KENWOOD, Indiana County — Ending drives by finding the end zone became second nature for Grove City's football team this season.

With their season on the line Friday night, the Eagles fell 11 yards short.

Trailing Hollidaysburg by three points, the Eagles began a drive at their own 46 with 3:39 left in the game. Two fourth-down conversions — one on a 12-yard pass from Brady Callahan to Logan Lutz and another on a 6-yard run from Trey Adams — helped the Eagles reach the Hollidaysburg 11 with 10 seconds left.

Callahan's pass to the left corner of the end zone fell incomplete and, with five seconds left, placekicker Aidan Reed was brought on to tie the game with a field goal. But the senior's attempt was just wide to the left as time expired, ending Grove City's season with a 30-27 loss at Penns Manor High School.

Reed's counterpart, Hollidaysburg's Vlad Hilling, had connected on field goal attempts of 37, 22 and 38 yards, while missing from 43 earlier in the game.

“You don't usually think of field goals as being a big part of high school football, but they were tonight,” said Grove City coach Sam Mowrey. “Aidan's miss at the end couldn't have missed by much. It was very close.”

The game was a back and forth one, with five lead-changes through three quarters. The Golden Tigers (8-3) set about taking the lead for good at the start of the final period.

Quarterback Brady Walters capped a 72-yard drive with a 2-yard scoring run that put the Golden Tigers up 27-21 with 9:19 left in the game.

Hollidaysburg's defense then came up with a critical turnover.

Jack Sauserman intercepted Callahan near midfield on a pass intended for Qadir Muhammad. It was Callahan's third interception of the season. He had a total of six in 11 games prior to Friday.

“Their defenders were able to make nice breaks on the balls,” said Mowrey. “Not every pass is going to be thrown to wide open receivers. We were able to get to a lot of 50/50 balls this year. We missed a few tonight.”

The Tigers failed to pick up a first down following the turnover, but were close enough for Hilling's 38-yard boot for a crucial two-score lead at 30-21.

Hollidaysburg coach Homer DeLattre saw the three turnovers in the game as a team effort.

“Our coverage was good, but we also got a lot of pressure on him (Callahan),” he said. “As the game went on, I thought we forced him to throw the ball deeper than he was comfortable with.”

Callahan, though, had his moments. He threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns, the last covering 63 yards to Nick Murawski that cut Hollidaysburg's lead to 30-27 with exactly six minutes left in the game.

Callahan had scoring passes of 33 yards to Qadir Muhammad in the second quarter and 45 yards to Lutz in the third quarter.

“We executed well and were able to get guys behind their defense,” Mowrey said.

Lutz caught eight passes for 153 yards.

It was the first loss of the season for Grove City (11-1), which plowed through District 10 this year.

“What I'm most disappointed in is that we don't get to spend another week with these kids,” said Mowrey. “They worked their tails off and are easy to coach. That is what it's all about.”

Grove City 0 15 6 6 — 27

Hollidaysburg 6 3 10 11 — 30

First Quarter

H — Patrick Young 5 run (kick blocked), 1:05

Second Quarter

GC — Logan Lutz 2 run (Aidan Reed kick), 11:56

H — Vlad Hilling 37 field goal, 2:32

GC — Qadir Muhammad 33 pass from Brady Callahan (Lutz run), :32

Third Quarter

H — Young 12 run (Hilling kick), 6:32

GC — Lutz 45 pass from Callahan (kick blocked), :58

Fourth Quarter

H — Brady Walters 2 run (Brock Irvin pass from Walters), 9:19

H — Hilling 38 field goal, 7:12

GC — Nick Murawski 63 pass from Callahan (kick failed), 6:00

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Grove City, Logan Lutz 11-31, Brady Callahan 8-(-4), Qadir Muhammad 3-4, Trey Adams 11-44, Tyler Greer 4-28. Hollidaysburg, Patrick Young 24-77, Brady Walters 20-59, Dan Molliver 1-0, Trevor Miller 1-2.

Passing: Grove City, Brady Callahan 16-30-317-3, A.J. Miller 0-1-0-0. Hollidaysburg, Brady Walters 14-21-161-0.

Receiving: Grove City, Logan Lutz 8-153, Qadir Muhammad 2-61, A.J. Miller 2-20, Nick Murawski 3-81, Trey Adams 1-2. Hollidaysburg, Keaton Nolan 3-49, Jack Sauserman 6-84, Gus Dellinger 1-2, Austin Weakland 1-7, Trevor Miller 2-12, Patrick Young 1-7.