Pine-Richland cruises past State College in PIAA quarterfinals

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, November 25, 2017 | 5:12 PM

When it comes to football wizardry, there figures to be plenty more opportunities to torture opponents for Pine-Richland's Phil Jurkovec, beginning with the PIAA Class 6A semifinals next weekend.

Chalk up another sterling performance for the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Notre Dame-bound quarterback Saturday, when he led the Rams to a decisive victory over State College in the quarterfinals.

“He's a phenomenal quarterback,” State College coach Matt Lintal said, glancing across the field at Hempfield High School, where Jurkovec was still visible while most other players had retreated to their locker rooms following WPIAL champion Pine-Richland's 49-21 victory.

That was evident again with Jurkovec's latest showing.

“This season has been awesome. I'm just trying to soak it in,” he said.

Jurkovec passed for 252 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 119 yards and two more scores for Pine-Richland (14-0), which will face Manheim Township in the semifinals at a time, date and site to be determined.

Jordan Crawford added 112 yards rushing and a touchdown for Pine-Richland.

Jurkovec, who moved to fourth place on the WPIAL all-time passing list with 7,771 yards, connected with Dawson Goltz on a pair of scoring strikes covering 39 and 12 yards and threw a 23-yarder to Ben Jochem.

Pine-Richland took the lead for good by scoring twice in the first two minutes of the second half on two Jurkovec touchdown passes to break a 14-14 tie.

The Rams took advantage of a State College gamble that saw the Little Lions try an onsides kick to start the half.

But Goltz recovered the ball and Jurkovec went to work again, completing a 20-yard pass to Jochem before finding Goltz on the 39-yard scoring strike on the next play to give the Rams a 21-14 lead.

“We were telling our kids to watch for an onsides,” Pine-Richland coach Eric Kasperowicz said. “I didn't think they'd actually do it, but they made a gutsy call there. We had a guy (Goltz) pop on the ball and give us a short field, and the offense made them pay.”

Lintal said there were no regrets about the daring decision.

“You know what you're up against, and you take some chances,” he said. “Obviously, we did with the fake punt (later for a first down) and that paid off.

“You've got to give your kids some opportunities to go out and make plays. That's been a pretty high-percetage thing for us throughout the year, and we felt all right about it. The kick went a little deep and the kid made a nice play on it.”

Pine-Richland added another touchdown 19 seconds later after Kenny White intercepted a pass by State College quarterback Tommy Friberg on the Little Lions first play of the second half.

Jurkovec converted with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Jochem, and all of a sudden, the Rams led 28-14.

Jurkovec, who completed 19 of 24 attempts and passed former Pine-Richland and current Pitt quarterback Ben DiNucci on the WPIAL all-time passing list, made it 35-14 with a 12-yard scoring pass to Goltz with 5:16 to go in the third.

Jurkovec also scored on runs of 58 and 7 yards for Pine-Richland.

“We felt fortunate to come out of the first half with a tie,” Kasperowicz said, alluding to Pine-Richland's troubles of its own with turnovers and penalties. The Rams finished the game with three fumbles lost and more than 100 yards in penalties.

Friberg, a 6-5 junior, threw three touchdown passes — two to Brandon Clark — to lead District 6 champion State College (10-3). Friberg finished 11 of 31 for 188 yards passing for the Little Lions to give him 2,024 yards for the season.

Jurkovec's 58-yard touchdown run opened the scoring and gave Pine-Richland a 7-0 lead with 4:47 left in the first quarter.

Clark, headed to Penn State as a non-scholarship walk-on, caught a 23-yard scoring pass from Friberg with 1:25 to go to tie the score at 7-7.

White's 1-yard touchdown run helped Pine-Richland regain the lead in the second quarter before Friberg threw a 4-yard scoring pass to Clark, who caught seven passes for 175 yards, with just 57 seconds left before halftime.

It capped a 99-yard drive that started after the State College defense stopped Jurkovec at the other end on a fourth-down keeper at the goal-line.

Friberg's 6-yard scoring pass to Jeremy Bullock with 1:47 left in the third cut the State College deficit to 35-21, but Pine-Richland answered with just 21 seconds to go on a 7-yard scoring run by Jurkovec.

Crawford's 1-yard run for Pine-Richland accounted for the fourth-quarter touchdown.

Dave Mackall is a freelance writer.

Tags: Pine-Richland