Berwick’s Gavin Galutia carries the ball through some traffic.
Mark Moran | For Times Leader
Hanover Area’ s Logan Richardson passes under pressure from Berwick’s Brock Simms.
Mark Moran | For Times Leader
Hanover Area’s Logan Richardson (9) in action against Berwick’s Evan Neiderhiser.
Mark Moran | For Times Leader
Hanover Area’s Brody Richardson runs from Berwick’s Shiloh Escobar.
Mark Moran | For Times Leader
Berwick’s Jake Lisnock breaks through the Hanover Area defense.
Mark Moran | For Times Leader
HANOVER TWP. — Still trying to sort things out offensively without starting quarterback Brady Cleaver, Berwick leaned on the other side of the ball to pilot the Bulldogs through on Friday night.
There may have been a little bend, but there was absolutely no break in the Berwick defense, leading the way to a division victory on the road.
Berwick’s defense caused four turnovers, made a big fourth-down stop on its own goal line and pitched a shutout as the Bulldogs defeated Hanover Area 14-0 in a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 game at Hanover Memorial Stadium.
“Unbelievable job defensively, our guys helped us out all night in that aspect,” Berwick coach CJ Curry said. “Whenever we were struggling offensively, they got the momentum back for us.”
The Bulldogs recovered two fumbles and picked off two passes, one by Shiloh Escobar and one by Bryce Cleaver. The Hawkeyes were able to move the ball some between the 20s, but couldn’t convert drives into points.
Hanover Area’s best chances to score were on two long drives, one at the end of the first half and one to start the second, but the Berwick defense held firm to keep the Hawkeyes out of the end zone.
At the end of the first half trailing by two scores, Hanover Area had five plays inside the Berwick 10, including a fourth-down pass interference call on the Dawgs that gave the Hawkeyes a new set of downs.
Despite the penalty extending the drive, it was an empty trip for Hanover Area. On the very next play after the pass interference call, Escobar picked off a pass on the goal line and took the Bulldogs to halftime.
Hanover Area got the ball to start the second half and drove over 70 yards in over seven minutes, once again working inside the Berwick 5-yard line.
The Hawkeyes got as far as the 2-yard line, but no further. A fourth-down run was dropped for a loss and gave Berwick the ball back yet again.
The long drives ended up hurting Hanover Area, with Berwick able to run some long series of its own leaning on several different guys in the run game to run out the clock on the Hawkeyes.
Still without Cleaver under center after he was injured against Wilkes-Barre Area two weeks ago, the Bulldogs completed just one pass (for a short loss) and had seven different players carry the ball.
Gavin Galutia ran for 81 yards and a one-yard touchdown in the first quarter, putting Berwick ahead 7-0.
Brock Simms made it a 14-0 game with a 4-yard rush in the second quarter. Escobar and Jake Lisnock each factored in to the run game as well, and though it lacked the big-play ability that Brady Cleaver provides, the Bulldogs were able to ground and pound and do just enough to keep the chains moving.
“Just the fact that we could get a bunch of different guys to touch the ball, to help us not be one-dimensional, it makes it tougher to prepare for,” Curry said. “We just had to figure out a way to do it, and we got it done tonight.”
Conor Richardson threw for 99 yards and ran for a team-high 58 yards to pace Hanover Area. Angel Tejada had four catches for 51 yards.
Berwick (3-3, 1-0 Division 2) will return home next week to take on Hazleton Area. Hanover Area (0-6, 0-2 Div. 2) will travel to Northwest for a non-league game.
Berwick 14, Hanover Area 0
Berwick`7`7`0`0 — 0
Hanover Area`0`0`0`0 — 0
First quarter
BER — Gavin Galutia 1 run (Caleb Yost kick) 1:45
Second quarter
BER — Brock Simms 4 run (Yost kick) 6:01
Team statistics`BER`HAN
First downs`18`12
Rushes-yards`49-231`23-95
Passing yards`(minus-2)`99
Total yards`229`194
Passing`1-4-0`8-16-2
Sacked-yards lost`0-0`1-4
Punts-avg.`1-39`1-27
Fumbles-lost`0-0`2-2
Penalties-yards`9-51`8-63
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — BER, Gabe Decker 3-10, Bryce Cleaver 1-6, Galutia 23-81, Simms 7-30, Shiloh Escobar 9-44, Jake Lisnock 5-59, Conner Roberts 1-1. HAN, Brody Richardson 10-39, Angel Tejada 1-(minus-2), Logan Richardson 11-58, Team 1-0.
PASSING — BER, Escobar 1-3-0-(minus-2), Lisnock 0-1-0-0. HAN, L. Richardson 8-16-2-99.
RECEIVING — BER, Decker 1-(minus-2). HAN, Tejada 4-51, Conor Richardson 2-24, Luke Willis 1-2, B. Richardson 1-22.
INTERCEPTIONS — BER, Bryce Cleaver 1-0, Escobar 1-0. HAN, none.
MISSED FGs — none.
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