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WRIGHT TWP. — Earlier in the week it became public that Crestwood head football coach Greg Myers was resigning at the end of this season after 13 years at the helm.

That meant Myers was coaching his final home game on Friday night against Pittston Area.

The Comets tried to send their coach out in dramatic style. But the Patriots weren’t going to make that easy.

Driving for a potential game-tying touchdown, Crestwood turned the ball over on downs in Patriots territory with two minutes and 27 seconds remaining in the game as Pittston Area won 14-7.

“With my time in life, it’s time for me to step back and have time with my own family. I have three little girls at home and they’re getting active and playing sports,” said Myers, who submitted his letter of resignation and made his team aware prior to the season that this would be his last season. It was announced at Thursday’s school board meeting that his letter of resignation was accepted. “I’m proud of the effort our kids played with tonight. I thought we had a great week. It was a good football game between two equally-talented teams.”

The Patriots (4-5) scored two touchdowns in the second half after a disastrous first half where they were out-gained by more than 100 yards and turned the ball over three times.

At halftime, coach Nick Barbieri talked to quarterback Mike Nocito, who threw three interceptions in the game’s first 24 minutes.

The signal-caller calmed down and made three big plays in the second half. First, the junior hit Andrew Krawczyk for a 19-yard TD strike after scrambling around. Then he somehow found big tight end Tony Gorey in the back of the end zone for the two-point conversion for an 8-7 lead with 3:00 left in the third.

In the fourth quarter, Nocito and Krawczyk connected once again. This time from 30 yards out at the beginning of the stanza to go up 14-7.

Barbieri said that he told his QB to make better reads and take advantage of the middle of the field where there was a hole in the defense.

“He made a great play on the first touchdown, and the two-point conversion was a ridiculous play, and a great throw to Andrew for the second touchdown,” Barbieri said. “He came back. He bounced back. He’s still a young kid learning. He’ll get better and as he gets better, we’ll get better.”

After that, the Patriots defense bent but didn’t break only allowing two first downs in the fourth, while Krawczyk was also awarded an interception on the Patriots 5.

“Defensively, I thought we played well except for the one breakdown in coverage. Other than that we played pretty well,” Barbieri added.

The Comets (2-7) picked off three passes, including three in the first half with two coming from Brendan DeMarzo. But the Patriots escaped damage on the three first-half turnovers not allowing any points off them.

Crestwood took a 7-0 lead in the second quarter. Being pinned near their own end zone after a Pittston Area punt, Garrett Swank hooked up with Brandon Petrosky for a 90-yard score with about 70 of those yards coming after the catch.

“They played hard tonight. I thought our seniors played hard,” Myers said. “The ball just didn’t bounce our way. You gotta give (Pittston Area) credit too. They made the plays and we didn’t make the plays.”

Pittston Area 14, Crestwood 7

Pittston Area`0`0`8`7`—`14

Crestwood`0’7`0`0`—`7

SCORING SUMMARY

Second Quarter

CRE — Petrosky 90 pass from Swank (Swank kick) 7:04

Third Quarter

PA — Krawczyk 19 pass from Nocito (Gorey pass from Nocito) 3:00

Fourth Quarter

PA — Krawczyk 30 pass from Nocito (pass failed) 10:43

Team statistics`PA`CRE

First downs`11`11

Rushes-yards`31-75`42-116

Passing yards`127`145

Total yards`202`261

Passing`7-15-3`7-16-3

Sacks by-yards lost`0-0`1-6

Punts-avg.`3-48.6`2-28.5

Fumbles-lost`0-0`1-0

Penalties-yards`3-35`6-37

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

PASSING — PA, Nocito 7-15-3-127. CRE, Swank 7-13-3-145, Petrosky 0-1-0-0, Passman 0-2-0-0.

RUSHING — PA, O’Boyle 11-50, Nocito 4-(minus-3), Lukachko 10-24 Coe 3-4, Giambra 1-(minus-9), Galli 1-11, TEAM 1-(minus-1). CRE, Arnold 18-66, Swank 13-19, Caporuscio 5-24, Petrosky 3-10, Passman 2-(minus-3).

RECEIVING — PA, Krawczyk 5-67, Pugliese 1-34, Lukachko 1-6, CRE, Nieminski 4-45, Petrosky 3-100.

INTERCEPTIONS — PA, Anastasi, Kyttle, Krawczyk. CRE, DeMarzo 2, Passman

MISSED FG’S — none

Myers
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_crestwoodfb05_CMYK-2.jpg.optimal.jpgMyers

By Dave Rosengrant

For Times Leader

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