quarter. The Cavaliers then strung together 14 consecutive running plays over the 59 yards in a drive the took 8:20 and was again capped by a one-yard touchdown run by McPartland to give them their first lead of the game, 28-21, with 8:01 remaining. That drive put McPartland over the 100-yard mark, as he finished with 125 yards on 22 carries.
Scranton Prep ran 34 plays in the second half – all runs – compared to just 16 for Mifflinburg. The Cavaliers were also 4-of-5 on fourth down conversions in the second half.
“We were in position as a defense to make stops, we had them stopped in the backfield but just didn’t tackle well, and then the way we closed out the first half – the offense should have scored, we wasted one, and then went three-and-out to start the second half ,” said Botts. “You can’t expect to win big games if you don’t produce on two straight drives and when you’re not tackling and doing the little things right on defense, it’s tough.”
Another three-and-out by Mifflinburg gave Scranton Prep the chance to close it out, but they missed a 45-yard field goal attempt with 1:23 remaining, giving the Wildcats one last chance. They managed to pick up their lone first down of the second half but came up empty on a fourth-and-11 play, sealing the outcome.
“We weren’t consistent offensively in the second half. We couldn’t get in second-and-manageable and then third-and-manageable,” said Botts. “We had some opportunities with some deep shots still on first down but they adjusted their defense on Landen Murray and took some of that deep stuff away. There were still plays there, but we just didn’t take advantage of the plays that were on the table when they were.”
Scranton Prep advances to the state quarterfinals, where it will take on defending state champion Northwestern Lehigh next week in a rematch of the teams’ playoff meeting from last year.
“They’re a good team, they have some really good kids, so we’ll have our hands full,” said Gallagher. “In the state playoffs, you’re not going to play any bad teams. They’re the reigning state champs, so if you want to do something special, you have to come out there and execute and hopefully we’ll play well.”
Scranton Prep 28, Mifflinburg 21
Scranton Prep (8-5) 0 14 7 7 – 28
Mifflinburg (10-3) 14 7 0 0 – 21
First quarter
8:39 – (M) Landen Murray 88-yard pass from Chad Martin (Boyer kick), 1-88, :13
2:46 – (M) Landen Murray 76-yard pass from Chad Martin (Boyer kick), 1-76, :11
Second quarter
9:15 – (SP) Will McPartland 5-yard run (Bianchi kick), 10-65, 5:31
4:52 – (SP) Ricky Dewey 49-yard fumble return (Bianchi kick)
1:43 – (M) Landen Murray 18-yard pass from Chad Martin (Boyer kick), 7-69, 3:09
Third quarter
5:59 – (SP) Will McPartland 1-yard run (Bianchi kick), 11-86, 4:58
Fourth quarter
8:01 – (SP) Will McPartland 1-yard run (Bianchi kick), 14-59, 8:20
Statistics
SP M
First downs 23 9
Rushes-net yards 56-297 16-20
Passing yardage 53 291
Passing 4-8-0-1 13-25-3-0
Fumbles-lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 3-20 2-15
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Scranton Prep: Will McPartland (22-125-3), Braedon McPartland (12-96), Noah Krzywiec (11-67), Anthony Prince (9-11), Team (2-(-2)); Mifflinburg: Chad Martin (9-(-1)), Landon Moser (4-8), Seth Hartman (2-10), Landen Murray (1-3)
PASSING: Scranton Prep: Will McPartland (4-8-53-0-1); Mifflinburg: Chad Martin (12-23-298-3-0), Landon Moser (1-1-(-7)-0-0), Team (0-1-0-0-0)
RECEIVING: Scranton Prep: A.J. Croom (1-23), Sean McCormack (1-15), Noah Krzywiec (1-10), Braedon McPartland (1-5); Mifflinburg: Landen Murray (7-245-3), Landon Moser (2-14), Jackson Griffith (2-5), Brady Threet (1-16), Cole Reibsome (1-11)