Hard to fault anyone involved with Penn Manor's football team for thinking of what might have been.
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There was the buildup with Comets' coach Todd Mealy calling the game one of the biggest in the school's football history.
Manor went into the game with a shot at tying Wilson atop the Section One standings.
Then there was a first half full of positives that ended with Penn Manor taking a 10-point lead at halftime.
Maybe this was the night. Maybe the Comets could knock off Wilson at its home field, the site of so few visitor victories.
But it was not to be.
The Bulldogs scored on two of their four second-half drives Friday night at John Gurski Stadium and held the Comets without a second-half point to claim a 24-20 victory that wrapped up another Section One title for the Bulldogs, their third in the last four years.
The Comets (4-2 Section One, 7-2 overall), whose defense held the Bulldogs to only 98 yards of offense in the first half, couldn't hold the Bulldogs (6-0, 8-1) down in the second half.
"Yeah, it hurts," Mealy said. "But I'm proud of the way our kids played. What we wanted to do was make sure our kids had peace of mind after the game, knowing that we prepared and that we competed at our maximum level and I think they did."
Stinging most perhaps was what happened early in the third quarter. The Comets had stopped Wilson on downs when Manor defensive back Austin Sahd knocked away a pass in the end zone.
On the Comets' possession, quarterback P.J. Rehm had Demetrius Dixon on a post in the middle of the field. The ball, however, caromed off Dixon's hands, wiping out a potential TD and 27-10 lead.
Instead, Wilson drove the ball 55 yards for a TD in the final seconds of the third quarter and then went 65 yards for the go-ahead score with 4:57 to play in regulation.
The Comets went three-and-out on their second-to-last drive and stopped Wilson to get the ball again with 1:58 to play.
The Comets started at their own 23 and drove to midfield. But a fourth-down pass from Rehm to Dixon fell short and the Bulldogs ran out the clock.
Penn Manor just could not replicate its play in the first half. After a scoreless first quarter, Sahd picked off Wilson quarterback Zach Zweizig (16-for-26, 133 yards) and ran the interception back 32 yards for a 7-0 lead.
Penn Manor's Garrett Young put a hit on Wilson receiver Johnny Morgan, separating him from the ball at the goal line to prevent a tying touchdown and the Bulldogs had to settle for a field goal.
LeRonn Lee (11 carries, 61 yards; five catches, 80 yards) had his fingerprints all over the game. He paced the next Penn Manor drive with direct snap runs, finishing the drive with a 5-yard run around the left end to put Manor up 13-3.
And while the second-half potential TD pass drop haunts the Comets, so does Morgan's 93-yard kickoff return with 2:51 to play in the first half that sliced into Manor's 13-3 lead.
"There's no excuse for that," Mealy said. "We didn't make them earn it."
Discouraging, yes, but the Comets would have an answer. When Wilson's Tyler Beck's attempt at a hook-and-lateral play hit the ground, the Comets recovered and made Wilson pay.
Lee made a leaping catch between three Wilson defenders at the 2, completing the 33-yard pass from Rehm (8-for-18, 83 yards).
On third-and-goal from the 9 with 10 seconds left in the half, Dixon won a possession battle with Wilson's Morgan in the end zone on a pass from Rehm and Manor had a 20-10 lead.
Penn Manor's offense was not as efficient in the second half. Credit Wilson's defense and the fact that many of Manor's offensive players play defense and had to withstand three long Wilson drives.
"Penn Manor was beating us up front in the first half," said Wilson coach Doug Dahms. "Their defensive line was stunting and we weren't picking it up. They took us out of our game."
The second half would be different with Wilson doing most of its damage on the ground.
"Defensively we were very sound in the first half," Mealy said. "The bottom line is that this is a four-quarter football game. I do believe we played four quarters of inspired football but we just didn't execute in the second half on both sides of the ball."
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