Sep 24, 2005 By Stephen Flinn For The 4 min read

GREENSBURG – Albert Gallatin kicker Steve Champlin booted a 29-yard field goal with three seconds left to push the Colonials to a 10-7 win over Class AAA Keystone Conference foe Greensburg Salem at Offutt Field Friday night. “He (Champlin) practices every day, so we had faith in him that he would make that kick,” Albert Gallatin coach Chuck Colborn said. “We put the pressure on him and even though it barely made it over the crossbar, it still counted, so he came through for us.”

The Colonials’ second straight win improves their overall record to 2-3 and their conference mark to 2-1.

Colonial quarterback Nate Turner fueled the winning drive with a 37-yard run to push the ball down near the Lion 10-yard line. He finished the game with 118 yards on 15 carries. He also threw a touchdown pass to Mark Brown in the second quarter.

“Nate is a great athlete, and we work on getting him the ball in different situations,” Colborn said. “He really led us tonight, especially when it was crunch time.”

After a scoreless first quarter, Albert Gallatin put together an 11-play, 79-yard scoring drive that ate up over five minutes on the clock.

Turner took a pitch from Travis Embacher and tossed it five yards to Brown, who was all alone in the left corner of the end zone, to break the scoreboard and give the Colonials a 7-0 lead with a minute left in the half.

Turner balanced the drive with conventional handoffs and option pitches.

Running back Eric Stump powered the running game with 20 tough yards up the middle on five carries, and John Swaney added 11 yards on a sweep around end after taking a pitch from Turner.

The Colonials won the opening toss and elected to receive. They drove to the Greensburg Salem 32 yard line on the possession, but committed three costly penalties and the drive stalled.

On the night, Albert Gallatin was penalized seven times 50 yards.

“Penalties really hurt us tonight,” Colborn said. “We might have even scored more points, so we need to work on that for sure.”

Even though they only scored seven points in the first half, the Colonial’s running game, combined with their defense, holding the Lions to only 15 plays from scrimmage and three first downs in the first half.

“Our defense really controlled the game for the most part tonight,” Colborn said. “They didn’t let Greensburg Salem break out.”

Both teams came out of the locker room after halftime and started sloppy by trading fumbles, and it proved costly to Albert Gallatin.

After stopping Greensburg Salem (0-5, 0-3) on three downs at the beginning of the second half, the Colonials committed another costly penalty on their ensuing possession, which negated a first down near their 40-yard line and backed them up to the 20. They could not recover and were forced to punt, which gave the Golden Lions their best field position of the game.

Albert Gallatin linebacker Ryan Fears recovered a fumble on the first play from scrimmage, giving the ball back to the Colonials.

They handed the ball right back to the Lions near midfield on the next play, though, as John Swaney lost the handle on a pitch up the middle.

Greensburg Salem put together its best drive of the game with a 5-minute, 60-yard scoring drive to even the score, 7-7 near the end of the third quarter.

The Golden Lions balanced the run and pass on the impressive drive.

The Lions would get no closer to the end zone, though, as Albert Gallatin ate up most of the clock in the fourth quarter with its balanced running attack.

Eight players carried the ball for the Colonials, who were led by John Swaney with 56 yards on 11 carries.

“We get a lot of people in and out and rotate to keep our guys fresh,” Colborn said. “It was a team effort by everybody with this win tonight.”