West Scranton (Pa.) stops Dunmore in old rivalry

Back in the day, it was a Thanksgiving tradition.

West Scranton (Scranton, Pa.) and Dunmore would always start out the day with an old matchup on the gridiron before families sat around the dinner table for turkey and the fixings.

The date of the game may have changed, but the tradition and the rivalry is still alive and well.

West Scranton quarterback Tyler Hughes was a one-man wrecking machine – running for 150 yards, throwing for 125 and scoring twice as the Invaders upset the state-ranked Bucks 27-24 Friday night at Scranton Memorial Stadium.



Hughes also made two key plays on the defensive end to preserve the three-point victory after West Scranton jumped out to a big 20-0 lead.

“We knew our defense had to come up big and stop them,” Hughes told the Scranton Times. “Our offense got in a rhythm real early. We knew coach Henzes is a great coach and he’s going to make the adjustments at halftime to try and stop us. Our defense had to step up.”

For Dunmore, it was the second loss of the season after starting out ranked No. 1 in Single-A by the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Sitting at 1-2 only three games into the season is probably a shock – if not a stunner – for the Bucks’ faithful.

The 20-0 deficit after the first quarter ranks in the same category. West scored twice on runs by Devaughn Chollette and a short pass from Hughes to Ray Dominguez.

“Tyler Hughes is an outstanding thrower; he gets the ball away quick and he’s an excellent runner.” Dunmore head coach Jack Henzes said. “We realized that when we scouted them and knew we’d have our hands full with him, and we did.”



Dunmore cut the lead to 27-18 at halftime on touchdowns by Chris Yurechko, Daiquon Buckley and Jim Pichiarello.

The Bucks later cut it to three on Yurechko’s second score early in the fourth quarter.

“We made some mistakes out there, but we’ll correct them and get better,” Henzes said. “We’re very proud of the effort our kids gave. We’re going to get better. We get some of our other players back, and hopefully, we can continue to improve every week.”

2. Late score lifts Riverside (Ellwood City): Riverside’s Corey Talerico threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Tommy Armillay, his third of the game, with 26 ticks left, lifting the Vikings past undefeated North Pocono (Moscow,), 24-21, the Scranton Times reported. Talerico, the team’s quarterback, threw for 160 yards and two scores, while rushing for nearly 60 yards. “This just shows how much team chemistry we have,” he told the newspaper. “We have been playing together for most of our lives” NP’s Nick Bell had a solid game for the Trojans, scoring twice and combining for almost 200 yards of offense.

3. Southern wins Coal Region battle: Shamokin Area’s senior tailback Jared Montgomery had 150 yards on 16 carries. Again most on the schedule, that’s probably enough for a victory. But not against Southern Columbia Area (Catawissa). The Tigers opened up a 28-0 lead early in the third quarter and cruised to a 42-13 victory. Mistakes hurt the Indians as Shamokin fumbled on its second play, and three later, Southern’s Tyrell Thomas crossed the goal line for the first of his three times on the night. “Obviously, the fumble on the first series was huge,” Shamokin coach Dan Foor told the Shamokin News-Item. “A play like that was going to be huge either way, and for us to get down right off the bat like that wasn’t good. I think Southern is on a mission to get back to Hershey. They’re an outstanding football team, and a better football team than us, and I can live with that.”

4. Tyrone wins battle of unbeatens in District 6: For Bellefonte and head coach Duffy Besch, it was meant to be a measuring stick for his Red Raiders. What he found out was that Tyrone is pretty darn good. One week after a slim victory over Lewistown, the Golden Eagles were firing on all cylinders, racking up nearly 300 yards of offense in the first half, while holding Bellefonte to 25. The end result was a convincing 42-8 victory in Centre County last Friday night. Tyrone led 35-0 at the break, and Jared Templeton took the opening kickoff of the second half 96 yards to slam the door shut. “I think they sort of got caught by Lewistown, at least I think that is what happened,” Besch said. “They showed tonight they weren’t going to get caught twice, but that is the way it goes. The thing I took away from this game is we didn’t quit.”



5. Opposite ends of the spectrum for Shore, CM: Central Mountain (Mill Hall) and Jersey Shore will meet in the last game of the 2010 regular season. Friday night, they experience opposite ends of the spectrum in the waning seconds. Central Mountain got two scores in the fourth quarter; a Von Walker 3-yard TD run and a game-winning field goal by senior Connor Garbrick with 1:18 left to pick up the team’s first win, 10-7, over Central Martinsburg. Twenty miles down Route 220, Shore was handed a loss in the final minute as Towanda’s Garrett Dinelli scored with 40 seconds left. It spoiled a sensation day for Shore junior quarterback Caleb Barnhart, who threw for 42 yards, but rushed for 225 and three scores.

Top Games for Week 4

District 2
1. Scranton at Valley View
2. Berwick at Wyoming Valley West

District 4
1. Muncy at Lewisburg
2. Mount Carmel Area at Loyalsock

District 6
1. Clearfield at Indian Valley
2. Huntingdon at Tyrone

Fox’s Top 10
(Rankings based on Central and Northeastern Pa. Last week’s ranking and result after school name)
1. Abington Heights (Clarks Summit), 1, beat Tunkhannock, 40-21
2. North Schuylkill (Ashland), 3, beat Jim Thorpe, 54-0
3. Lewisburg, 5, beat Hughesville, 42-21
4. Williamsport, 4, beat Stroudsburg 16-9
5. Tyrone, 7, beat Bellefonte Area 42-8
6. Southern Columbia Area (Catawissa), 9, beat Shamokin Area 42-13
7. Riverside, HM, beat North Pocono, 24-21
8. Forest Hills (Sidman), HM, beat Bishop Carroll, 36-7
9. North Pocono, 2, lost to Riverside 24-21
10. Delaware Valley (Milford), HM, beat Hazleton Area 40-20
Honorable Mention: Dunmore, Shamokin Area, Berwick, Bellwood-Antis, Bloomsburg, Huntingdon, Danville, Wilkes-Barre GAR, Indian Valley, Johnstown, Portage, North Penn (4), Towanda, Loyalsock.

Tom Fox is sports editor at The Lock Haven (Pa.) Express and covers Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania for MaxPreps. He can be reached at tfox@lockhaven.com.