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BERWICK — After all he did to jump-start the Berwick Bulldogs, Teagan Wilk couldn’t help kicking himself.
All over one lousy play.
“I was scary bad at quarterback,” Wilk said, citing the interception he threw on a trick play. “I’m never going to throw the ball in my life again.”
He sure can catch it and run it, though.
Wilk ripped off touchdown runs of 57 and 48 yards and extended his Berwick record with his 17th career interception at the school as the Bulldogs bounced right back from their first loss of the season by hammering Hazleton Area, 40-8 at Crispin Field.
“It’s huge,” Wilk said. “People don’t understand how big of a win it is right after a loss.
“We came in thinking we were going to dominate the game.”
The Bulldogs did just that, scoring three touchdowns in the game’s first five minutes while smothering Hazleton Area’s offense and allowing a total of four yards for the game.
“That’s a very young football team they have,” Berwick coach Carm DeFrancesco said of the Cougars, who started five freshmen Friday — including Tyler Wolfe due to an injury to regular Hazleton Area starter Kellen Warner. “We expected to dominate.”
What nobody could have foreseen was the way Berwick found numerous ways to get the football to Wilk.
Starting with the game’s opening offensive play.
Better known as a receiver and defensive back, Wilk lined up in a wildcat formation, took a direct snap and flew around right end for a 57-yard touchdown that gave Berwick a 7-0 lead 16 seconds into the night.
Wilk then used a 12-yard run to set up a 5-yard scoring run by Alejandro Lopez on Berwick’s second possession. He snagged a 15-yard pass to set up a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Ryan Laubach the third time the Bulldogs touched the ball and took a 20-0 lead. And before the first half ended, Wilk took a handoff from Laubach and out-ran everyone with a 48-yard touchdown burst to give Berwick a 27-0 lead early in the second quarter.
“It’s good,” said Wilk, who finished with a game-high 117 rushing yards on three carries. “I would like to carry it more.”
Throwing?
Well, that may be a different story.
It was out of the Wildcat where Wilk took another direct snap and floated a duck that was promptly intercepted by Hazleton Area’s Matt Buchman, ending a chance for Berwick to score on its first four possessions.
That’s OK, DeFrancesco said, because when the ball’s in Wilk’s hands, good things happen more often than not for the 6-1 Bulldogs. Like when the East Carolina-bound senior he leaped to not only snatch away a pick from Berwick’s defensive backfield to extend the school record he set last week, but returned it 23 yards deep into Cougars territory.
“We tried to get him more involved in the offense overall,” DeFrancesco said.
A lot of weapons got involved for the Bulldogs.
Laubach added touchdown runs of 1 and 12 yards and fired an 8-yard scoring strike to Preston Robbins as Berwick built a 40-0 lead and Shawn Sheptock caught a pair of passes for 23 yards before leaving with a sprained ankle in the second half.
“It was a bounce-back (win),” DeFrancesco said.
In a big way.
The win helped Berwick leave behind a difficult 35-28 loss to Valley View in a battle of unbeatens last week, a game where the Bulldogs held a 28-14 lead late in the third quarter only to fall behind Valley View in the race for the No. 1 seed in the District 2 Class 4A playoffs.
“We were concerned with how they were going to respond,” DeFrancesco said of his Bulldogs. “Last week was a devastating loss for us. When we got back here, a lot of kids said, ‘Coach, we didn’t play as well as we could have, we lost that football game, we beat ourselves.’ “
Apparently, they decided to take out those frustrations by beating up on 1-6 Hazleton Area.
“We came in thinking we were going to dominate the game,” Wilk said. “After the loss to Valley View, it hurt.”
Berwick 40, Hazleton Area 7
Hazleton Area`0`0`0`7 — 7
Berwick`20`13`7`0 — 40
First quarter
B — Teagan Wilk 57 run (Brendan Hinkle kick), 11:44
B — Alejandro Lopes 5 run (Kick failed), 9:35
B — Ryan Laubach 1 run ((Hinkle kick), 7:51
Second quarter
B — Wilk 48 run (Hinkle kick), 7:49
B — Laubach 12 run (Pass failed), 0:55
Third quarter
B — Preston Robbins 8 pass from Laubach (Hinkle kick), 9:32
Fourth quarter
H — Kevin Meluskey 1 run (Luke Russo kick), 5:51
Team statistics`HA`BER
First downs`3`12
Rushes-yards`28-12`36-204
Passing yards`(minus) 8`78
Total yards`4`282
Passing`3-14-1`7-12-1
Sacked-yards lost`2-11`2-7
Punts-avg.`9-28.7`2-28.5
Fumbles-lost`1-1`4-3
Penalties-yards`0-0`6-40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — HAZ, Matt Buchman 6-21, Ryan Matyas 3-14, Kevin Meluskey 6-7, Matt Cusatis 1-4, Lance Johnson 3- (minus 1), Jose Rodriguez 3- (minus 2), Hunter Madl 2- (minus 2), Evan Matyas 1- (minus 2), Tyler Wolfe 2- (minus 11), TEAM 1- (minus 16). BER, Teagan Wilk 3-117, Aiden Mason 8-44, Ryan Laubach 6-19, Alejandro Lopez 7-17, Benjamin Moore 4-10, Evan Meighan 1-6, Brendan Spezialetti 4-6, Drayton Wilk 1- (minus 5), TEAM 2- (minus 10).
PASSING — HAZ, Wolfe 3-13-1- (minus 8), Matt Fisher 0-1-0. BER, Laubach 6-10-0-70, Moore 1-1-0-8, Wilk 0-1-1.
RECEIVING — HAZ, Johnson 1- (minus 4), Cusatis 1- (minus 4). BER, Shawn Sheptock 2-23, Mason 1-18, Wilk 1-15, Devon Smith 1-8, Preston Robbins 1-8, Blake Maurer 1-6.
INTERCEPTIONS — HAZ, Buchman 1-13. BER, Wilk 1-23.
MISSED FGs — None.