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Mtn. Lions suffer first loss

Altoona’s Tyson Reid dives to try and stop CD East’s Mehki Flowers from scoring on Friday night. Photo for the Mirror by Chuck Meyers

Leading 3-0 in the second quarter, Altoona found itself on the wrong end of a series of big plays — and a disputed touchdown late in the first half and third quarter — putting the Mountain Lions in a hole from which they could not recover.

After opening the season with three straight wins, Altoona dropped its Mid-Penn Conference opener, falling to Central Dauphin East 27-10 Friday at Mansion Park.

Play(s) of the game: On fourth-and-goal from the 8, CD East quarterback Terrence Jackson-Copney threw a pass to Penn State recruit Mehki Flowers in the back of the end zone that appeared to be incomplete. The officials ruled it a touchdown to put the Panthers up 14-3.

Altoona coach Vince Nedimyer: “Maybe a little bit of karma. Last week, we had one that was questionable. From what we saw, we thought our kid made a nice play on the ball, saw the ball on the ground and just assumed it was an incomplete pass, but my view is not as good as that referee’s view is. What are you gonna’ do? They called it a touchdown.”

“I think we fell apart mentally a little bit after the play was called a touchdown when we thought we stopped them on fourth down. It’s tough at any age to overcome something like that, especially for 16, 17, 18-year-old high school kids. We addressed that after the game. It’s something we have to get better at moving forward, and I know we will. We have strong senior leadership on this team.

Another key play: After Ethan Stroup broke free for a 47-yard touchdown run that made it a 14-10 game, Flowers took a wide receiver screen 81 yards up the visiting sideline for a touchdown on the second play of the ensuing possession.

Flowers: “That was all my blockers. Don’t give any of the credit to me. I caught the ball, saw the lane and from there just used my speed.”

Nedimyer: “They made a huge play. (Flowers) made a great play on the ball, cuts back and gets down the sideline. You’ve gotta’ give credit where it’s due. They blocked it well. We just have to be more physical, get to the football and chase it down with our angles on the backside.”

On CD East’s next offensive play, Jackson-Copney found Tymere Thornton open on a deep post pattern that went for a 66-yard score to make it 27-10.

CD East players of the game: Flowers caught five passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns. He also returned the second-half kickoff 59 yards to set up the disputed score. Marcel McDaniels ran for 187 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries.

Altoona player of the game: Stroup ran for 151 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries.

Unsung hero(es): McDaniels gained a lot of his yards rushing behind the right side of the offensive line, anchored by Cameron Livingston and Mohamed Aly.

CD East coach Lance Deane: “We take pride in being physical, being able to run the football. That’s an aspect of our game that often gets overlooked. We get tagged with the word athlete a lot, but to us, we’re just football players.”

Notable: CD East’s first score was set up by big plays as well. Facing third-and-9 from its own 4, McDaniels ripped off a 26-yard run followed by a 50-yard wide receiver screen to Flowers. McDaniels capped the 8-play, 97-yard drive with a 3-yard TD run to give the Panthers a 7-3 lead with 45 seconds left in the first half.

Deane: “We were essentially going for punch for punch. Two, physical teams, two well-coached teams. At that point, it just gave us some momentum going into halftime. At times the momentum went back-and-forth, but we were able to stick together and figure it out.”

Records: Central Dauphin East (3-1); Altoona (3-1).

Next week: Central Dauphin East hosts State College. Altoona visits Cumberland Valley.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Central Dauphin East 0 7 20 0 — 27

Altoona 0 3 7 0 — 10

Second Quarter

A-Palilla 23 FG, 9:55.

CDE-McDaniels 3 run (Bloss kick), :45.

Third Quarter

CDE-Flowers 8 pass from Jackson-Copney (Bloss kick), 9:18.

A-Stroup 47 run (Palilla kick), 7:00.

CDE-Flowers 81 pass from Jackson-Copney (Bloss kick), 5:55.

CDE-Thornton 66 pass from Jackson-Copney (kick failed), 3:02.

TEAM STATISTICS CDE A

First downs 11 14

Total yards 410 240

Rushes-yards 30-194 47-214

Yards passing 216 26

Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 6-11-0 4-12-0

Punts-avg. 1-33.0 2-42.5

Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-0

Penalties-yards 10-110 3-45

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–Central Dauphin East, McDaniels 25-187, Jackson-Copney 4-5, Chandler 1-2. Altoona, Stroup 26-151, Steinbugl 7-13, Dokes 6-34, Reid 2-4, Spriggs 1-1, Bettwy 4-11, LaRocco 1-0.

PASSING–Central Dauphin East, Jackson-Copney 6-9-0-216, Powell 0-2-0-0. Altoona, Steinbugl 4-11-0-26, Reid 0-1-0-0

RECEIVING–Central Dauphin East, Flowers 5-150, Thornton 1-66. Altoona, Stroup 2-13, Hileman 1-12, Taborn 1-1.

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