ERIE — Harbor Creek had the opportunity to put it away. Grove City had to chance to pull it out.

Early in the fourth quarter of Friday's District 10 Class AA football semifinal, Harbor Creek enjoyed a four-point lead and a first-and-goal at the Grove City 6, but saw the drive fizzle at the 40-yard line and was forced to punt.

With a minute remaining, the Eagles had a first-and-10 at the HC 11-yard line, but when HC's Ryan Sheridan sacked Mike Burk on fourth down, the Huskies escaped with a 14-10 victory at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

"We got inside the 10 and shot ourselves in the foot," said Harbor Creek coach Dan Budziszewski. "Sometimes that can come back to haunt you, and it almost did."

Grove City had taken over at its own 20-yard line with three minutes remaining when Burk connected with Dwayne Martin on passes of 29 and 13 yards on the first two plays to put the Eagles (9-3) at the HC 38.

Five plays later, on a fourth-and-1 at the 19-yard line, Burk rushed for an 8-yard run to give Grove City a first-and-goal at the 11.

Burk spiked the ball to stop the clock with 37.6 seconds left, then threw an incompletion in the end zone that was nearly intercepted.

On third down, Burk rushed for three yards before he was sacked to end the Eagles' chance at an upset.

"I thought the one play where Mike ran, I thought that might pop open," said Grove City coach Jeff Bell. "The last play we ran, we had a guy open, but (Sheridan) blitzed. He was right on (Burk).

"If he had time to throw, who knows what happens?"Bell added.

Harbor Creek (12-0) looked poised to extend their lead earlier in the quarter when it had the first-and-goal chance, but a holding call and a 16-yard loss on a sack helped to give the team a fourth-and-goal from the 40-yard line.

Grove City took the opening kickoff and embarked on a 16-play, 78-yard drive that burned 8:30 off the clock.

The drive aided by three third-down conversions, as well as a fourth-and-goal at the 2-yard line. Chris Clark carried the ball for a touchdown on that play.

Harbor Creek wasted little time in scoring the equalizer. On the second play of their first drive, quarterback Josh McAnulty broke free up the middle and scored on a 71-yard run.

In the second quarter, Harbor Creek took advantage of a fumbled punt by the Eagles to open a drive at the GC 26. After an incomplete pass on the first play, McAnulty scored from 26-yard out to give the Huskies a 14-7 advantage with 6:15 left before halftime.

McAnulty played a huge role in that first half, rolling up 158 of his 200 rushing yards and the two scores

Grove City responded when Jason Ferderber capped a 10-play drive with a 41-yard field goal with 2:14 left.

"We had a couple of mistakes," said Bell. "They had good field position on one touchdown and in the second half we had no field position. They pinned us back."

"Our kids played hard. Our defense ended up stopping them every time in the second half. We just needed one big play from the offense."

Harbor Creek 14, Grove City 10Grove City 7 3 0 0—10Harbor Creek 7 7 0 0—14GC HC15 First Downs 1540-139 Rushes-Yards 38-26092 Passing Yards 605-11-0 Passes (Comp.-Att.-Int.) 6-13-1231 Total Yards 3202-1 Fumbles/Lost 1-05-30 Penalties-Yards 8-70

First QuarterGC — Chris Clark 2 run (Jason Ferderber kick), 3:21HC — Josh McAnulty 71 run (Eric Divell kick), 2::26

Second QuarterHC — McAnulty 26 run (Divell kick), 6:15GC — Ferderber 41 field goal, 2:14

Individual Statistics

Passing: Grove City, Mike Burk 5-11-92-0. Harbor Creek, Josh McAnulty 6-13-60-1.

Rushing: Grove City, Chris Clark 20-117, Mike Burk 12-17, Dwayne Martin 6-9, Casey Shay 2-(-4). Harbor Creek, Josh McAnulty 14-200, Eric Divell 20-40, Kyle Johnson 4-20.

Receiving: Grove City, Dwayne Martin 4-66, Jason Ferderber 1-26. Harbor Creek, Mike Podskalny 2-27, Ken Burnett 2-19, Ben Schauble 1-12, Ryan Sheridan 1-2.