HERSHEY — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett compared this year’s gubernatorial campaign to halftime at a football game Saturday as he accepted the Republican State Committee’s unanimous endorsement for a second four-year term.

“We’re going to score and score and score in the second half,” Corbett promised the party faithful who cheered at the Hershey Lodge as rock music blared and hundreds of red, white and blue balloons were released from the ceiling.

In his speech, Corbett portrayed his first-term as a combination of bitter medicine in the form of austerity measures that erased a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall that he inherited and smart policies that have eliminated inheritance taxes on farmers and small businesses, reduced unemployment and pumped billions of new dollars into highway and bridge projects.

“We came up with a game plan, and you don’t change the game plan at halftime,” he said.

Corbett responded to Democratic critics who blame his nearly $1 billion reduction in education spending in 2011 for the layoffs of thousands of local school employees. He reiterated that much of the spending was supported by federal stimulus money that expired at the end of that fiscal year.

“It was not coming back and they knew it,” he said of the administration of his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.

Eight Democrats are competing for their party’s nomination to challenge Corbett in November.