Trybus, Cambria Heights surge by West Shamokin

Oct. 22—PATTON — When Tanner Trybus found out for certain that his quarterback, Ty Stockley, wasn't going to play in Cambria Heights' senior night game and Heritage Conference finale against visiting West Shamokin after getting injured last week, he made his teammate a promise.

"I told Ty before the game I'm going to have rushing and receiving yards for both of us," Trybus said.

Trybus was as good as his word, scoring four touchdowns, rushing for a career-high 258 yards on 19 carries, catching a 46-yard pass from backup quarterback Isaac Weiland and also picking off two passes in Friday night's 47-21 come-from-behind victory that moved the Highlanders to 7-2.

"The offensive line had a great game tonight, and Tanner is a stud. He was everywhere," Cambria Heights coach Jarrod Lewis said. "Lucas Storm ran like a man possessed. I'm also proud of Marshall Eckenrode and Steven Nelen for stepping up.

"We needed guys to step up and carry some of the load Ty usually does and those guys did.

"We wanted to win this game for Ty. Ty was crushed that he couldn't play. The kids wanted to win this for Ty."

The victory was more than an emotional one for the Highlanders. It secured the second seed in the conference — Cambria Heights will play at Northern Bedford County next week as part of the Heritage/WestPAC/Inter-County Conference crossover weekend — and clinched at least a quarterfinal-round home game in the upcoming District 6 Class 1A playoffs.

"We stepped up," senior left tackle Gavin McConnell said. "That's how we play Cambria Heights smash-mouth football."

The Highlanders finished with 397 yards on the ground and 481 yards in total offense, scoring the last 30 points.

Storm and Eckenrode combined for 131 yards on the ground to complement Trybus, while Weiland was 2-for-3 for 84 yards, hitting Trybus streaking down the visiting sideline at 2:48 of the second quarter to put the Highlanders up for good, 26-21.

"The line gave me great protection, and Tanner was right there," said Weiland, a sophomore. "I was confident. In practice, I took the snap, and Ty coached me up."

Trybus set the tone for the game, going 142 yards for a pair of touchdowns on his first two carries, both around the left side.

"Couldn't have done it without the line, and Marshall Eckenrode and Logan Baker did a great job blocking both of those plays," Trybus said. "It's a huge win. We played as hard as we could the whole game."

The game turned, though, when 6-foot-1, 225-pound West Shamokin quarterback Lou Swartz was injured on a touchdown-saving tackle by Joe Snedden at the end of a 45-yard run into scoring territory with 1:04 left in the first half. West Shamokin had 351 yards rushing at that point, including 220 by Swartz, who scored on runs of 64 and 82 yards to put the Wolves ahead 21-17.

Swartz was helped off the field, unable to put any weight on his right leg.

He spent the second half on crutches on the Wolves sideline.

West Shamokin (4-5) only ran 20 plays in the second half for 60 yards.

"What you saw from Lou is what you've seen all year. I think everyone knows now what he can bring," West Shamokin coach Jon McCullough said.

"They were without a top player, too. We knew Trybus was hard to handle. Unfortunately, we weren't able to slow him down."

Two plays after Swartz was injured, Trybus picked off a pass in the end zone to thwart the Wolves. Cambria Heights scored the final nine points of the first half to grab the advantage at the intermission after losing a 17-7 lead.

Sandwiched between Trybus' first two touchdowns was a Highlander takeaway. The Wolves drove from their own 20 to the Heights 11 with the help of Micah Linhart's 40-yard run and a 17-yard from Swartz to Ezra Oesterling. Swartz, though, had the ball knocked out as he tried to reach out for an extra yard, and Trey Trybus recovered for Cambria Heights.

Linhart finished with 108 rushing yards for West Shamokin.