Wyatt Snyder, Pine Grove. (Photo by First Class School Photography)

PINE GROVE — Pine Grove head football coach Dave Shiffer might have had the best method to deal with Friday’s season-opening 35-8 loss to Northern Lebanon on Friday night at Cardinal Stadium.

He told the Cardinals in their post-game huddle: “We have nine games left.”

Northern Lebanon running back Brady Ryan ran for 135 yards, while quarterback Bryan Mitzel added 61 more and returned an interception for a touchdown during the Vikings’ victory.

Ryan scored on runs of 3, 32 and 7 yards, while Mitzel had a touchdown run of 10 yards. But perhaps Mitzel’s biggest play of the game came when he picked off a pass and returned it 60 yards for a score on the final play of the first half.

The interception helped the Vikings (1-0) build a 28-0 halftime lead.

The Cardinals’ only touchdown came on a 1-yard run by quarterback Wyatt Snyder with one-tenth of a second left in the game.

Shiffer is hoping Pine Grove (0-1) will become a grittier and more disciplined team in 2025 after the Cardinals won just once in 2024.

Friday wasn’t the best of starts.

The Vikings rolled up 312 yards of offense, including 218 on the ground. In addition to his rushing yards and interception return, Mitzel was 6-of-8 passing for 94 yards.

Shiffer said a big issue defensively came down to a basic fundamental: tackling.

“We were in the right spots, but our tackling, we were diving at ankles and trying to throw people,” he said. “It’s not what we practice. It’s not what we should do. And we have to clean that up. We probably had 10 or 11 tackles for loss that ended up being gains because we forgot our technique.”

Two first-half mistakes hurt Pine Grove, too.

The first came early in the second quarter with Northern Lebanon leading 7-0.

Facing a second-and-17 at their own 37-yard line, a bad snap from center just went off the fingertips of Mitzel’s outstretched arms and hands. He recovered the ball, resulting in a 13-yard loss.

But the Cardinals were called for a personal foul on the play. Instead of a third-and-30 at midfield, Northern Lebanon had third-and-15 at the 36.

Consecutive pass completions from Mitzel to Ryan Clemmer, the second on a fourth-and-5, covered 24 yards, moving the ball to the Pine Grove 12. An illegal formation penalty on the next play wiped out a touchdown run by Landon Copenhaver. But two plays later, Mitzel went around right end and scored from 10 yards out to make it 14-0 after Johnny Hilton’s point-after kick.

Perhaps the biggest miscue came on the final play of the first half.

On a second-and-6 from their own 39, the Cardinals called a timeout and called a pass play. But Mitzel picked off the errant throw at the 40, followed his blockers down the Vikings’ sideline, and kept going until he reached the end zone.

“We called that and said that unless something is wide open, run, and that didn’t happen,” Shiffer said.

Pine Grove couldn’t get much going on offense.

The Cardinals finished the night with 146 total yards, with 80 of those coming on their final drive of the game that resulted in Pine Grove’s only score of the evening.

The Cardinals’ biggest offensive play of the game, prior to their final drive, was a 16-yard run by Zach Kurtz in the second quarter.

“They gave us a look we didn’t see,” Shiffer said of the Cardinals’ offensive struggles. “We didn’t prepare for it because they didn’t show it at all. It confused our guys a little bit, but it is something they should be able to diagnose and handle. They struggled on that, which we fixed at halftime.

“We have to complete passes,” he added.

Snyder, who took over at quarterback halfway through last season, was 3-for-11 throwing the ball for 5 yards.

Shiffer said Pine Grove’s touchdown at the end of the game was important, even with the outcome of the game decided at that point. He hopes the 15-play, 80-yard drive will give the Cardinals some positive vibes going forward for a program that was 1-9 last year.

“We’ve struggled,” Shiffer said. “We talk about always needing to compete until the end. No matter what is going on, you have to compete. That allows the guys to gain some positivity that there is not a goose egg up on the board.”

Game Summary

Northern Lebanon 35, Pine Grove 8 

NL (1-0)         7          21          0          7  —    35

PG (0-1)          0          0          0          8  —    8

NL — Ryan 3 run (Hilton kick)
NL — Mitzel 10 run (Hilton kick)
NL — Ryan 25 run (Hilton kick)
NL — Mitzel 60 interception return (Hilton kick)
NL — Ryan 7 run (Hilton kick)
PG — Snyder 1 run (Troup pass from Snyder)

Team Statistics

NL-PG

First Downs —- 13      8

Rushes-Yards — 30-218      36-141

Passes —- 6-8-0      3-11-1

Passing Yards —- 94      5

Total Yards —- 312      146

Fumbles/Lost —- 1-0      0-0

Penalties — 6-52      4-30

Individual Statistics
RUSHING: Northern Lebanon — Ryan 17-135, Mitzel 9-61, Bush 2-12, Copenhaver 2-10. Pine Grove — Troup 16-73, Snyder 14-36, Kurtz 5-29, Renninger 1-3.
PASSING: Northern Lebanon — Mitzel 6-8-0, 94. Pine Grove — Snyder 3-11-1, 5.
RECEIVING: Northern Lebanon — Ryan 2-51, Clemmer 4-43. Pine Grove — Schneck-Haines 1-5, Troup 1-0, Dixon 1-0.
INTERCEPTIONS: Northern Lebanon — Mitzel.