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Warriors Defeat Lakeland 20-7 for D2 AA Crown |
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Warriors (9-2)
vs
Lakeland (8-3)
Friday 7PM
at The Jake
District Championship
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CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SUMMARY: You could see the pride in their faces, as they stood in line to accept gold medals for winning the District 2 AA Championship by defeating Lakeland, 20-7. These Warriors had been on a long journey; one in which it was not always clear that they would reach their destination. After losing two of their first three games in 2012—--there was plenty of doubt.
Teams (and people) handle adversity in different ways. Many teams would have folded up the season after the devastating Week 3 loss against Lake Lehman. However, this team doubled down on hard work and determination—fought through all the doubts, and came out on top. For a second, let’s forget about all the wins and losses, the great plays, the gold medals. This moment is why we want our kids to play sports. It is a powerful life lesson that shows how individuals can rise from the ashes and overcome adversity—and it is a lesson that will stay with these kids all their lives.
The championship game itself, wasn’t exactly a work of art. The Warriors came out fast after Cody Schmitz ran the opening kickoff back into Lakeland territory. Three plays later, Nick O’Brien zigzagged into the end zone giving the Warriors a 6-0 lead after the PAT failed. The Warriors scored in about a minute and a half. This was going to be a breeze, right? Not exactly.
The Lakeland Chiefs were not in the championship final by chance. They are a very good team. On their first possession, Lakeland hammered the ball down the field behind the elusive running of Chris Roche. Quarterback Kyle Kiehart hit Roche on a 29 yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field, and it was suddenly 7-6.
The Warriors came back with a 21-yard Nick O’Brien touchdown run at 10:44 of the second quarter, missed the two point conversion, taking a 12-7 game. That’s when things turned ugly. The Warriors had two fumbles and threw one interception off of a deflection in the first half. They were moving the ball well, but seemed determined to shoot themselves in the foot.
But it was a key Lakeland turnover that was the significant play of the second quarter. Lakeland was driving down the field with ease and faced a 3rd down and less than a yard at the Warrior 20. It looked for sure that Lakeland was going to run the ball into the end zone. Mysteriously, Lakeland faked the run and Quarterback Kiehart threw a high arching off balance pass toward the end zone where leading receiver Gavin O’Donnell looked to have a step on defender Cody Schmitz. Schmitz accelerated at the last moment, went up and snatched the ball from O’Donnell for an interception. It was truly one of the most important and memorable plays of the 2012 season. The Warriors dodged a bullet and went into the locker room with a 12-7 lead.
Before the second half kickoff, the entire stadium was shocked to see Nick O’Brien take the field wearing jersey number 7. Apparently, Nick’s number 8 jersey had been ripped significantly enough so he had to change jerseys at halftime. It just didn’t feel right. We know 8 is enough but would 7 be enough?
Lakeland came out for the second half as you would expect. They pounded the ball to their left side—every play, giving the ball to Chris Roche who carried the ball 28 times for 128 yards for the night. They were chewing up five yards a carry and it looked like they were going to ram the ball into the end zone. On a second and five from the Warriors 23, QB Kiehart went to hand the ball off to Roche on a routine play. The ball was fumbled, and Zak LaNunziata knifed in from his linebacker position and recovered the loose ball. If Schmitz’ interception was the top defensive play of the first half, LaNunziata’s fumble recovery was the defensive play of the second half. For the remainder of the game, Lakeland would not get that close to the goal line.
A 7-yard Nick O’Brien run with 10:50 remaining in the game gave the Warriors a 20-7 lead. They played strong defense the rest of the way—and found themselves with championship medals around their necks.
Plenty of standouts in this one. As always, you have to start with Nick O’Brien. It wasn’t his greatest night running the ball, thanks to a stingy Lakeland defense. O’Brien ran the ball 25 times for 135 yards. But it was his passing as much as his running that made the difference. At key times, he hit Cody Schmitz and Jordan Zezza with passes to keep drives alive.
Cody Schmitz continues to emerge as a potent offensive force. Schmitz never exhibits “alligator arms” going over the middle. On one occasion last night, he made a spectacular catch, knowing full well he was going to take a hard hit. You have to love his toughness and the fire in his belly. Schmitz finished with 6 carries for 32 yards and two catches for 46 yards. Add a key interception and long kickoff return—you’ve got a pretty good night’s work.
Jordan Zezza continues to make clutch plays as a wide receiver. In critical third and long situations, he makes those sure handed catches over the middle. He caught two passes for 28 yards. Zak LaNunziata –6 carries for 38 yards. You cannot overstate the importance of fullback LaNunziata running the ball straight ahead for good yards into the teeth of the defense. It ultimately allows O’Brien and Schmitz to run free on the outside.
Finally, and last but not least--the line. On defense, this group held Lakeland to 161 yards rushing—just about 100 yards below their average. Joe Taylor, Carl Zielinski, Joe Erzar, Marty Michaels, Trent Grove and Alex Gercak—these guys are full of grit, sometimes playing against linemen that outweighed them by 50 lbs or more. LaNunziata and Skursky—what a linebacking duo. Skursky does his job with brute force and LaNunziata with speed and determination. And when all else fails—the defensive secondary stops the pass cold. Dylan Pegg played a solid game on both sides of the ball. On the offensive line, add the great play of underclassmen Tyler Resciniti and Matt Dimick—and, well, you have a championship team.
How can you not be happy for Coach Spencer and his staff? These are the most dedicated group of coaches that you could ever hope to find in a high school program. And with this group, it is NOT all about football.
The moment in the season that I had confidence that this team was could win the championship was after the Pittston game. The team was chanting “District Champs” , “District Champs”. You could see it in Joe Taylor’s face and the others. They were going to win this thing, and nothing would stop them-and they did. Congratulations to the 2012 Warrior Football team—but the journey is not over.
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Times Leader Box Score |
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| TIMES LEADER ARTICLE |
Wyoming Area heading to states
Warriors earn gold as District 2 champions
JOHN ERZAR
Nov 17
WEST PITTSTON – Never mind the physical aspects of football. Wyoming Area proved capable of them in the first half Friday night against Lakeland.
Resolve was going to decide in the final two quarters whether the Warriors would be wearing gold medals this time or silver for a third consecutive year.
Wyoming Area shook off three first-half turnovers and shut down Lakeland’s offense in the second half to come away with a 20-7 victory in the District 2 Class 2A championship game.
Wyoming Area (10-2) won its first district title since 2003, when it won the Class 3A crown. The Warriors will play next weekend against the District 11 champion – either Catasauqua or Pen Argyl – in the state playoffs at a District 11 site. The District 11 title game is being played at 7 p.m. today at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown.
The Warriors were the district runners-up last season and the Eastern Conference second-place team in 2010.
“We came up short both times and took silver,” Wyoming senior lineman Carl Zielinski said. “It feels amazing this year. Thanks to all my backs. I give it all to them. We can’t do it without them.”
Wyoming Area clung to a 12-7 halftime lead Friday, an advantage that perhaps could have been larger if not for the turnovers. The Warriors fumbled away the ball at the Lakeland 15- and 36-yard lines, the latter coming on an 8-yard sack.
A pass was also tipped at the line, sailed downfield and was nabbed by Lakeland linebacker Jon Sekelsky as he tumbled to the ground. After an officials’ conference, they ruled Sekelsky had caught the ball.
“It’s always tough when you turn the ball over in the first half, two fumbles and throwing an interception,” Wyoming Area senior fullback/linebacker Zak LaNunziata said. “But we still went in up by five points, 12-7. So knowing you can have three turnovers and still go into the half with the lead, you know you’re playing a good game.”
A good game became better after LaNunziata recovered a Lakeland fumble at the Wyoming Area 24-yard line on the Chiefs’ initial possession of the third quarter. Wyoming Area ate up more than seven minutes with a 13-play scoring drive.
Quarterback Nick O’Brien capped it by darting up the middle for his third touchdown run of the game, a 7-yarder. At first, the run appeared as if O’Brien missed a handoff exchange and ad-libbed. Not so.
“That was a designed fake,” said O’Brien, who wore No. 7 in the second half after his No. 8 jersey was torn in the first half. “No. 63 (Lakeland’s 294-pound Colby Clauss-Walton) was clogging the hole. I bounced off him and (Cody) Schmitz and (Jordan) Zezza made big blocks on the edge.
“That last touchdown was big, big.”
So was O’Brien’s two-point conversion run that pushed the lead to 20-7 with 10:50 to play.
Lakeland (8-4) had the ball only two more times down 20-7. A holding penalty at midfield crushed the first possession. Quarterback Kyle Kiehart, banged up from the first half, struggled throwing the ball in the last-ditch effort to rally.
“A 12-7 game at the half, it would have been great to convert on those scoring opportunities,” Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer said. “But the benefit of having kids that have been in those championship games, those playoff games. This was our sixth playoff game for some of these kids in the last three years. That really paid dividends tonight.”
Meanwhile, Lakeland coach Jeff Wasilchak was only left to lament the chances his team squandered.
“Missed opportunities, wasted opportunities,” Wasilchak said. “Don’t take anything away from Wyoming Area, they are a very good football team. They have a lot of playmakers, they are very difficult to defend, their kids play hard and their coaches do a great job.”
District 2 Class 2A Championship
Wyoming Area 20, Lakeland 7
| Lakeland |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
— |
7 |
| Wyoming Area |
6 |
6 |
0 |
8 |
— |
20 |
First Quarter
WA – Nick O’Brien 15 run (kick failed), 10:21
LAK – Chris Roche 29 pass from Kyle Kiehart (Kiehart kick), 5:31
Second Quarter
WA – O’Brien 21 run (run failed), 10:44
Fourth Quarter
WA – O’Brien 7 run (O’Brien run), 10:50
| Team Statistics |
Lakeland |
Wyo Area |
| First downs |
12 |
17 |
| Rushes-yards |
34-161 |
41-207 |
| Passing |
55 |
74 |
| Total Yards |
216 |
281 |
| Comp-Att-Int |
6-16-1 |
4-6-1 |
| Sacked-Yards Lost |
0-0 |
2-18 |
| Punts-Avg. |
4-25.3 |
1-28.0 |
| Fumbles-Lost |
1-1 |
4-2 |
| Penalties-Yards |
8-82 |
8=45 |
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Lakeland, Roche 28-126, Tyler Brady 4-15, Kiehart 2-20. Wyoming Area, O’Brien 25-135, Cody Schmitz 6-32, Zak LaNunziata 6-38, Jeff Skursky 1-5, team 3-(minus-3).
PASSING – Lakeland, Kiehart 6-16-1-55. Wyoming Area, O’Brien 4-6-1-74.
RECEIVING – Lakeland, Roche 3-44, Cody Defino 1-7, Joey Natale 1-4. Wyoming Area, Schmitz 2-46, Jordan Zezza 2-28.
INTS – Lakeland, Jon Sekelsky. Wyoming Area, Schmitz.
MISSED FGS – none.
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| CITIZENS VOICE ARTICLE |
Green and Gold
By Steve Bennett (Staff Writer)
Published: November 17, 2012
WEST PITTSTON - The critical mistakes that have so often come back to haunt Wyoming Area began to rear their ugly head once again. Only this time the Warriors were able to overcome them.
Nick O'Brien rushed for three touchdowns and the Warriors overcame three first-half turnovers in a 20-7 victory Friday night over Lakeland to win the District 2 Class AA title. It is Wyoming Area's first district championship since 2003 and the first at the Class AA level since 1998.
Wyoming Area, 10-2, advances to the state tournament next Saturday at 1 at Northern Lehigh where it will face the winner of today's Pen Argyl vs. Catasauqua game. Lakeland ends its season at 8-4.
"It was an unbelievable team effort," said Wyoming Area wide receiver/defensive back Jordan Zezza. "We made a couple mistakes and we ralled together. Our captains and seniors did a good job ov picking everybody up."
O'Brien finished the night wiith 135 yards rushing, moving him over 5,000 yards for his career. He now stands in third place all-time in the Wyoming Valley Conference with 5,036 yards.
His 15-yard run on the third play of the game put the Warriors ahead 6-0 less than two minutes in.
"It's a great feeling to finish our senior year in our last game on our home field with a district championship and to win it in front of everyone," O'Brien said. "Lakeland's a very good team. They have good size and quickness."
Lakeland answered O'Brien's score with a 10-play, 72-yard drive. The first nine plays of the series were running plays, which was what the Warriors expected the Chiefs to do. However, on a third-and-5 from the Wyoming Area 29, running back Chris Roche snuck out of the backfield and caught a 29-yard touchdown pass to put the Chiefs on top.
"It was much of what we expected," Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer said. "A big physical team that ran the ball hard. They wanted to drive the ball and eat the clock and limit our opportunities. We contributed by turning the ball over and we knew that was our worse case scenario. We did a good job and battled through it."
The Warriors missed a golden opportunity to score late in the first quarter when they fumbled the ball on the Lakeland 15. The Chiefs failed to capitalize and were forced to punt following the turnover. Wyoming Area took over on the Lakeland 45 and three plays later O'Brien scored from 21 yards out to give the Warriors a 12-7 lead.
Following another Lakeland punt that gave the ball to the Warriors at the Chiefs' 23, Wyoming Area fumbled again. This time the Chiefs seized the momentum and after eight consecutive running plays had the ball at the Wyoming Area 20 and were facing a third-and-1. Lakeland went to the air and Cody Schmitz intercepted a pass in the end zone, ending the drive.
"Wasted opportunities. Don't take anything away from Wyoming Area. They have a lot of playmakers and are difficult to defend," Lakeland coach Jeff Wasilchak said. "Playing as badly as we did we were only down five points at the half."
The Warriors put the game away early in the fourth quarter when O'Brien scored on an 8-yard run. The scoring drive was set up after Wyoming Area's Zak LaNunziata recovered a fumble.
"It was a great defensive effort," Wyoming Area defensive end Trent Grove said. "We faced a lot of good athletes in the past and we stopped them the same way. To hold them to seven points we did a really good job. We expected them to have more of a passing game but we were able to adjust to what they tried to run against us."
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PREVIEW: Power versus Speed. Strength versus skill. Ball control versus explosiveness. It is tempting to talk about the District 2 AA championship matchup between Lakeland and Wyoming Area in these terms. After all, Lakeland has massive offensive and defensive lines, runs the ball right downhill from the ”I” formation, and eats up the clock with long possessions usually punctuated with a touchdown. Wyoming Area, on the other hand, is loaded with playmakers, can score 4 touchdowns in the blink of an eye, and is a legitimate threat to score on a quarterback sneak from anywhere on the field. Both teams might argue with that assessment, but as a rough cut—it’s not too far off base.
Lakeland (8-3) could easily be 10-0 this year. They lost close games to playoff teams Valley View and Dunmore—games that were within their grasp of winning in the closing minutes. They were also upset by Carbondale in an overtime thriller. Signature wins included two thumpings of GAR, and wins over Riverside and Western Wayne.
On offense, it all starts up front for Lakeland. Linemen Kyle Griffin, #66, 6’3” 379 (not a misprint); Colby Clauss Walton, #63, 6-2, 294, #63, and Tight End # 88 Cody Delfino 6-2” 250 lbs, anchor an all-senior offensive line. The Chiefs mostly run from the “I” formation, but occasionally change it up. When they are hitting on all cylinders, they can blow people off the ball. Halfback Chris Roche (#24) gets most of the carries and has over 1200 yards rushing on the year. Fullback Tyler Brady (6’1” 205,#40) is also an excellent runner and blocker and has rushed for over 500 yards. Senior Quarterback Kyle Kiehart also gets his share of rushing yards (350 yds for the year), on bootlegs, sweeps, and scrambles. When the Lakeland offense lines up in the “I” formation with two tight ends—they are a formidable running team.
And it doesn’t stop there—Lakeland’s passing game is also proficient. They have passed nearly twice as many times as the Warriors. In their loss to Dunmore, they passed 27 times. With defenses keying on the run, the Chiefs will throw play actions passes. They often throw quick passes over the middle after the linebackers have taken a step forward--biting on the run. Kielhart is also effective in rolling out and hitting leading receivers #80 Gavin O’Donnell, #3 Joe Natale, and #88 Delfino. They don’t throw the ball deep all that often, but will take their shots when they have an opportunity. Lakeland is, far and away, the most balanced offense that the Warriors have faced this year. They rushed for about 254 yards per game and passed for 106 yards per game. With all that offense, why haven’t they not scored more than 35 points in any one game this year? Because they hold on to the ball with long drives and shorten the game. It’s a formula that has worked well for the Chiefs.
Defensively, the Chiefs are excellent, but not dominating. In one of their best defensive efforts, they held high-flying Valley View to 19 points in a losing effort. Although season statistics can be misleading, they have given up about 170 yards per game rushing. In particular, in close games with Valley View, Dunmore, Mid Valley, and Western Wayne, the Chiefs yielded 262, 191, 201, and 181 yards rushing, respectively. So--good teams (in which Lakeland starters played the entire game) have had some success running the ball on Lakeland. Similarly, a couple teams have been able to pass the ball successfully against Lakeland, most notably, Western Wayne and Riverside both had passing totals near 200 yards. But again, statistics can be somewhat misleading as Lakeland played a much tougher schedule than the Warriors.
Probably the one team on the Warriors schedule that most closely resembles Lakeland is Lake Lehman—although clearly Lakeland is a superior team with a load of senior leadership. If the Warriors play like they played in the Week 3 Lake Lehman game—i.e., allow Lakeland to drive up and down the field, limiting the number of Warrior possessions and turning the ball over—it might be a long night for Wyoming Area. On the other hand the Warriors will need to make some big plays on offense—like they did in the playoff game with Lake Lehman, and have been doing for the last seven weeks.
For the Warriors, a big part of their success will depend on the play of the defensive line. They are not as big as Lakeland—but they have played well this year against the run and will need to hold their own. Turnovers aside--if the defense can hold Lakeland to around 200 yards rushing, I think the Warriors will be in good shape. Lakeland will scheme to try to stop Nick O’Brien—just as every team has done. But as the Warriors learned last year against GAR’s Darrell Crawford, it is difficult to scheme against speed.
Well—it’s been a long journey and the District Championship game has been a major destination. Friday night should be a good matchup. Hope to hear the Victory Bell ringing at about 9:30. See you at the game. Nick Perugini -- nperugini@aol.com
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