September 20, 2008 — LINESVILLE — Linesville 28, Mercer 21. So ended the latest chapter in what has become an amazing series of games between these two Class A programs.

In 2006, Mercer won it 28-25. Last year it was another classic with the Mustangs making it two-in-a-row with a 32-31 win.

But Friday night in Linesville, the orange-and-black finally got its turn. And with it, the Lions retained their status as a No. 1 team in Region 1, staying perfect at 4-0 and 3-0 in the region.

“Feels great,” said Lions running back Doug Farley. “I’ve been playing them since my sophomore year. We’ve never beaten them, it’s always been close. Finally, my senior year we come out on top.

“It wasn’t easy. They played real well. Great ball team. We’ll be seeing them again in the playoffs.”

It was Mercer’s first loss of the year. The Mustangs — defending Region 1 champs — are now 3-1 overall and 2-1 in conference play.

“This whole week we’ve been preaching about Mercer and how tough they were,” said Linesville quarterback Trevor Litwiler. “We beat the crap out of our JVs preparing for this game. The coaches did everything they could, they were busting our butts every day. We were pumped for this game.

“(Mercer) came out hitting. But we just did what we had to do and came out with a win.”

Mercer proved to be just as tough a team as the Lions were expecting. But after a couple botched special teams plays in the first half, the Mustangs faced an uphill battle for most of the night.

The Mustangs went three-and-out on their first series. On the punt attempt, the snap sailed over the head of kicker Terrence Davis. He recovered the ball and tried to squib it away. But Linesville freshman Jimmy Kearns got in front of the ball and knocked it into the back of the end zone. There, Jon Weidner, another Linesville freshman, hopped on the ball. The Lions were up 7-0.

Yet, Mercer was right back in it. On the next series, Mustangs quarterback Andy Erdos completed a 48-yard pass to receiver Andy Reda to get his team into the red zone. Davis brought his team to the 1 with a 16-yard run. And he gobbled up that yard one play later, knotting the score at 7-7.

Linesville made it 14-7 following a six-play, 56-yard drive highlighted by a wild 30-yard run by Farley. It looked like the play was going left, but Farley found a hole on the right side. About five yards into defensive territory, Farley made a wide right turn, circling around the Mustangs secondary. He then pointed towards the end zone, engaged the jets and leapt in football-first for the score.

Later in the second quarter, Linesville was punting the ball away. The punt sailed deep, took a bounce and bumped into Mercer’s Tyler Hoffman. Matt Laird fell on the carom and the Lions took up possession on the Mustangs’ 9-yard line.

Two plays later, Trevor Litwiler rolled out right, tucked the ball and carried it in himself. The Lions led 21-7. That’s how the half would end.

“That’s the difference in the game,” said Mercer coach Pat McClearn. “We gave up seven on a blocked punt. We gave them a real short field on the punt return. That’s 14 points in a seven-point game.

“Even with all that, my kids showed heart. They battled back. I’m very pleased with the effort we got in the second half. For what it’s worth, I thought we outplayed them in the second half.”

The Mustangs did in fact outgain the Lions 180 to 87 in the second half and had nine first downs to Linesville’s three.

Late in the third quarter, the ’Stangs cut into Linesville’s lead after setting up shop on the Lions’ 20 following a Linesville punt out of its own end zone.

On the first play of the possession, Erdos took a delayed keeper up the middle and rumbled into the end zone untouched. Score: Linesville 21, Mercer 14.

The Mustangs were driving again late in the third and on into the fourth quarter, marching from their own 18 to the Lions’ 21 on 10 plays. But on fourth down, the Lions’ Walt Litwin picked off Erdos at the seven, halting the Mustang’s momentum. It was Erdos’ third interception of the night. Trevor Litwiler and Evan Smith had picked him off earlier in the game.

Starting at their own 7, the Lions started getting some big gains. Litwiler had a 9-yard run. Mercer yielded 15 more yards to the Lions with a late hit. And then Litwiler found a wide open Walt Litwin 23 yards down the field to get into Mustangs territory.

First-and-10 at the 48, Farley broke off another stunner. He made a couple cuts through the defensive front and then entered the defensive backfield. Farley had two defenders in front of him on either side. He put on a little burst of speed, then stuttered his step, and the two defenders took the bait and crashed into each other.

“I just put the brakes on, stopped, they hit each other, and I went around them and kept going,” said Farley. “It was great.”

With that TD, the Lions were up 28-14.

But Mercer wasn’t done. In the fourth quarter the Mustangs covered 65 yards on 14 plays and Herbie Hennegan — subbing for the now-injured Terrence Davis — scored from two yards out to make it 28-21.

But that drive took up too much time (about seven minutes) and Mercer had to do something big and do it fast. So, the Mustangs attempted the onside kick and got the ball back with a little more than two minutes to go.

The Mustangs marched down to the Lions 18. And on second down, Erdos, looking for a running back to hand the ball to, lost control of the pigskin. Walt Litwin pounced on it, sealing the win for the Lions.

“We had the ball going in. We put the ball on the ground,” said McClearn.

“That’s a tough team,” said Gould. “Up front, that’s a tough, tough team. And they were beating us up in the second half. They were giving us more than we wanted at the end. Luckily we made a big play and caused a fumble and it worked out for us.”