Font ResizeThe Irish had short fields three times in the first half, thanks to three Upper Dauphin fumbles, however York Catholic only managed one touchdown during the span.
Those missed chances would be the Irish downfall.
The sloppiness ended, and the host Trojans went on to a 26-14 win in the District 3 Class A semifinal, ending York Catholic's season with a 7-5 record.
Upper Dauphin moves on to Friday's all-Twin Valley Conference district championship game against Millersburg, which knocked off two-time defending Class A champ Steel-High on Friday night.
Right out of the gate, the Irish got a huge break when Gary Laucks recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff at the Trojan 33.
Catholic managed a first down before the drive stalled,
Upper Dauphin marched down field after the miss, with the big play being a 41-yard hookup from quarterback Tyler Koppenhaver to Cody Hoffman. Tyler Grosser bowled in from a yard out on the next play for the game's opening score.
The second turnover set York Catholic up at the Trojan 17, and two plays later, Nick Full made a pair of nice cuts en route to a 16-yard touchdown run that made it 7-7.
Two plays after the ensuing kickoff, the Trojans fumbled a pitch-out, and Full recovered.
However after gaining 9 yards the first two plays, a fumbled exchange on third down forced a second field-goal attempt, but this one went awry on a bad snap.
"You can't get down in scoring territory and come away with nothing. We did that twice," Irish coach J.D. Martin said. "You can't beat quality football teams if you don't put points on the board."
Upper Dauphin coach Carmen DeFrancesco knew his team escaped danger despite being up just 14-7 at the half, thanks to Ty Raubenstine's 6-yard scoring pass from Tyler Koppenhaver.
"I knew we were in pretty good shape ... fumbling three times and still winning the game," he said. "I said to the guys, 'Just play our normal game (in the second half), and we are going to win. We couldn't play any worse."
The Trojans increased their lead on their second possession after the intermission when Cody Cooper, who led all rushers with 138 yards, scored from 6 yards out.
York Catholic got that touchdown right back on an impressive 12-play, 72-yard drive that was capped by Lauck's touchdown catch on an 11-yard pass from Adam Sentz.
That made the score 20-14 with plenty of time remaining (7:55). Unfortunately, the Irish would not see the end zone again.
The good news is with many of their skill players being juniors, the York Catholic squad knows it can return to the district stage.
"The beginning of the season for next year just started," said Laucks, who is a junior. "We couldn't have asked for a better effort from our guys, maybe a little better execution. We just have to capitalize next time around."
snavaroli@ydr.com; 771-2060
York Catholic 0 7 0 7 -- 14
Upper Dauphin 7 7 0 12 -- 26
First Quarter
UD -- Tyler Grosser 1 run (Tyler Payne kick), 5:10
Second Quarter
YC --Nick Full 16 run (Brett Moore kick), 9:02
UD -- Ty Raubenstine 6 pass from Tyler Koppenhaver (Payne kick), 4:06
Fourth Quarter
UD -- Cody Cooper 6 run (kick failed), 11:48
YC -- Gary Laucks 11 pass from Adam Sentz (Moore kick), 7:58
UD -- Cooper 4 run (pass failed), 1:11
-- YC -- UD
First downs -- 9 -- 15
Rushes-yards -- 26-56 -- 46-205
Passing -- 15-25-2 -- 8-13-0
Passing yards -- 116 -- 142
Total yards -- 172 -- 347
Punts -- 4-32.0 -- 2-25.0
Fumbles-lost -- 2-0 -- 4-3
Penalties-yards -- 0-0 -- 6-61
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing -- York Catholic, Nick Full 12-56, Christian Bohn 2-5, Adam Sentz 11-(-2), Gary Laucks 1-(-3); Upper Dauphin, Cody Cooper 17-138, Tyler Grosser 20-66, Cody Hoffman 3-13, Tyler Koppenhaver 5-(-6), Ty Raubenstine 1-(-6).
Passing -- York Catholic, Adam Sentz 15-25-2-116; Upper Dauphin, Tyler Kopenhaver 8-13-0-142.
Receiving -- York Catholic, Gary Laucks 9-63, Nick Full 2-21, Ethan Urey 2-18, Patrick Montgomery 2-14; Upper Dauphin, Ty Raubenstine 5-95, Tyler Grosser 2-6, Cody Hoffman 1-41.
