“Even with all that, my kids showed heart. They battled back. I’m very pleased with the effort we got in the second half. For what it’s worth, I thought we outplayed them in the second half.”

The Mustangs did in fact outgain the Lions 180 to 87 in the second half and had nine first downs to Linesville’s three.

Late in the third quarter, the ’Stangs cut into Linesville’s lead after setting up shop on the Lions’ 20 following a Linesville punt out of its own end zone.

On the first play of the possession, Erdos took a delayed keeper up the middle and rumbled into the end zone untouched. Score: Linesville 21, Mercer 14.

The Mustangs were driving again late in the third and on into the fourth quarter, marching from their own 18 to the Lions’ 21 on 10 plays. But on fourth down, the Lions’ Walt Litwin picked off Erdos at the seven, halting the Mustang’s momentum. It was Erdos’ third interception of the night. Trevor Litwiler and Evan Smith had picked him off earlier in the game.

Starting at their own 7, the Lions started getting some big gains. Litwiler had a 9-yard run. Mercer yielded 15 more yards to the Lions with a late hit. And then Litwiler found a wide open Walt Litwin 23 yards down the field to get into Mustangs territory.

First-and-10 at the 48, Farley broke off another stunner. He made a couple cuts through the defensive front and then entered the defensive backfield. Farley had two defenders in front of him on either side. He put on a little burst of speed, then stuttered his step, and the two defenders took the bait and crashed into each other.

“I just put the brakes on, stopped, they hit each other, and I went around them and kept going,” said Farley. “It was great.”

With that TD, the Lions were up 28-14.

But Mercer wasn’t done. In the fourth quarter the Mustangs covered 65 yards on 14 plays and Herbie Hennegan — subbing for the now-injured Terrence Davis — scored from two yards out to make it 28-21.

But that drive took up too much time (about seven minutes) and Mercer had to do something big and do it fast. So, the Mustangs attempted the onside kick and got the ball back with a little more than two minutes to go.

The Mustangs marched down to the Lions 18. And on second down, Erdos, looking for a running back to hand the ball to, lost control of the pigskin. Walt Litwin pounced on it, sealing the win for the Lions.

“We had the ball going in. We put the ball on the ground,” said McClearn.

“That’s a tough team,” said Gould. “Up front, that’s a tough, tough team. And they were beating us up in the second half. They were giving us more than we wanted at the end. Luckily we made a big play and caused a fumble and it worked out for us.”