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On a chilly October Friday night under the lights, the visiting Dallas Mountaineers seized the coveted Old Shoe trophy over the rival Lake-Lehman Black Knights with a 28-7 victory.
With this regular season finale road triumph, Dallas (7-3) which began the season 0-3, now heads into next week’s district playoffs red hot on a seven-game winning streak.
Dallas coach Rich Mannello was proud of his team’s effort and how they responded after facing adversity in this rivalry showdown and throughout the whole season after the tough start.
“So we don’t talk about division or conference in that clubhouse, we talk about district titles,” said Mannello, who led the Mountaineers to a district crown and the state championship game last year. “When you talk about our on-the-field goals, it’s about getting to the district title and winning district championships. So at 0-3 that was still at our windshield and because that is ingrained in the clubhouse, they kept going and trusting the process.
“And they kept coming back every Sunday (in the weight room) and little by little we knew with the new offensive line it was going to take time. Those kids progressed with everybody else. We had a bunch of injuries — that we don’t ever talk about — we got them all back and now we are peaking at the right time.”
Dallas kicked off the scoring almost five minutes into the spirited contest on its first offensive possession, when standout senior tailback Dylan Geskey barreled into the end zone from 2 yards out to give his team a 7-0 advantage.
Geskey would then find paydirt once again on another 2-yard rushing touchdown with 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter to stretch his squad’s lead to 14-0. After a back-and-forth scoreless second quarter, the Mounts would enjoy their two-score lead heading into halftime.
However, the Black Knights would come roaring right back to start off the second half when their senior quarterback Hayden Evans, who eclipsed the 1,000-yard passing milestone last week, sneaked into the end zone on a 3-yard keeper to cut the deficit to one score at 14-7 with 6:58 left in the third.
After being held scoreless for two consecutive quarters, the Mounts offense seized back the momentum and control of the ball game in the fourth, outscoring Lehman 14-0.
For Dallas’ next score, quarterback Brady Zapoticky found fellow senior Gavin Lewis wide open in the end zone for a 31-yard scoring strike to give their team a 21-7 advantage with 8:27 left in regulation.
Then for the Mountaineers’ fourth and final score of the night, Geskey tallied his third rushing touchdown, this one from 4 yards out to give his squad the 28-7 cushion they would enjoy by game’s end.
Lake-Lehman — which celebrated senior night festivities on the home black turf and had a picturesque firework show before and after the game — finishes up its regular season campaign at 6-4 headed into its own playoff run.
“It’s a tough place to play, great environment, the fireworks were great for us,” Mannello said. “Their kids were ready to play, and down 14-0 sometimes in high school somebody’s going to slow down a little bit, but they didn’t slow down. We had to counter that.
“We had an awful amount of penalties tonight and those will be viewed before everybody goes to sleep. We’ve got some things we need to clean up on our side — I’m the head coach and I’m responsible for that and we will get that cleaned up. I think our emotions got to us a little bit but when it came time to drop the hammer, we dropped the hammer tonight.”
Dallas 28, Lake-Lehman 7
Dallas`14`0`0`14 — 28
Lake-Lehman`0`0`7`0 — 7
First Quarter
DAL — Dylan Geskey 2 run (David Worth kick), 7:22.
DAL — Geskey 2 run (Worth kick), 0:15.
Third Quarter
LL — Hayden Evans 3 run (Reilley Kirkutis kick), 6:58.
Fourth Quarter
DAL — Gavin Lewis 31 pass from Brady Zapoticky (Rowan Laubach kick), 8:27.
DAL — Dylan Geskey 4 run (Laubach kick), 1:49.
Team statistics`DAL `LL
First downs`22`9
Rushes-yards`46-193`18-60
Passing yards`97`115
Total yards`290`175
Passing`8-11-0`10-15-1
Sacked-yards lost`0-0`4-28
Punts-avg.`2-30`2-33
Fumbles-lost`1-0`3-1
Penalties-yards`10-120`4-40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — DAL, Dylan Geskey 31-112, Mike Lewis 3-14, Brady Zapoticky 12-67. LL, Jim Mitkowski 5-9, Hayden Evans 3-3, Alex Smith 1-10, Ben Dowling 1-3, Jaydon Skipalis 8-35.
PASSING — DAL, Brady Zapoticky 8-11-97-1-0. LL, Hayden Evans 10-14-115-0-0, Jaydon Skipalis 0-1-0-0-1.
RECEIVING — DAL, Gavin Lewis 3-60, Logan Geskey 2-11, Dylan Geskey 2-22, Bobby Gallagher 1-4. LL, Alex Smith 4-39, Jim Mitkowski 3-9, Jaydon Skipalis 3-67.
INTERCEPTIONS — DAL, Gavin Lewis 1-30.
MISSED FIELD GOALS — None