BRADFORD, Pa. – Down nine at halftime, Pennsylvania scored a pair of touchdowns in the final 22 seconds of the third quarter to rally past New York, 34-27, in the 49th annual Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic at Parkway Field in Bradford.
Pennsylvania trailed 21-12 at halftime after New York scored on the final play of the first half before outscoring its northern neighbor 22-6 in the second half.
Sixteen of those points came in the final moments of the third quarter.
Port Allegany graduate Blaine Moses scored his second touchdown of the game on a 5-yard run to get the Keystoners within a point, 21-20, with 22 seconds left in the third quarter.
New York then fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Pennsylvania wasted little time taking its first lead of the game, 28-21, on a 27-yard run from Benji Bauer, an Eisenhower graduate, two plays after the miscue.
The kids from the Empire State didn’t go away without a fight, as Kyle Stover scored his second touchdown of the night when he got behind the Pennsylvania defense at the PA 39-yard line before hauling in a pass from Giancarlo Nuzzo and taking it the rest fo the way to the house for a 59-yard touchdown pass to make it 28-27 following a block of the extra point with just under 13 minutes left.
Pennsylvania, though, got some breathing room when Kane graduate Ricky Zampogna found the end zone from 11 yards out with 6:23 remaining to set the final score, 34-27.
Nuzzo threw a pair of touchdown passes for New York with Christian Swalcy hauling in one of them while scoring twice.
Swalcy scored the game’s first touchdown on a 1-yard run giving New York a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Zampogna got Pennsylvania on the board with a 6-yard scoring run 2:02 into the second quarter making it 7-6, but Stover scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 4-yard run just over six minutes later to make it 14-6.
Moses, the YDL Sports Network Jim Kelly District 9 Player of the Year in 2022, then scored the first of two touchdowns for Pennsylvania when he caught a 15-yard pass from St. Marys graduate Charlie Coudriet to get the Keystone State back within two, 14-12, with 1:12 to play in the opening half.
But New York found some magic on the final play of the opening 30 minutes when Swalcy hauled down a 16-yard pass from Nuzzo to give the Empire State the 21-12 halftime advantage.
