Campbell football came up with plays when it needed to in D3 final against Trinity

Scott Hershberger had a hand in 65 percent of plays run by the Campbell High School football team during last Saturday's Division III championship game.

It might have been a defensive play that was the sophomore's biggest.

Trinity had just pulled within two points on a 54-yard touchdown run by Anthony DiGiantommaso on the final play of the third quarter. The Cougars had dominated time of possession throughout the game, but the Pioneers were just a successful conversion away from tying the game with 12 minutes to go.

Instead, Hershberger recognized the play Trinity was running for two points and came up to make the tackle on quarterback Jack Service before he could cross the goal line.

"Before the game, they were talking a lot about short-term memory and not letting a single play bring you down," the Campbell sophomore said. "That play got them a touchdown earlier in the game, so I corrected it and I just did what they told me to do. I knew Jack wanted to win the game for them, so I had to stay disciplined, so I watched for it and it happened."

Hershberger made that tackle while also carrying the ball 45 times for 208 yards with two touchdowns and two successful conversion runs to account for all of Campbell's points in the 16-14 victory.

That defensive stop was one of several clutch plays that the Cougars made throughout the game. On defense, that included Trinity's final snap, when Jackson Kanaley chased down Service for a strip sack and Nick Hershberger recovered the fumble, ending the Pioneers' final threat with 2:42 to play.

But it also included a lot of small gains on offense for Campbell, as it had possession for more than 39 minutes while running more than twice the number of plays.

"We knew that that was going to be the case," Trinity coach Rob Cathcart said. "They were going to ground-and-pound and that’s what they did. If I were a betting man, I’d have said they were going to win the time of possession.

"Because we knew that, we were subbing in constantly defensive linemen. We weren’t necessarily that tired, it was just that they were bigger or stronger than we were. No matter what three we ran in there, they were going to be stronger than those three."

Even with fresh linemen coming in and out of the game, Campbell continued to chip away with its running game, even when it was in situations where other teams would punt.

The Cougars were just 6 of 17 on third-down conversions but more than made up for it by going 8 of 11 on fourth down. They didn't punt all game and there was only one fourth-down play that Campbell coach Glen Costello wanted to have back.

Facing fourth-and-2 at Trinity's 40-yard line with under a minute to play in the first half, Kanaley threw deep for Nick Hershberger, but the ball was overthrown, giving the Pioneers possession with 40.7 seconds left.

"I thought the only mistake was me play-calling the all-gos on fourth-and-2," Costello said. "I thought the kids executed great throughout the entire game. I was more (mad) at myself than anything else because of that bad call."

An option pass from DiGiantommaso to DeVohn Ellis went for 43 yards and helped set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Service. Ellis scored on the two-point conversion and the teams went into the half tied 8-8.

"They got a big play on a trick play," Costello said. "I was confident in my defense that we weren’t going to lose on trick plays. They weren’t moving the ball against us. The second you rely on trick plays, it becomes a long game.

"We won at the offensive line. Scott really came into it as a running back this year. We saw glimpses of it last year. Toward the end of the season, he got better and better. He worked his butt off in the offseason."

Scott Hershberger battled through some bumps and bruises, too, to help get Campbell its third championship in program history.

"I didn’t think it was going to be this much," he said. "My knee has been hurting a little bit the last few weeks, so I thought I was going to get less carries. If there was any game to push through, this was it."