WEST PITTSTON – Blaise Sokach-Minnick fills many roles for the Wyoming Area football team.
His newest one was where Sokach-Minnick made the biggest impact Friday night.
Sokach-Minnick led a pass rush, which kept Riverside’s prolific passing game contained while allowing Wyoming Area to open its state title defense with a 30-6 non-league victory.
Playing defensive end for the first time, Sokach-Minnick had three sacks for 28 yards in losses, assisted on another for an 8-yard loss and batted down a pass.
“Riverside’s a big passing team,” Sokach-Minnick said. “We knew we had to get pressure on the quarterback. He’s a good quarterback, so we had to get pressure on him to get him to force some throws into tight windows and hopefully make some plays for our D-backs.”
The combination of Wyoming Area’s pass rush and two bad snaps by Riverside left the Vikings with minus-28 net rushing yards for the game.
Coach Randy Spencer put an emphasis on the pass rush while facing John Gilchrist, who still got off 37 passes.
“We committed more to pressure in this game with Gilchrist and what he was bringing in,” Spencer said. “We’ve got different ways to do that, so it doesn’t always look the same. That certaintly was a big part in terms of the defensive emphasis facing him this week.”
The Warriors held the Vikings scoreless until the last six minutes.
Sokach-Minnick was a big reason why.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder’s short-term future is at quarterback where he’s a junior backing up senior Jacob Williams. His long-term future is likely as a long snapper, following his older brothers who used that specialization to progress to NCAA Division I college football.
When not needed at quarterback, Sokach-Minnick takes offensive snaps as a tight end or wide receiver. His previous defensive work was as a safety until about a month ago when Spencer instructed to him to begin working with another position group.
“Coming into this year, I knew I had to play a lot of roles on the team,” Sokach-Minnick said. “I was just trying to get bigger, stronger, faster, all the usual. About a month ago, coach Spencer brought me down to work with the D-ends.
“It turned out pretty well and I’ve never looked back from there.”
The move put Sokach-Minnick on center stage on Opening Night.
The offense moved the ball, but had just two touchdowns and a field goal to show for 17 first downs and 335 yards.
Special teams and defense took care of the rest.
Freshman Aaron Crossley scored the team’s first touchdown when a Riverside punt snap got away and he won the battle for the loose ball before running it in from 35 yards out with 7:40 left in the first quarter.
Adam Sigman took an interception 51 yards, running down the left sideline before making the cut to beat a defender late in the touchdown return for a 24-0 lead with 4:17 left in the third quarter.
The Warriors took a 17-0 halftime lead on Vincenzo Giambra’s 6-yard run for the first of his two touchdowns and Jayden Rusyn’s 30-yard field goal as time expired.
Riverside broke the shutout with 5:52 left when Gilchrist hit Michael Rickert with a 15-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-14.
Wyoming Area 30, Riverside 6
Riverside`0`0`0`6`—`6
Wyoming Area`7`10`7`6`—`30
First quarter
WA – Aaron Crossley 35 fumble return (Sydney Kruszka kick), 7:40
Second quarter
WA – Vincenzo Giambra 6 run (Kruszka kick), 1:41
WA – Jayden Rusyn 30 FG, 0:00
Third quarter
WA – Adam SIgman 51 interception return (Kruszka kick), 4:17
Fourth quarter
WA – Giambra 1 run (bad snap, pass failed), 9:27
R – Michael Rickert 15 pass from John Gilchrist (kick failed), 5:52
Team statistics`RIV`WA
First downs`13`17
Rushes-yards`22-(-28)`47-233
Passing yards`182`102
Total yards`154`335
Passing`16-37-1`6-14-1
Sacked-yards lost`5-40`1-5
Punts-avg.`4-33.0`0-0
Fumbles-lost`2-1`1-0
Penalties-yards`5-25`8-72
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — RIV, Noah Parchinski 5-21, Charles Azarsky 1-minus 4, Gilchrist 14-minus 12, Team 2-minus 33. WA, Drew Mruk 10-64, Vincenzo Giambra 12-60, Colby Gashi 8-44, Rich Hyzinski 4-15, Rocco Pizano 1-10, J. Rusyn 2-10, Jacob Williams 4-8, Nico Sciandra 1-7, Daniel Angus 1-6, John Morgan 1-5, Crossley 3-4.
PASSING — RIV, Gilchrist 16-37-1-182. WA, Williams 6-13-1-102, Blaise Sokach-Minnick 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING — RIV, Azarsky 6-87, Rickert 5-51, Reese Gaughan 3-19, Joshua Godlewski 1-25, Parchinski 1-0. WA, Mruk 2-42, Pizano 1-42, Usamah Alansari 1-13, Evan Melberger 1-7, Gashi 1-minus 2.
INTERCEPTIONS — RIV, Gaughan 1-0. WA, Sigman 1-51.
MISSED FIELD GOALS – None.
