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On a chilly October night under the lights celebrating salute to service, the visiting Honesdale Hornets trounced the Nanticoke Area Trojans by a score of 56-7.
The star of the night was Honesdale’s Mason Avery, who finished with four touchdowns.
“The keys to the night was just executing on offense and defense,” Avery said. “We struggled with that in weeks prior. Coming out here offensively, we’d always get down to the end zone and we just couldn’t stick it in. Now this week we really executed and we got it in.
“Defensively we (had) struggled, not really doing the best tackling and we weren’t executing very well. Then this week we came together as a team and executed very well to get the big win.”
Honesdale’s scoring barrage kicked off just 13 seconds into the game, as Avery, a standout senior, took the opening kick and returned it all the way to the house for an electrifying 73-yard touchdown to give his squad the early 6-0 advantage.
For Avery’s second score of the night, he scampered into the end zone from 4 yards out to stretch his team’s lead to 14-0 with 6:07 remaining in the first quarter.
Hornets sophomore running back Gabe Duda would get on the scoreboard next, this time on a powerful 13-yard rushing touchdown to increase his team’s advantage to 20-0 with 3:17 left in the opening period.
For Honesdale’s final points of the first quarter, Duda would score again, this time through the air on a wide-open 16-yard touchdown catch from senior signal caller Aiden Collins to give the Hornets a 28-0 lead with 1:24 remaining in the period.
In the second quarter, Honesdale continued to roll with 21 more points. Avery tallied his third touchdown of the evening with 8:39 left in the half when he sprinted to paydirt from 11 yards out to increase the advantage to 35-0.
For his team’s next score, Duda would score his third overall touchdown of the contest, this time from the ground game with his 50-yard touchdown run to make it 42-0 with 3:12 remaining in the second quarter.
For the Hornets’ final score before the break, Avery would score his fourth touchdown of the game, his third on the ground, when he got loose for a 21-yard score to stretch his squad’s lead to 49-0 with 1:02 left.
In the second half the scoring would slow down, as each team tallied a touchdown apiece before the final whistle sounded.
Nanticoke Area would score its first points of the contest in the third quarter. Senior tailback Treston Allen took the handoff to the right side and on a trick play found a wide-open James Bush in the end zone for a 34-yard strike to cut the deficit to 49-7. The play converted a fourth-an-10 situation.
For the final points of the contest, Honesdale backup quarterback Abe Bryant connected with junior wideout Zachary Meagher on a 43-yard touchdown pass to increase the lead to 56-7 with 1:06 remaining in the third period.
With this impressive win, Honesdale has now won two in a row after defeating Lakeland on the road last week by a point, 41-40.
Meanwhile, the Trojans, who dropped their first three contests of their 2024 campaign before a comeback road triumph over Tunkhannock in Week-4, is now on a four-game losing skid with tough losses to Crestwood, Lake-Lehman, Berwick and Honesdale.
Hornets coach Paul Russick and his 4-4 squad will look to make it three straight wins when they go on the road to take on the Dunmore Bucks next Friday night under the lights.
Meanwhile, the 1-7 Trojans will face off with first-place Wyoming Area on the road in Week 9.
Honesdale 56, Nanticoke Area 7
Honesdale`28`21`7`0 — 56
Nanticoke Area`0`0`7`0 — 7
First Quarter
HON — Mason Avery 73 kick return (kick failed), 11:47
HON — Avery 4 run (Kobe White run), 6:07
HON — Gabe Duda 13 run (kick failed), 3:17
HON — Duda 16 pass from Aiden Collins (Conlan Keast pass from Collins), 1:24
Second Quarter
HON — Avery 11 run (Trace Bibbers kick), 8:39
HON — Duda 50 run (Bibbers kick), 3:12
HON — Avery 21 run (Bibbers kick), 1:02
Third Quarter
NAN — James Bush 34 pass from Treston Allen (J.P. Pastuizaca kick), 4:44
HON — Zachary Meagher 43 pass from Abe Bryant (Avery kick), 1:06
Team statistics `Honesdale ‘Nanticoke
First downs`18’6
Rushes-yards`19-262`35-103
Passing yards`116`33
Total yards`378`136
Passing`7-8-0`3-6-0
Sacked-yards lost`2-16`4-37
Punts-avg.`0-0`1-30
Fumbles-lost`1-1`3-3
Penalties-yards`5-60`6-30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — HON, Mason Avery 9-141, Gabe Duda 2-63, Abe Bryant 3-38, Wyatt Avery 3-27, Bradley Bibalo 2-(minus-7). NAN, Treston Allen 21-63, Christopher Julian 5-21, Tyler Skordensky 3-1, Michael Stachowiak 1-9, Jason O’Borski 2-4, Serafino Raggi 3-5.
PASSING — HON, Aiden Collins 5-6-0-64, Abe Bryant 2-2-0-52. NAN, Michael Stachowiak 2-5-0-(minus-1), Treston Allen 1-1-0-34.
RECEIVING — HON, Kobe White 2-22, Zachary Meagher 2-52, Mason Avery 1-22, Conlan Keast 1-4, Gabe Duda 1-16. NA, James Bush 1-34, Treston Allen 2-(minus-1).
INTERCEPTIONS — None.
MISSED FIELD GOALS — None.