OLD FORGE — Miscues at opposite ends of the field proved costly to Old Forge Nov. 27 when the Blue Devils had a late, two-touchdown lead get away in a devastating, 20-14, overtime loss to Canton in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A state football quarterfinals.

The Blue Devils entered the game ranked first in the state among Class A teams, according to PennLive.com, and appeared to be proving that point with a 14-0, halftime lead and multiple threats to add to the advantage.

Old Forge’s seven possessions after halftime ended in five turnovers and two blocked punts. The Blue Devils lost the ball inside the Canton 25 three times with chances to add to their 14-0 lead. The two blocked punts, in the middle of Canton’s rally in the final 7:03 of regulation, gave the Warriors the ball at the Blue Devils 3 and 11.

“It’s no different than last year,” Old Forge coach Mike Schuback said. “You feel everything is going your way, then all of a sudden you have an uncharacteristic situation happen.”

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Last year’s similarly heart-breaking loss, also in the state quarterfinals, came with no time left on the clock. Steelton-Highspire took advantage of an untimed down, resulting from an Old Forge penalty, to score the deciding touchdown in a 39-36 victory on the way to winning the state title two weeks later.

Old Forge was 11-0, with titles in Lackawanna Football Conference Division 4 and District 2 Class A, before Canton’s rally, fueled by a series of Blue Devils mistakes, ruined the hopes of a first state title.

“At the end of the day, they’re young kids, they’re going to make mistakes, uncontrollable things are going to happen and you just try to do the best you can with it,” Schuback said.

Sobol passed for 217 yards and both Old Forge touchdowns and ran for 96 more. He was over 100 rushing before his last three carries resulted in 18 yards in losses. Sobol was 17-for-37, but was intercepted five times, three in the second half and again in overtime.

Casey Holzman caught four passes for 44 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown with 1:34 left in the first quarter.

Mario Samony caught eight passes for 104 yards, eluding a tackler at the 17 on a 45-yard touchdown pass with 13.7 seconds left in the half.

John Greenfield made nine tackles, assisted three and forced a fumble. Angelo Fumanti had four tackles, five assists, two fumble recoveries and two broken-up passes. Holzman made eight tackles and assisted three more. Josh Spindler had six tackles, including a sack and another for a loss, and assisted on four others.

Canton tied the game with two touchdowns in 90 seconds midway through the fourth quarter.

Riley Parker caught a fourth-and-10 pass from Cooper Kitchen for a 12-yard touchdown, then ran 3 yards for another score on the first play after the first blocked punt.

Old Forge held inside the 10 following the second blocked punt when Greenfield forced a fumble and Fumanti recovered.

Hayden Ward, who had an end zone interception as part of a big defensive game and a 71-yard reception to set up the first Canton score, had the game-winning touchdown on an 8-yard run.

Old Forge was intercepted on third down on its possession to begin overtime, putting Canton in position to win with any score.

Sobol finished the season 96-for-146 passing for 1,703 yards with 22 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He was also one of three players with more than 500 yards rushing.

Hezekiah Deitz led the balanced ground game with 712 yards and nine touchdowns on 80 carries while Spindler had 604 yards and seven touchdowns on 68 carries and Sobol had 539 yards and seven touchdowns on 86 carries.

Four players caught at least 15 passes.

Holzman was 24-for-412 with six touchdowns; Ethan Tallo was 23-for-496 with six touchdowns; Samony was 19-for-350 with five touchdowns; and Josh Spindler was 15-for-186 with two touchdowns.

Old Forge allowed just 27 points in the first three quarters all season.

Greenfield finished with 56 tackles, one more than Fumanti.

Josh Spindler was third with 46 tackles and led in tackles for losses with 13. Cyllel Rose tied Fumanti for the team lead of four sacks and they ranked second and third on the team in tackles for losses with 10 and nine.