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NANTICOKE — The visiting Lakeland Chiefs’ powerful offense, especially their rushing attack, and stingy defense were too much to handle all game long, as they trounced the Nanticoke Trojans 33-14 on Friday’s senior night.
For Lakeland, it was their second win a row, after crushing Carbondale 45-14 at home last week. Meanwhile Nanticoke’s last home game of the season was spoiled with the defeat, as the Trojans have now lost three straight games in a row in blowout fashion after earning their only win of the season three weeks ago at home against Holy Redeemer.
Lakeland would score first, as the Chiefs capitalized on a blocked Nanticoke punt that would set up the Chiefs near their opposition’s goal line at the 7.
After a crucial 4th and goal pass interference call against Nanticoke would save Lakeland’s scoring drive and set them up at the 1, junior signal caller C.J. Dippre would plunge into the end zone on the quarterback sneak on the very next play to give the Chiefs and early 6-0 advantage with 4:32 left in the opening quarter.
Lakeland would continue the scoring party late in the second quarter, this time on the defensive side of the ball, as freshman Kevin Snyder would show great anticipation as he jumped Nanticoke senior Colby Butczynski’s pass and would take it all the way to the house on the 45-yard interception touchdown return with 3:04 left before halftime to increase his squad’s lead to 12-0.
Lakeland’s final points of the half would come in thrilling fashion, as they lined up Dippre, as a wide receiver, and then had their freshman backup signal caller, Dominico Spataro, connect with him on a high arching 43-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass right before the halftime whistle sounded to give the Chiefs a 19-0 lead at the break.
In the second half, Lakeland would continue its relentless scoring attack, this time with 7:50 left in the third quarter, when Dippre hooked up with senior wide out Chris Mellon on a 25-yard touchdown pass to increase their team’s advantage to 26-0.
The Trojans would respond with 6:34 left in the third, as Butczynski, would throw a medium slant pass to junior Joe Fox, and from there Fox would do the rest of the work. He sprinted down the side lines on a 58-yard touchdown pass to get his squad on the scoreboard for the first time in the contest and cut the deficit to 26-7.
However, Lakeland would take back the momentum just over three minutes later, as Dippre would put the game away for good on a 40-yard impressive scrambling touchdown run that saw him break many would-be tackles on his way to the end zone, as the Chiefs would jump out to a 33-7 advantage.
Finally, Nanticoke would show some fight as they finished off the game with a late touchdown of their own, this time when junior tailback, Devon Lohman, would take it to the house on a 30-yard lightning quick side line touchdown run with 4:30 left in regulation to cut the lead to 33-14.
The standout in this game all night long was definitely Lakeland’s starting quarterback Dippre. Passing, Dippre only completed four of his 12 attempts, throwing for only 47-yards, one touchdown pass and an interception. However, in the rushing attack, Dippre ran for a game high 125-yards on just 13 carries and scored two touchdowns in the ground game, to go along with his long touchdown catch on the receiving attack, as he accounted for four of his team’s five touchdowns they scored in the ball game.
Now head coach David Piwowarczyk’s 5-3 Chiefs will look to win their third game in a row when they host the Scranton Prep Cavaliers next Friday night in their penultimate game of the season before wrapping up their regular season on the road against Dunmore the following week.
Meanwhile, head coach Ron Bruza’s 1-7 Nanticoke Trojans will look to snap their three game losing streak next week when they go on the road to take on Lake-Lehman on Friday night before they wrap up their regular season on the road against rival Hanover Area in two weeks.