Photo provided by Bryce Pagano
By: Edward Kiesendahl
Last Friday night was a perfect one for the Friday night lights, and the Pike County rivals were ready to do battle. Wallenpaupack and Delaware Valley have a long history of competitive rivalry with Wallenpaupack dominating DV in their early days, and DV holding off Paupack in recent years. This year DV would go into the game sitting at 0-4 which is not ‘normal’ for them. The competition they played was stout playing against teams like McKeesport whose starting running back is committed to Penn State. The Buckhorns, 2-2, came into the contest looking for a statement win after an aggravating loss to North Pocono the week prior. This would not come easy since the Bucks would be missing starting running back and outside linebacker, Logan Caruso, and starting linebacker CJ Doty would be restricted to kicking.
The game started with Paupack having possession on their own twenty yard-line following a touchback. From there, the Buckhorns marched the ball eighty-yards downfield on nineteen play, 10:29 second drive capped off by a one-yard touchdown run from Junior Eddie Kiesendahl. The Warriors responded quickly off a sixteen-yard touchdown reception tying the score 7-7 early in the second quarter. Wallenpaupack stalled on a fourth down try which gave Delaware Valley good field position. They capitalized quickly, scoring five plays after the turnover on downs. An 80-yard kick-off return from Eddie Kiesendahl gave the Bucks a new spark, and it led to a sixteen-yard touchdown pass between Sophomore Jake Rafferty and Senior Mason Gonazalez. Five and a half minutes remand on the clock for DV’s offense to work with before the half. They came up short after being stuffed on a fourth and one, tush-push attempt. The first half came to an end after the Bucks missed a 31-yard field goal, and the score was tied at 14.
The third quarter would set the tone for the rest of this tightly contested game. Delaware Valley shifted the momentum early in the third quarter opening up the scoring with a fifty-seven-yard rushing touchdown. After the Buckhorns were forced to punt the Warriors scored again on an eight-yard completion making it a two-score game at 28-14.
Delaware Valley continued to control the pace of the game in the third quarter, forcing Paupack to punt again. They then extended the lead to 35-14 on a goal line touchdown run. Paupack continued to show their resilience and kept fighting driving down and scoring on a twenty-yard touchdown screen-pass from Jake Rafferty to Edward Kiesendahl. This would be the last of any action from either team with the final score being 35-21.
Like the previous week, a poor third quarter put the game out of reach for Paupack though the effort did not waver throughout. Heading into another tough league rival in Scranton Prep next week, the Buckhorns have to figure out a way to play a full game of their best football. Having Caruso and Doty back for the Bucks will hopefully help solve this issue. Scranton Prep be 2-3 ahead of the game after dismantling Scranton last week. The game will be home at 7:00 Friday night, and the theme for the game is Country vs Country Club.
