On the first Friday night under the lights in October to kick off the second half of the regular season, the hometown Lake-Lehman Black Knights won in commanding fashion, beating Nanticoke Area 44-14 in their Homecoming game.
It was Lake-Lehman’s second straight victory after riding high from a 35-24 comeback road win over Hanover Area last week.
First-year coach Mike Mully was very proud of the Knights’ physical and dominant effort in the game.
“The key tonight was having a physical practice for the past few weeks,” Mully said. “We talk about physicality wins football games. Discipline wins football games. We lacked accountability with some penalties, but we made up for it with big plays, and that’s what I got to give these kids credit for it right now.
“We talked about it before coming out onto this field tonight after our big comeback win at Hanover last week, carry the momentum over, carry it, which we did carry it.
“I think it was the third play of the game tonight, we drove in for the touchdown but it got stripped out, so the momentum was there, we’ve just got to clean up our little messes and this team can be a really good football team. I’m very proud of them right now, I am, but they still have to learn about accountability. These mistakes and penalties, I’m still very aggravated by it, but I am proud. They kept fighting and fighting and they didn’t let that scoreboard change much today.”
Meanwhile, Nanticoke is now on a three-game losing skid since beating Tunkhannock for its first win, as the Trojans have lost to Panther Valley, Wyoming Valley West and now Lehman in consecutive weeks.
The Black Knights started their scoring party with 3:19 left in the opening quarter when junior tailback Coldyn Harris exploded for a 51-yard touchdown run, and after the successful two point conversion, Lehman took the early 8-0 advantage.
Lehman’s second score of the first quarter came with 1:13 remaining when junior fullback Damon Bond bashed his way into the end zone from 5 yards out to enhance his team’s lead to 15-0.
For the Knights’ third tally of the contest, senior Anthony Magnotta took it all the way to the house on a 57-yard touchdown run to give his club a 22-0 lead with 10:13 left in the second quarter.
Less than two minutes later, Lehman would be heard from once again, as bruising junior fullback Devon Albee barreled his way into the end zone from 25 yards out to up the lead to 29-0 with 8:51 left in the first half.
Nanticoke would show some fight to close out the opening half, as senior linebacker Reagan Jackson recovered a Lehman fumble and returned it for a 20-yard touchdown to get the Trojans on the scoreboard and cut the deficit to 29-7 with 20 seconds left in the half.
The Black Knights would continue to show their offensive prowess to open up the second half, when Harris notched his second rushing score of the night, this time on a 31-yard scamper to bring Lehman’s lead to 36-7 with 6:32 remaining in the third quarter.
For Lehman’s sixth and final score of the battle, junior running back Dylan Heinrich sprinted into the end zone from 34 yards out to up his squad’s advantage to a resounding 44-7 after a two-point try was good with 4:55 left in the third.
Trojans backup Max Leonard would record the final points of the night when he took the quarterback keeper in from 3 yards out to cut the deficit to 44-14 with 2:43 left.
Now Mully and his 3-3 squad will look to extend its winning streak to three straight games when they host archrival Dallas in next Friday night’s annual Old Shoe game at 7 p.m.
“We can play with anybody,” Mully said. “How do we get these boys ready for the big Old Shoe rivalry game vs. Dallas next week — I’m going to talk about the community. I’m going to talk about what this means ,the Shoe game, the rivalry. I played in this game, I love the game. I love this game to death. It’s always a hard physical game, we’ve got the physicality out here, so what I’m going to say is just fight for each other.
“It’s going to be a game you remember for the rest of your life. Play hard, play for one another and play for the community. That’s what I’m going to tell them. If they play for the community they’ll bring it out.”
Meanwhile, fellow first-year coach Joe Shimko and the 1-5 Trojans will look to bounce back when they host Holy Redeemer next Friday night under the lights.
Lake-Lehman 44, Nanticoke Area 14
Nanticoke Area`0`7`0`7 — 14
Lake-Lehman`15`14`15`0 — 44
First Quarter
LL — Coldyn Harris 51 run (Dylan Heinrich run), 3:19.
LL — Damon Bond 5 run (Kolby Shook kick), 1:13.
Second Quarter
LL — Anthony Magnotta 57 run (Shook kick), 10:13.
LL — Devon Albee 25 run (Shook kick), 8:51.
NAN — Reagan Jackson 20 fumble return (Juanpablo Pastuizaca kick), 0:20.
Third Quarter
LL — Harris 31 run (Shook kick), 6:32.
LL — Heinrich 34 run (Harris run), 4:55.
Fourth Quarter
NAN — Max Leonard 3 run (Pastuizaca kick), 2:43.
Team statistics`Nanticoke`Lehman
First downs`13`13
Rushes-yards`23-73`35-459
Passing yards`90`8
Total yards`163`467
Passing`10-29-3`2-5-0
Sacked-yards lost`1-1`2-7
Punts-avg.`6-34`1-32
Fumbles-lost`1-0`7-3
Penalties-yards`3-25`8-75
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — NAN, Jonah Guzman 6-12, Reagan Jackson 8-40, Justin Johnson 6-5, Max Leonard 3-16. LL, Dylan Heinrich 4-88, Damon Bond 8-94, Coldyn Harris 6-156, Anthony Magnotta 1-57, Devon Albee 8-61, Jesse Strenfel 3-2, Connor Mully 2-neg. 3, Aiden Miller 1-neg.4, Jullian Decker 2-8.
PASSING — NAN, Chet Beggs 5-16-1-46, Max Leonard 5-13-2-44. LL, Jesse Strenfel 2-5-0-8.
RECEIVING — NAN, Justin Johnson 6-55, Reagan Jackson 1-1, Jonah Guzman 1-4, Mark Welch 2-30. LL, Devon Albee 1-2, Coldyn Harris 1-6.
INTERCEPTIONS — LL, Coldyn Harris 2-0, Valentino Cassano 1-5.
MISSED FIELD GOALS — None.
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