YATESVILLE — There’s this imaginary hump coaches like to talk about.
Hazleton Area cleared it last week and stayed there on Friday night, while Pittston Area’s uphill battle continued.
The Cougars pitched their first shutout in three years as the defense made three turnovers and three sacks in a 21-0 victory over Pittston Area in a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 game.
Hazleton Area improved to 2-2 with its second consecutive win after two close losses. Pittston Area fell to 0-3 overall.
“We can play with people,” Pittston Area coach Nick Barbieri said. “We just have to get over the hump and beat some people. I don’t think there is anybody we can’t play with.”
The shutout was Hazleton Area’s first since a 35-0 victory over Crestwood in Week 10 of the 2017 season.
“It’s big time,” Hazleton Area coach Dennis Buchman said, “especially because of what we’ve been the last few years defensively at times. We’ve been inconsistent. What I said to the team was we put our defense in some bad spots tonight with some crucial turnovers and mistakes, but our defense continued to battle.”
The Hazleton Area offense put together an 18-play drive that started late in the first quarter and ate up nearly eight minutes of the second quarter, but ended with a missed 31-yard field goal. Pittston Area’s David Behm and David Sudo came up big with consecutive sacks after the Cougars moved to the Patriots 1-yard line.
Pittston Area, though, couldn’t take advantage of the defensive stand and ran just three plays before Hazleton Area’s Connor Kundrat blocked a punt. Running back Kevin Meluskey scored on the next play from the 4 as the Cougars took a 7-0 lead into halftime.
The blocked punt was part of a big game by Kundrat. The sophomore linebacker intercepted a pass in the end zone on the final play of the first half after teammate Matt Cusatis battled the ball to him. He also recovered a fumble and had two sacks.
“He’s only a sophomore and he’s a guy who is eager to continue to learn and get better every single week,” Buchman said. “You see it every single week along with all of our players.”
Despite a one-score deficit, Pittston Area’s second half was like its other two this season. The Patriots were down 17-14 against Berwick in their opener and lost 37-14. Last week, they managed just seven points after halftime and lost 26-24 to Wyoming Valley West.
The Patriots drove to the Hazleton Area 34-yard line on their first possession of the third quarter only to fumble away the ball. The Cougars fumbled it back on the next play, but Pittston Area lost another fumble five plays later at the Hazleton Area 22.
Hazleton Area scored four plays after the second Pittston Area fumble on a 19-yard run by Matt Buchman, the coach’s brother who rushed for 102 yards on 20 carries. Senior running back Dante Matarella capped the scoring with a 1-yard plunge early in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots moved to the Hazleton Area 13 on their final drive of the game, but the ending was all too familiar with quarterback PJ Pisano being harassed by a relentless pass rush resulting in two incompletions.
Hazleton Area 21, Pittston Area 0
Hazleton Area`0`7`7`7 — 21
Pittston Area`0`0`0`0 — 0
Second quarter
HA — Kevin Meluskey 4 run (Luke Russo kick), 2:18
Third quarter
HA — Matt Buchman 19 run (Russo kick), 6:05
Fourth quarter
HA — Dante Matarella 1 run (Russo kick), 9:31
Team statistics`HA`PA
First downs`15`8
Rushes-yards`35-111`28-63
Passing yards`106`138
Total yards`217`201
Passing`11-20-1`7-27-1
Sacked-yards lost`2-13`3-19
Punts-avg.`3-30.7`3-40
Fumbles-lost`2-1`2-2
Penalties-yards`3-25`6-47
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Hazleton Area, Buchman 20-102, Meluskey 5-7, Kellen Warner 6-(minus-15), Matarela 3-9, Eddie Torres 1-8. Pittston Area, Bryheem Patterson 9-30, Alex Hoban 2-4, David Sudo 6-16, PJ Pisano 7-(minus-2), Jimmy Spindler 4-15.
PASSING — Hazleton Area, Warner 10-20-1-106. Pittston Area, Pisano 6-25-1-97, Spindler 0-1-0-0, Patterson 1-1-0-41.
RECEIVING — Hazleton Area, Matt Cusatis 2-39, Connor Shamany 4-24, Christian Price 1-4, Meluskey 1-13, Evan Matyas 2-18, Buchman 1-8. Pittston Area, Patterson 2-32, David Behm 4-93, Rob Barbieri 1-13.
INTERCEPTIONS — Hazleton Area, Connor Kundrat 1-19. Pittston Area, Barbieri 1-0.
MISSED FGs — Hazleton Area, 31WL.
