Susquehanna scored on consecutive offensive plays in the first quarter, added another score less than seven minutes later, then turned things over to its defense.
The Sabers held Nanticoke to 20 yards total offense in the second half to lift first-year coach Kyle Cook to his first career victory in a 21-14 win over the visiting Trojans Saturday at William Emminger Memorial Field.
Nanticoke managed only three first downs in the second half and got past its own 35 just once in that time. When it did, Susquehanna quickly regained control behind a pass rush that led the way in protecting the lead.
“Toward the end, I knew they were going to pass when I saw what formation they were in,” said defensive end Christian Miller, who sacked the quarterback twice and rushed him into mistakes two other times. “Coach told us to pass rush and I did my best to do it.”
After Nanticoke gained its final first down to its 47 with 5:09 to play, Jon Haines and Miller hit and hurried Eric Levandowski into an overthrown pass down the middle. Brett Hepler was there to make the team’s first interception of the year and return it 35 yards.
“The big thing was we needed our line to get a big pass rush and it did,” Hepler said. “I just jumped up and made the catch.
“It really wasn’t me. It was all our line.”
Nanticoke had two more possessions, but was pushed back both times. Miller had sacks on each possession and Josh Potter rushed Levandowski into floating a pass that Hepler was able to break up on the game’s final play.
“We actually put (James) Murnock down at defensive end to get us a little bit more of a pass rush this week,” Cook said. “We had some good schemes with (defensive) coach (Carl) Zukas and I think they kept forgetting about Miller on the end.
“Our ends ran free a few times, which was huge. And, even late in the game, our down tackles came up big and got a pass rush when we needed it.”
Hepler and linebacker Curtis Mills have been the defensive leaders so far this season. Mills had a team-high eight tackles, including two for losses, with two assists Saturday.
Luke Brinton, Lewis Esposito, James Murnock and Craig Monks also made significant defensive contributions as the Sabers limited Nanticoke to 44 yards rushing and six completions on 22 pass attempts. Murnock had the team’s other sack.
Austin White and Austin Felter brought the running game to life in a game-changing, first-half stretch, carrying the Sabers to their biggest offensive production of the season.
Nanticoke crossed midfield on its first possession, setting up good field position and a score on its second.
Eric Levandowski hit Tyler Hanna in stride down the right sideline for a 28-yard touchdown and 7-0 lead with 8:11 remaining in the first quarter.
Felter recovered a muffed punt at the Nanticoke 15 to set up the first score.
White ran 14 yards for a touchdown. Special teams confusion and two penalties wiped out the tying extra point and led to a longer attempt being blocked to keep the Trojans in front, 7-6, with 4:42 left in the quarter.
The Sabers moved ahead to stay on their next offensive play.
White kept around the right side, turned the corner and raced 65 yards for the touchdown. James Murnock added the two-point run for a 14-7 lead with 2:52 left in the quarter.
Felter took a counter handoff to the right, turned upfield and ran past the defense on third-and-seven for a 39-yard touchdown. Steve Jesse’s kick made it 21-7 with 5:37 left in the half.
Nanticoke took advantage of an errant White pitch to score with 31 seconds left in the half.
Brad Yanus recovered at the Susquehanna 35. Levandowski found Kyle Gavrish with a 34-yard pass to set up his own 1-yard touchdown run.
Susquehanna held the ball for 10:45 of the 12 minutes in the third quarter, but just missed on a 33-yard Jesse field goal attempt that had plenty of distance.
The Trojans kept within striking distance by making two fourth-down stops, at the 24 and the 31, in the fourth quarter.
Nanticoke, however, could not solve the Susquehanna defense.
White finished with 128 yards rushing on 23 attempts. Felter added 62 on 11 carries as the Sabers piled up 237 total.
When it was over, Cook had his first win and was thanking the players for the hard work they put in to make it possible.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Mountain View opened defense of its division, district and state boys’ soccer titles with a 2-1 victory over Holy Cross Wednesday.
Zeb Cross and Colby Thomas scored goals in the Lackawanna League Division 3 game, which was also a rematch of last year’s District 2 Class A title game.
Both Cross and Thomas connected on headers off of corner kicks.
The Eagles then rolled in the second game, an 11-0 rout of Carbondale.
Thomas had three goals and four assists, Cross had three goals and two assists and Chris White had two goals and an assist in the romp.
In girls’ soccer, Mountain View is also off to a 2-0 start.
In cross country, Blue Ridge finished third out of 13 girls' teams Saturday in the Lackawanna County Invitational at McDade Park in Scranton.
Wallenpaupack defeated Pittston Area, 45-85, for the team title. Blue Ridge had 107 points. Susquehanna had 212 to place 11th of 13 teams.
Tara Johnson of Pittston Area won in 19:08.
Blue Ridge’s Casey Purdum finished the 3.1-mile course in 20:49 to finish eighth out of 95 runners. Lauren Whitney, Isabella Cosmello and Lindsey Burdick finished 24th, 25th and 28th.
Ivy Christensen finished 20th and Mikayla Hargett 22nd for Susquehanna.
Holy Redeemer edged Wallenpaupack, 70-71, for the boys’ team title. Susquehanna had 323 to finish 11th out of 18 teams. Forest City was 14th and Blue Ridge 17th.
Dominic Hockenbury of Lake-Lehman won in 15:54.
Brandon Soden was 13th out of 116 runners and Justin Acone was 26th to lead Susquehanna.
Elk Lake’s Dakota Oswald won the junior high boys’ title by finishing 1.8 miles in 10:38 to lead the 191-runner field.
Oswald, sixth-place finisher Dylan Benscoter and 10th-place finisher Brett Carney helped Elk Lake finish third out of 18 teams.
Montrose was ninth.
Elk Lake finished fifth, Montrose ninth and Susquehanna 14th out of 17 teams in junior high girls.
Sheyanne Bennett of Elk Lake placed ninth out of 186 runners.
Elk Lake varsity teams improved to 6-0 in Lackawanna League action earlier in the week.
Kenzie Jones and Justine Jones finished 1-2 in the six-team meet at Western Wayne to lead Elk Lake to girls’ victories over Western Wayne, Honesdale and Forest City. Montrose also went 3-0 against the same teams.
The Elk Lake boys beat the same three opponents.
In high school football, Montrose gave up six first-half touchdowns for the second straight week while falling at Tunkhannock, 41-0, to remain winless through three games.
Tunkhannock did all its scoring and held Montrose to four yards total offense in the first half.
Ryan Cywinski ran for three first-half touchdowns and rushed for 100 yards on eight carries. Brian Beauchim hit four of five passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns while running for another score. Brett Stage had the two touchdown catches and finished with five receptions for 124 yards.
Montrose did not complete a pass, but did get its running game going at times in the second half.
Mike Stewart ran for 67 yards on 11 carries and Trevor Tompkins added 62 yards on 16 carries.
COLLEGE CORNER
Hannah Owens, a junior from Elk Lake, was the top runner on the Baptist Bible College women’s cross country team in the first two meets of the season.
Owens finished 11th of 41 runners at the CSAC Preview and 34th of 91 at the Highlander Invitational.
Jared Winn, a junior from Montrose, was part of the scoring lineup for the BBC men in both meets. He was third on the team and 14th of 32 overall at the CSAC Preview and fifth on the team and 49th of 91 overall at the Highlander Invitational.
BBC finished last among three full men’s teams at the CSAC Preview and sixth of 11 at the Highlander Invitational.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Susquehanna (1-2) is at Riverside (0-3) and Honesdale is at Montrose in a game between winless teams Friday night.
Our high school football predictions last week were 15-4 (78.9 percent) to bring our season record to 39-11 (78.0).
This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: Susquehanna 31, RIVERSIDE 19; Honesdale 54, MONTROSE 16; WEST SCRANTON 45, North Pocono 16; WALLENPAUPACK 41, Crestwood 27; Old Forge 28, DUNMORE 20; LAKELAND 20, Carbondale 13; Lackawanna Trail 43, WESTERN WAYNE 23; EAST STROUDSBURG NORTH 24, Valley View 13; ABINGTON HEIGHTS 12, Delaware Valley 7; Mid Valley 34, HOLY CROSS 0; SCRANTON PREP 33, Scranton 7.
In high school cross country, Elk Lake hosts one of the biggest meets of the Lackawanna League season Tuesday, Sept. 24.
In addition to being the one meet a year when Elk Lake is scored against Blue Ridge and Montrose, the teams it travels with in the cluster schedule format each week, the Warriors also face some of the league’s top opponents.
Scranton Prep and Holy Cross are at Elk Lake that day. Entering this week, Scranton Prep and Elk Lake are two of the league’s three unbeaten boys’ teams and Scranton Prep, Holy Cross and Elk Lake are three of the five girls’ teams.
In boys’ golf, the Lackawanna League qualifier for the District 2 individual tournament will be held Wednesday at Elmhurst Country Club.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
