YATESVILLE — Pittston Area coach Nick Barbieri said it best after his team’s drubbing at the hands of Scranton Prep on Friday night.
“That’s a great football team. There’s no denying that. They’re probably the best team on our schedule,” Barbieri said of the Cavaliers. “You make mistakes against them, you’re in trouble.”
That’s exactly what the Patriots did, making plenty of miscues. They turned the ball over five times, had trouble on special teams and had no answer on defense for Cavaliers quarterback Leo O’Boyle, who totaled six touchdowns as Prep downed Pittston Area 50-12.
“That was the worst game we played all year after probably playing our best game last week,” Barbieri said, referring to a narrow loss to Williamsport. “We made more mistakes in this game than we did in the first seven weeks of the season.”
The game didn’t start off all that bad for Pittston Area (3-5). Sure, Scranton Prep (7-1) scored on its first two possessions on TD strikes by O’Boyle — with one coming off a Patriots turnover — but Pittston Area got on the board on the first play of the second quarter when QB Mike Nocito found Andrew Krawczyk for a 38-yard scoring strike to cut the lead to 14-6.
That’s when everything spiraled out of control for the Patriots.
O’Boyle’s third TD of the game capped Prep’s next drive when he ran in from 1 yard out. The Patriots’ next two drives ended with snapping mistakes on the punt team. The first one gave the Cavaliers field position on the Pittston Area 21. Five plays later, O’Boyle had his fourth score.
The next Patriots miscue when trying to punt was a snap sailing out of the end zone for a safety. Three plays after going up 29-6 on the safety, O’Boyle struck again for a TD strike with 2:50 to go in the half for a 36-6 lead.
“We haven’t had a bad snap on a punt in two years, tonight we had two in a row,” Barbieri said.
Prep wasn’t done in the opening 24 minutes. The Patriots fumbled it away on their next drive, once again giving Scranton Prep great field position.
O’Boyle needed just three plays again to find the end zone for his sixth TD of the half and a 43-6 halftime advantage.
On the final play of the game, the Patriots gave the ball to DJ Branham, who was given a touchdown from 57 yards out on a ceremonial play. Prep snapped the ball twice and knelt down so the Patriots got the ball back one last time prior to the special score.
“DJ’s a great kid. We were trying to get him in and we kept fumbling the ball and fumbling the ball,” Barbieri said. “I say thanks to coach (Terry Gallagher of Prep) for taking a knee and letting the kid get on the field. That means a ton to him and to all our kids. So I’m very appreciative to coach for doing that.”
Scranton Prep 50, Pittston Area 12
Scranton Prep`14`29`0`7 — 50
Pittston Area`0`6`0`6 — 12
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
SP – Odell 23 pass from O’Boyle (Buttner kick) 9:45
SP – Greco 54 pass from O’Boyle (Buttner kick) 4:03
Second Quarter
PA – Kraczyk 38 pass from Nocito (kick failed) 11:51
SP – O’Boyle 1 run (Buttner kick) 9:07
SP – Grady 28 pass from O’Boyle (kick blocked) 5:50
SP – Safety, ball snapped out of end zone 4:04
SP – Genello 23 pass from O’Boyle (Buttner kick) 2:50
SP – Greco 7 pass from O’Boyle (Buttner kick) :31
Third Quarter
No scoring
Fourth Quarter
SP – Terrery 55 interception return (Buttner kick) 10:24
PA – Branham 57 run (no kick) :00
Team statistics`SP`PA
First downs`16`8
Rushes-yards`29-127`26-119
Passing yards`200`81
Total yards`327`200
Passing`11-18-0`8-19-2
Sacks by-yards lost`1-5`0-0
Punts-avg.`2-38.5`2-26.5
Fumbles-lost`0-0`3-3
Penalties-yards`6-70`2-13
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
PASSING – SP, O’Boyle 11-17-0-200, P. Grady 0-0-0-0. PA, Nocito 8-19-1-81, Pisano 0-1-1-0.
RUSHING— SP, Cosgrove 9-47, M. Grady 1-3, O’Boyle 3-17, T. Johnson 1-12, McAndrew 2-0, P. Grady 2-11, Tererry 2-8, A. Johnson 1-2, TEAM 2-(minus-2), Lynett 2-1, Argenta 3-16, Giacobbee 3-12. PA, Lukachko 7-13, O’Boyle 7-18, Nocito 1-(minus-5), Haas 1-(minus-6), George 1-0, Coe 6-38, Symons 2-4, Branham 1-57.
RECEIVING— SP, Odell 4-52, Genello 2-34, Greco 2-61, M. Grady 3-53. PA, Krawczyk 4-70, George 2-2, Giambra 1-5, Coe 1-3.
INTERCEPTIONS – SP, M. Grady, Tererry,
MISSED FG’S – none
