Juniata Pee Wee’s are Back-to-back Champions

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: October 21, 2018

By Kenny Varner

LEWISTOWN – Call them back-to-back Champions.

For the second straight year, the Juniata Pee Wee football team can call themselves champions.

The Little Indians’ stellar all around play showed that it wasn’t to be taken for granted, defeating State College in the JVFL Pee Wee title tile 22-6.

“I am very proud of our team tonight. All year long we were the underdogs, no one expected us to make it back and we did,” Juniata coach Joe Dowling said.

Juniata has its running game going on all cylinders as the team got 135 yards from Jasper Shepps.

Teammate Daylyn Kennedy followed up with a 105 yard effort en route to the victory.

State College got a great running effort from William Hay who had 111 yards on the ground.

The State College offense played tough between the twenties but the “Big Red” defense made the plays when it needed to, holding State College to just one score.

“They (State College) played their hearts out. They gave it everything they had,” State College assistant coach Dan Seeley said. “They (Juniata) are a great team. They have two studs out there. You try to shut one down and the other ones going get you. We did the best we could.”

After a scoreless first quarter, Juniata started to drive the ball deep into Little Lions territory. Shepps blazed his downfield for a 21-yard touchdown, giving his team the early lead. The Indians went for two when Kennedy found Shepps, making it 8-0 with 9:52 left in the second.

On the following kick off, the Indians went for the insides kick and were successful as Dominique Siennick recovered the ball.

With the ball on the Lions’ 47, it took one play for the Indians to increase the score. Kennedy handed the ball off to Shepps and from there the running back got clear around the end and blazed his way downfield scoring on a 48-yard touchdown run, upping it to a 15-0 lead on a Juniata PAT.

But the State College offense wouldn’t go without making its presence known as it scored late in the second period.

Marching downfield on a 12-play drive, Max Hercane found his way around the end and cashed it in from 10-yards out, cutting it to 15-6.

But the Indians would score one more time before the half.

Kennedy called his own number and blasted his way through the line and into the secondary, scoring from 29 yards out. With the extra point, Juniata up the score to 22-6

before the intermission.

As the third quarter got underway, Mother Nature got involved blowing pounding rain down onto the field and making playing conditions muddy and slippery.

Juniata would put the game out of reach early in the third as Kennedy scores one last time to secure the 28-6 victory.