web1_summergirls.jpg

On the Books: Take ‘All the Summer Girls’ into fall for a good read

web1_Paul-Sokoloski-MUG.jpg

Penn State column: Nittany Lions find a way to fend off a heart-stopping attack

<p>STATE COLLEGE &#8212; If it hadn&#8217;t been raining all week? If it hadn&#8217;t been a non-conference game against 1-3 Army? If so many of Penn State&#8217;s injuries hadn&#8217;t been wrenched knees and ankles that would have been at risk on a slippery playing surface?</p><p>Might more of the Nittany Lions&#8217; starters played Saturday in different circumstances?</p><p>&#8220;If you talk to the kids &#8212; yes. If you talk to the trainers &#8212; no,&#8221; Lions coach James Franklin said after the narrow 20-14 win over the Black Knights.</p><p>As it was, Penn State had the foundation of a pretty good team in street clothes on Saturday.</p><p>Running backs Akeel Lynch (knee) and Saquon Barkley (ankle) were joined on the sideline by safety Marcus Allen (shoulder), linebacker Brandon Bell (ankle), tackle Andrew Nelson (knee), defensive end Evan Schwan and tight end Adam Breneman.</p><p>&#8220;They weren&#8217;t ready to play this week, and it wasn&#8217;t like we were holding anybody for anything,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Hopefully we&#8217;ll have an opportunity to get the guys back. If you ask the guys if they can play, they all say, &#8216;Oh yeah, Coach. I&#8217;m ready.&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;But if you talk to the trainers, they say no. We&#8217;re always going to put the safety of our players first and make sure they&#8217;re taken care of, and we have great trainers to do that.&#8221;</p><p>If that weren&#8217;t enough, the Lions lost senior captain Angelo Mangiro to an apparent lower-body injury in the third quarter. He was replaced at center by Wendy Laurent.</p><p>Even the punting game wasn&#8217;t immune to the injury bug.</p><p>Chris Gulla was shaken up after making a tackle on a punt in the third and went into the locker room. Daniel Pasquariello handled the punting duties for the rest of the day with third-stringer Robby Liebel taking over as the holder on kicks.</p><p>Barkley and Lynch may have been missed most of all. With three redshirt freshmen manning the ground game, the Lions were missing that big-play ability. Though Nick Scott had a nice 11-yard touchdown run in which he broke two tackles, there were two or three more plays that Barkley might have been able to take the distance had he been in the game.</p><p>&#8220;Well, as I think we all know and have seen, the guy has the ability to make guys miss,&#8221; Franklin said of Barkley. &#8220;We had a few times tonight where we had guys one-on-one and weren&#8217;t able to do that.</p><p>&#8220;It obviously is a factor in the game.&#8221;</p><p>An encouraging sign for the Lions was that Lynch did not seem to have much issue walking around on Saturday after needing help from two people to get off the field a week ago.</p><p>Sophomore Troy Apke made his first career start at free safety in Marcus Allen&#8217;s place. Junior Von Walker filled in for Bell, as he did against Buffalo, and recorded his first career fumble recovery in the first half.</p><p>Lynch, Barkley, Allen and Schwan were all hurt a week earlier against San Diego State. Bell has been battling his injury since the opener, sitting out against Buffalo before playing the last two weeks. Nelson has been out since halftime of the Buffalo game and Breneman has yet to play this season with an undisclosed injury.</p><p>&#8220;Trying to get some of these guys back. That&#8217;s important for us,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Marcus Allen, not having Brandon Bell, not having Saquon Barkley or Akeel Lynch, losing Angelo Mangiro throughout the game, and not having Andrew Nelson, that factors in. There&#8217;s no doubt about it.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Kline returns</strong></p><p>One player who did see the field was fifth-year senior linebacker Ben Kline.</p><p>Having battled a litany of injuries in the last two years, Kline checked in at middle linebacker for the final play of the first half, ending a 693-day absence for the York County native.</p><p>His last time on the field was Nov. 9, 2013, at Minnesota. He suffered a torn pectoral muscle early in that game and played through it before being shut down for the season.</p><p>On top of that, he has endured multiple shoulder surgeries and tore his Achilles during the summer of 2014, costing him his entire junior season.</p><p>He was banged up again this summer and missed most of training camp, not practicing until the week before the Rutgers game. He suited up the last two games before playing Saturday.</p><p>Safety Jordan Lucas also returned after missing last week&#8217;s game with a shoulder injury.</p><p><strong>The last time&#8230;</strong></p><p>Army dropped back to pass a grand total of four times on Saturday. Three times, the Knights were sacked.</p><p>The fourth? Quarterback A.J. Schurr &#8212; filling in for injured starter Ahmad Bradshaw &#8212; completed a 32-yard pass down the middle that set up Army&#8217;s first touchdown.</p><p>And that was it. Army&#8217;s official passing line for the day was 1 for 1 for 32 yards.</p><p>The one completion was the fewest against Penn State since Ohio State had just one in 1976. The Buckeyes won that game, 12-7.</p><p>As for the last time a team only attempted one pass against the Lions? The school&#8217;s complete records don&#8217;t go back that far. But it hadn&#8217;t happened since Joe Paterno took over for Rip Engle in 1966.</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_scott-psu.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Penn State running back Nick Scott (24) was able to celebrate a nice touchdown run Saturday, but the Nittany Lions badly missed Saquon Barkley and Akeel Lynch. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_scott-psu.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State running back Nick Scott (24) was able to celebrate a nice touchdown run Saturday, but the Nittany Lions badly missed Saquon Barkley and Akeel Lynch. </caption0><photoCredit0>Gene J. Puskar | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table style="border:none;width:98%;" class="mceItemTable"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;"> j7GqqQeNNeU</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;"> YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7GqqQeNNeU</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> James Franklin discusses narrow win overy Army</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> Derek Levarse | Times Leader</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Injuries continue to mount for Penn State