Western York University graduate Aegon Marshall participated in one of college football’s greatest traditions on Saturday, as the Army senior prepared for the annual Black Knights vs. Navy rivalry game to mark the end of his college football career.
Once again, Marshall and his bandmates sang second place.
Army defeated Navy, 17-11, in Foxborough, Mass., on Saturday afternoon to capture the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and finish the 2023 season at 6-6. The Black Knights defeated the Midshipmen for the second straight time and the sixth time in eight years.
The senior receiver rushed for 19 yards on two carries — including a 12-yard gain during a first-quarter touchdown drive — and added a pair of receptions for nine yards in his fourth Army-Navy game. Marshall previously tallied three carries for 14 yards in 2022, a special teams tackle in 2021 and a one-yard loss on rushing in 2020.
Marshall finished his senior campaign with 17 carries for 181 yards (10.6 ypc) along with nine catches for 83 marks. He’s made the most of his touches throughout his career, racking up 455 yards on 48 rushing attempts (9.5 avg.) and 313 yards on 16 receptions (19.6 avg.). He found the end zone five times in college, including once this season against Coastal Carolina in November.
Army won’t be playing in a bowl game, but the Black Knights finished the 2023 season on a four-game winning streak. Their run to the Commander-in-Chief’s Cup included a 23-3 upset of then-undefeated Air Force in November. This season marked only the fourth time Army held both Air Force and Navy to 11 or fewer points (1981, 1986, 2020), and the Black Knights’ second-quarter touchdown pass was their first against the Midshipmen since 2015.
Marshall was a star at West York — he was named York Adams’ Division II Player of the Week in 2018 after accumulating 1,951 all-purpose yards and 19 touchdowns — and earned a handful of Division I offers. But his only opportunities at the FBS level were in the Army and Navy, an ironic development since his family had no history of military service. Eventually, the family was sold on West Point, and Marshall played at the academy’s prep school in 2019 before joining the Black Knights in 2020.
Next year, he will enter a new chapter. But he will always remember singing second to his last game.
More local influences
The football season also came to an end in Kutztown, as the Golden Bears fell 35-7 to Colorado School of Mines in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II Tournament on Saturday. Senior Trey Bernstein (York High) started at center for Kutztown again, capping a season in which he played in all 15 games. Mickey Gray, another York High graduate, was a true freshman defensive tackle on the Bears’ roster.
Slippery Rock quarterback Brayden Long, whose team was eliminated by Kutztown the weekend before, will learn Friday about his end in the race for the Harlon Hill Trophy, the Division II Heisman equivalent. The recent Oxford graduate was named one of nine finalists on November 29 and was named Region I Player of the Year the next day. Colorado School of Mines QB John Matocha, last year’s winner, has his eyes on a repeat.
Winter sprint races: Shippensburg’s Bernard Bell III, a freshman from Southwest, was named the PSAC Men’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year Monday after completing the 60-meter hurdles in 8.32 seconds at Lehigh’s “Fast Times Before Finals” showcase on Saturday. Bell already ranks fifth in SU history for this event, tied with Slippery Rock’s Matt Crow for first in the conference this winter.
The college basketball season is more than a month old, and Christ’s Morgan Adams (New Oxford) has scored in double figures in all eight contests she has played, averaging 17.3 per night. The 6-foot-2 senior was named Commonwealth Player of the Week for Nov. 27-Dec. 3 after three straight 20-point games for the Falcons (6-2).
Bella Chimenti rarely leaves the court as a veteran Central York girls basketball guard, and she logged a full 40 minutes for Shippensburg in the Raiders’ loss Saturday at Chestnut Hill. The freshman is averaging over 35 minutes in her first eight varsity games, contributing 7.9 points per night.
And on the wrestling mat, Penn State’s Levi Haines (Beglerville) is off to a 5-0 start in his second season with the No. 1-ranked Nittany Lions. Meanwhile, Gettysburg grad Dylan Reinert is on the team at No. 2 NC State.
Lions and Spartans: It was a huge weekend for Penn State York men’s basketball forward Derrick Brown, as the New Oxford graduate collected 35 points on Friday in the Nittany Lions’ 69-65 win at Penn State Shenango. He added 18 points in Saturday’s 62-54 victory at Penn State New Kensington. Brown is averaging 16.6 points per game for PSY (11-3, 5-2 PSUAC), with York High School’s Marquise McLean second on the team at 14.1.
Penn State’s women’s teams lost a pair over the weekend — 74-56 at Shenango, 64-54 at New Kensington — to fall to 6-6 (3-4). New Oxford’s Jayla Brown led the Lions with 13 and 15 points off the bench in those contests. The PSY women play Dec. 18 at Catonsville CC, while the men are now off until January.
At York College, Andrew Mott, of Dillsburg, was named Spartan Athlete of the Week after winning the shot put at the Diplomat Open, hosted by Franklin & Marshall, on Friday night. His sixth and final throw was 15.63 metres, the 12th-best mark in NCAA Division III this season. Sophomore Aidan Rawlinson added a victory in the weight throw (16.52 metres) as the men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams opened their season.
West York’s quarterback, Marshall, gave his college football career a fitting send-off with a thrilling win in the Army-Navy game. The game marked an emotional and triumphant end to Marshall’s time on the field, as he led his team to victory in one of college football’s most storied and revered rivalries. With his performance in this historic game, Marshall cemented his legacy as a talented and dedicated player, leaving a lasting impact on the sport and the hearts of fans everywhere.