The passing combination of Robby Solfanelli to Chris Rasmus and a strong defensive effort Friday night combined to give Old Forge its first football victory of the season.
The Blue Devils handled visiting Susquehanna 30-0 in a Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 meeting of winless teams.
Solfanelli went 19-for-30 for 243 yards passing.
Rasmus caught one of those touchdowns among his 11 catches for 140 yards and also ran for a score.
Will Wozniak, Jake Lucarelli and Ayden Aversa led a defensive effort that not only shut out the Sabers, but also produced a touchdown and safety.
The safety came late in the first quarter and the score remained at 2-0 until the closing seconds of the first half when Rasmus scored on a 5-yard run.
Solfanelli hit Rasmus for a 27-yard touchdown and a 16-0 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Jake Lucarelli returned a fumble 35 yards for a touchdown and Ayden Aversa intercepted a pass to set up the final score.
Solfanelli passed 7 yards to Elio Castaldi midway through the fourth quarter and Josh Cistola completed a 4-for-4 night on extra points.
Solfanelli has gone over 1,000 yards passing on the season and Rasmus has 47 catches.
The Blue Devils were outscored 147-14 in the first four games of the season, but had made progress in recent weeks. The closest of the six losses came in a 21-14 defeat by Western Wayne, then, after giving up the first 38 points of last week’s game against defending champion Lackawanna Trail, the Blue Devils cut the final margin to 38-20.
Old Forge is 1-1 in the division going into Saturday’s game at Holy Cross. The Blue Devils then travel to Riverside and host Carbondale to complete the regular season. They are unlikely to make the four-team District 2-11 Class A Subregional playoffs where the other six teams have at least three wins.
