Peters stops 32 shots as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins post win

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Abington Heights uses big passing plays to hold off Wyoming Valley West

<p>STATE COLLEGE &#8212; Garrett Taylor still had streaks of eyeblack left on both cheeks. Some 40 minutes after Penn State&#8217;s latest stupefying loss, it hadn&#8217;t fully sunk in yet for the junior safety.</p><p>&#8220;You have plays to put the game away, and you don&#8217;t make those&#8230;&#8221; Taylor said with a somber shake of his head, his voice trailing off. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard. It&#8217;s hard to win.&#8221;</p><p>And hard to fathom yet another fourth-quarter loss for the Nittany Lions, this one a 21-17 fall against Michigan State as the Spartans &#8212; for the second straight season &#8212; almost certainly knocked them out of the College Football Playoff race with their second loss.</p><p>What should have been remembered as a career performance by Taylor &#8212; five pass break-ups, including thwarting a fourth-quarter fake field goal pass, and an interception &#8212; won&#8217;t be because of another late defensive collapse.</p><p>Taylor&#8217;s fifth pass break-up could have easily been a game-sealing interception. Cornerback Amani Oruwariye also nearly had two fourth-quarter picks of his own that would have done the job with the Lions (4-2, 1-2 Big Ten) clinging to a 17-14 lead.</p><p>Instead, the Spartans still had the ball, driving into field-goal range in the final minute. They never needed to send out their kicker.</p><p>With 19 seconds left from the Penn State 25, Michigan State&#8217;s Brian Lewerke threw a well-placed back-shoulder ball to top target Felton Davis, who pulled up short of the goal line as Oruwariye skidded by in man-to-man coverage. Davis hauled in the pass before taking a step into the goal line with Oruwariye unable to stop him.</p><p>The senior corner had come up huge in the opener, clinching a win over Appalachian State with a game-ending interception in overtime.</p><p>He got a hug from Lions coach James Franklin after that one. And he got another one on from Franklin on Saturday.</p><p>&#8220;I love Amani. He&#8217;s made huge play after huge play after huge play for our program and will continue to do that,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;I love Amani, and I wouldn&#8217;t trade him for anybody. (Pro Bowl NFL cornerback) Richard Sherman is a great player, but I wouldn&#8217;t trade for him for Amani Oruwariye.</p><p>&#8220;Same thing I told the players in the locker room, we get great support here. I wanted to make sure that every single one of those players knew, whether they have had it in their lives before or not, they got it from me &#8212; unconditional love no matter what. They are stuck with me for the next 50 years.&#8221;</p><p>It was a decidedly different tone from Franklin than what he presented after losing 27-26 to Ohio State two weeks ago. Both Franklin and his senior quarterback, Trace McSorley, were on the angry side after that watching a 12-point lead vanish in the final eight minutes.</p><p>After falling again to the Spartans &#8212; Michigan State&#8217;s fifth win in the last six games in the series &#8212; it was a far more subdued atmosphere for the Lions, who know they won&#8217;t have a chance to compete for a national title in 2018, barring a lengthy sequence of unlikely results.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a different situation,&#8221; McSorley explained. &#8220;Two weeks ago, I felt we played good enough to win and we just didn&#8217;t. Today we didn&#8217;t play good enough to win.&#8221;</p><p>In all facets of the game.</p><p>The offense was just as much to blame as the defense for not being able to close out a win. The 17 points scored were the lowest by the Lions since only putting up 10 in a blowout loss to Michigan early in 2016.</p><p>Miles Sanders had 162 yards rushing against a defense that had allowed a national best 33.8 coming into the day, running for 78 yards to set up one touchdown and 48 to score another himself.</p><p>But the Lions managed only a chip-shot field goal after halftime, missing another field goal try and only putting together one sustained drive. McSorley was hurried on plenty of passes and couldn&#8217;t make one of the country&#8217;s lowest-rated pass defenses pay.</p><p>Despite all of that, the Lions twice got the ball back with a three-point lead and did nothing with it. The first time came with 5:19 left after Taylor broke up a fake field goal pass that swung the momentum firmly in the Lions favor.</p><p>Four plays, 15 yards and only 1:10 run off the clock.</p><p>Penn State&#8217;s defense even managed a stop after that as the Spartans (4-2, 2-1) opted to punt on fourth-and-10 with 1:46 left.</p><p>It turned out to be an excellent decision by Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio, who still had all three of his timeouts.</p><p>He only needed to use two of them as Penn State proceeded to go three-and-out &#8212; gaining only 7 yards and running off 27 seconds when a first down would have won the game.</p><p>The Spartans responded by going 76 yards in eight plays in just one minute of game time for the winning score. They didn&#8217;t even need to use their last timeout to get it.</p><p>&#8220;We had a chance to put them away several times on offense, on defense, and on special teams,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;And we didn&#8217;t do it. We let them stay in the game.&#8221;</p><p>After losing to the Buckeyes, Franklin loudly proclaimed that the Lions were a &#8220;great&#8221; program that hadn&#8217;t found a way to make the jump to &#8220;elite.&#8221;</p><p>The Lions were neither on Saturday. And now they have to contemplate how their last five losses have come by a total of 12 points and figure out how to recover at the halfway point of the regular season.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve gotta come together,&#8221; McSorley said. &#8220;We can&#8217;t get defensive. We can&#8217;t start pointing fingers. We can&#8217;t start looking at anything else than ourselves when we&#8217;re criticizing.</p><p>&#8220;And we&#8217;ve gotta support each other more than ever right now.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Michigan State&#8217;s Elijah Collins stands on the bench and celebrates after his team again beat Penn State in the final seconds. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_AP18286859345426_ne20181013213814302.jpg</photo0><caption0>Michigan State&#8217;s Elijah Collins stands on the bench and celebrates after his team again beat Penn State in the final seconds. </caption0><photoCredit0>Chris Knight | AP photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_AP18286851743458_ne2018101321395328.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Michigan State&#8217;s Felton Davis reaches across the goal line for the winning touchdown behind Amani Oruwariye on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_AP18286851743458_ne2018101321395328.jpg</photo1><caption1>Michigan State&#8217;s Felton Davis reaches across the goal line for the winning touchdown behind Amani Oruwariye on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. </caption1><photoCredit1>Chris Knight | AP photo </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_AP18287012907396_ne2018101321369879.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Penn State&#8217;s Juwan Johnson consoles cornerback Amani Oruwariye (21) after the senior was beaten for the winning touchdown in the final seconds on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_AP18287012907396_ne2018101321369879.jpg</photo2><caption2>Penn State&#8217;s Juwan Johnson consoles cornerback Amani Oruwariye (21) after the senior was beaten for the winning touchdown in the final seconds on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. </caption2><photoCredit2>Abby Drey | AP photo, Centre Daily Times </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Spartans drop PSU outof Playoff race again</subheadMeta></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>

Deja vu: Spartans knock Penn State out of Playoff race for second straight year