State High keeps trucking

Winless in its three previous trips to the state semifinals, State College broke through in a big way Saturday.

The Little Lions played nearly flawless football in squashing Cumberland Valley, 35-13, at Mansion Park Stadium in Altoona. State College (12-2) is the first District 6 school to play for a PIAA Class AAAA title. The Little Lions meet LaSalle College (13-1) at 6 p.m. Saturday at Hersheypark Stadium.

State College, which shared the Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division title with Central Dauphin before capturing the District 6-8-9-10 subregion, fell in the 1992, 2003 and 2006 state semifinals. In their first trip to the semifinals, the Little Lions lost to Upper St. Clair, 42-13. Ironically, a week later USC fell to Cumberland Valley, 28-12, in the state final.

State College lost to Pittsburgh Central Catholic, 30-0, in 2003 and dropped a 28-20 decision to Upper St. Clair in 2006.

As for CV, the Eagles fell to 1-3 in state semifinal games and closed the books on a 12-3 season. Saturday was the first time for CV playing in the western half of the bracket for PIAA action. Since moving to the west for Class AAAA in 2004, traditional Mid-Penn Conference teams are now 0-5 in the state semifinals and District 3 is 0-6.

As a parting shot from Altoona, we tip our hats to the Altoona Area School District crew. We don't know how they did it but the field was in great shape. The Altoona area had between 5-6 inches of snow and ice dumped on it Tuesday night but the field was ready for Friday night's PIAA Class AAA semifinal game. The field was lined with a large wall of snow and ice, which was far enough out of bounds to not cause any issues. Nice work, guys.

Now, if only the 3-AAAA champion can figure out a way to get this semifinal monkey off its back.

(Photo courtesy of Craig Houtz/Centre Daily Times)