The Harrisburg Cougars will take on the State College Little Lions at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Harrisburg is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Pennsylvania's top teams: Bishop McDevitt, who was ranked 11th in their home state at the time (Harrisburg was ranked sixth). Harrisburg sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 35-33 win over Bishop McDevitt on Saturday.
Jaiyon Lewis had an outrageously good game as he rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns on only 12 carries, and also threw for 236 yards and a touchdown while completing 73.7% of his passes. Elias Coke was Lewis' top target, picking up 155 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, State College never let their opponents score on Friday. They blew past Altoona, posting a 57-0 victory at home. Given the Little Lions' advantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania football rankings (they are ranked 32nd, while the Mountain Lions are ranked 165th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
State College had a senior duo take command as Eddie Corkery threw for 237 yards and six touchdowns on only 15 passes and Ty Salazer picked up 141 receiving yards and four touchdowns. With that strong performance, Corkery is now averaging an impressive 4 passing touchdowns per game. Levi Mellott helped Corkery out on the ground, rushing for 75 yards and a touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, State College was moving up and down the field and finished the game with 407 total yards. That's the most total yards they've posted since back in September of 2023.
State College wouldn't let Altoona keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force three fumbles. It was truly a group effort as Anderson ?Aj? Fry, Nathan Haas, and Sean Brennen picked up one apiece. Haas didn't just play on offense: he also forced a fumble and made seven total tackles (4.0 for loss).
Harrisburg pushed their record up to 1-1 with that win, which was their sixth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for State College, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 2-0.
Everything went Harrisburg's way against State College in their previous meeting back in October of 2023 as Harrisburg made off with a 20-0 win. Will Harrisburg repeat their success, or does State College have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
