ACCIDENT — No. 3 Allegany trailed Northern 7-0 at halftime and had 19 total yards in the first half.
Trailing 13-0 early in the third quarter, the Campers (4-4) rallied and stunned the Huskies (3-5) on Friday, winning 18-13 at Half-Mile High Stadium.
“The kids never quit, every game we play, they fight till the end,” Alco head coach Bryan Hansel said. “I’m just glad some of these are starting to get on the winning side of it. I don’t know why we like to make it hard, dropping the ball when we can go up two scores, but what a defensive stand.”
After an interception by Northern’s Konor Suter, Landon Yoder weaved through the defense for a 55-yard touchdown run with 8:47 left in the third quarter to extend Huskies’ lead to 13-0.
Allegany responded with a nine play, 66-yard drive that ended on a 16-yard touchdown run from Khiante Bible.
The Campers went for two, and the pass fell incomplete.
After a three-and-out from Northern, Alco faced a third and four at its 36.
Bible made one cut and was gone for a 64-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 13-12 after three quarters.
“Difficult for sure, that’s two close games back-to-back,” Northern head coach Logan Stewart said. “That’s the most uncomfortable thing we could probably experience right now. Kids played hard, definitely left it all out there. Just some mistakes, some penalties, not taking advantage of opportunities they gave us.”
Bible finished with 15 carries for 144 yards and two touchdowns.
On the Huskies’ opening play of the fourth quarter, DJ Riley jumped a pass and took off for a 34-yard pick-six to give Allegany an 18-13 lead.
“It was huge, Khiante said let me eat without Amanni (Blowe), and I said OK, get your big boy pants on,” Hansel said. “He responded, and I don’t know if was luck or coincidence, but we told DJ when we had a player down, ‘They’re gonna test you again, it’s time to make a play.’”
Blowe left the game in the first quarter, and Hansel said they believe it’s a broken collarbone.
He entered as Alco’s leading rusher with 590 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, both top 10 in the area.
“That’s just a kick in the teeth, just a consummate pro,” Hansel said of losing Blowe. “Leader of the team, so rough one to take.”
After a punt from Elliot Myers-Shirer pinned Alco at the 10, the Campers drove to the Northern 34.
James Ford recovered a fumble for the Huskies on a handoff eight plays in.
On the ensuing drive, Alco was called for a holding penalty on third down to keep Northern’s drive alive.
Emmitt Lipscomb made two clutch catches for the Huskies, including a fourth down conversion for 15 yards.
Lipscomb caught seven passes for 80 yards.
Facing fourth-and-three at the seven, Northern’s pass fell incomplete to give Allegany the win.
“Us having penalties and shooting ourselves in the foot,” Stewart said of what allowed Allegany to rally. “We made it difficult in the punt game, Elliott did a real nice job, but those injuries and mistakes on our end.”
While the second half featured plenty of drama, the first half was a defensive slugfest.
The only points came with 57 seconds before halftime on a four-yard touchdown run from Evan Graham.
“We just had to adjust to what they were giving us,” Stewart said. “We knew we’d have to spread them out and throw the ball a little bit. We did a lot better throwing the ball tonight.”
On the next Campers play from scrimmage, Yoder intercepted a pass at the Alco 40, but the Huskies failed to capitalize, taking a 7-0 halftime lead.
Allegany had five drives in the first half.
Three of the five lasted three plays, with the third including penalties called on the Campers on back-to-back third down attempts.
“We thought we moved the ball, but they were catching us on a lot of backside stuff,” Hansel said. “At halftime, our line said we wanna limit our pulls and kinda get downhill at them. That’s kinda what we did, even when we pulled it was short, the trap stuff, that ended up hitting bit.”
Northern led 180-19 in yardage, holding Alco to three rushing yards in the half.
Caleb Hinebaugh led the Huskies with 11 carries for 75 yards, while Maddox Hensel finished second on Alco with 74 yards on nine attempts.
Friday marked the third one-score win of the season for the Campers after beating Mountain Ridge 21-13 and Keyser 26-21 last Saturday.
“These dudes, they’re learning to win,” Hansel said. “All the way through, they haven’t experienced a ton of winning. But now that they’re starting to learn how to win.”
Next week marks the end of the regular season for both teams.
Northern hosts Southern next Friday at 6:30 p.m.
The Rams (4-4) defeated Uniontown 33-13 on Friday.
Allegany will be the home team for Homecoming next Saturday at 12:30 p.m. against No. 2 Fort Hill.
The Sentinels (5-3) won 56-6 over Smithsburg on Friday.