Ellwood City’s head coach Don Phillips went into Friday’s Penn-Ohio All-Star Football Classic hoping to make it 3-0 as Team Pennsylvania coach; however, Team Ohio was a bit too dominant in the fourth quarter, defeating Phillips and Team Penn, 19-7.
Team Ohio’s dominance in the fourth quarter came in the time of possession. Ohio controlled the ball for 11:30 of the game’s final 14 minutes, running the ball every one of those 21 plays and scoring two touchdowns.
But the game wasn’t lopsided all night long. In fact, Pennsylvania had outgained Ohio offensively by a 148-58 yard margin in the first half. Ellwood City’s Kyle Crawford was second on the list of Penn rushers, running 10 times for 18 yards. He also caught two passes for 37 yards.
Other players representing the area in the Penn-Ohio game was Gregg Williams for Ellwood City, and Jonathan McCullough and Evan Hart for Riverside. Hart was selected as team captain for the Pennsylvania team.
Team Pennsylvania was the first to score on a 33-yard pass from West Allegheny’s Dylan Bongiorni to Western Beaver’s Dustin Creel in the opening minute of the second quarter. But after that, it was all Team Ohio.
Ohio would tie the score with a touchdown before the half, and after halftime, it was all Ohio. Because of their strong play in the fourth quarter, Ohio eventually out-gained Penn by a margin of 207-194 for a game total.
Team Pennsylvania still leads in the overall series, 23-10.
