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EDWARDSVILLE – The biggest game for the Wilkes University football team in more than a decade didn’t live up to the hype.
Unfortunately, for the Colonels, it’s because 12th-ranked Delaware Valley had its way in a 42-0 victory on Saturday at Schmidt Stadium.
Wilkes began the day unbeaten with five victories for the first time since winning the MAC in 2006 with a record of 11-1. But the day ended with a big letdown for the Colonels as they couldn’t get anything going against the Aggies’ potent defense, which is ranked fifth in the country in total defense.
DelVal held the Colonels to more punts than completions (11 to 10), just 100 total yards, allowed just four first downs, and quarterback Jose Tabora was sacked five times. The only time the Colonels got anything going against the Aggies was late in the second quarter when they drove inside the red zone picking up two of their four first downs, but turned the ball over on downs on the Aggies 10.
“I think that they play at a faster level than what we played at. I think they did a great job of stopping some of the things that we wanted to do,” Wilkes coach Jonathan Drach said. “And they were able to limit us very much on offense.”
Delaware Valley (6-1 overall, 5-0 MAC) won its 25th straight conference game to tie the record for the longest MAC win streak equaling Lycoming’s run from 1995-2001; DelVal hasn’t lost a contest in the conference since 2016.
After the Aggies took a 7-0 lead on its second drive of the game, which ended with a 25-yard TD pass from Anthony Fontana to Dan Allen, Wilkes ran into special teams problems.
DelVal’s Tahmir Barksdale returned a punt 64 yards for a score after Wilkes’ second drive for a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter. It might have been early, but that was a big turning point in the game.
“That gave them a lot of momentum,” Drach said about the punt return TD. “We were supposed to kick it out of bounds and we didn’t do that. When you don’t execute the things you’re supposed to do, you don’t win football games against good football teams.”
Another special teams miscue for the Colonels (5-1, 3-1) occurred in the third quarter. Being pinned against their own end zone, the punt was blocked and went out of bounds on the Wilkes 1. A play later, DV held a 28-0 lead.
DelVal’s Michael Nobile, a sophomore defensive end, added to his total of tackles for a loss with 1.5 and now leads the country with 18. He leads the unit, which also added to its impressive sacks total and now has 28 this season, good for fifth in the nation.
The Wilkes defense had some problems on Saturday, but held the Aggies to just 81 rushing yards and had a pair of stops on fourth downs inside the red zone, including a goal line stand in the second quarter where it forced and recovered a fumble inside the 10.
“I think they did a great job when they had to dig their heels in and played pretty well,” Drach said about his defense. “I think, obviously there’s lots of room for improvement across the board. And that’s what we focus on. That’s been our general motto for these two years is to improve. We’ll continue to improve tomorrow and the day after that, and the day after that. It’s never really done for us.”
Wilkes QB Jose Tabora, who is closing in on the school-record for career total offense with 6,523 yards and is just 411 yards shy of the mark set by Boo Perry in 1996, was held to just 61 total yards on Saturday, consisting on 80 passing and negative-19 rushing yards.
It doesn’t get much easier for the Colonels as next week they stay in Luzerne County and travel to Misericordia (4-1, 4-0) to face another unbeaten MAC team and former head coach Frank Sheptock, who is the Cougars’ defensive coordinator. Misericordia defeated FDU-Florham 40-14 on Saturday.
Misericordia 40, FDU-Florham 14
Michael Gawlik ran for 275 yards and a touchdown and Isaiah Williams had 119 receiving yards and a score as the Cougars prepared for next week’s showdown with Wilkes by trouncing FDU-Florham.
Eric Jeffries and Brady Williams both added two rushing touchdowns for Misericordia, which improved to 4-0 in the MAC Freedom League.
Nick Yeager led the defense with two interceptions and a forced fumble.
The Cougars built a 40-0 lead before allowing a pair of TD’s over the final 9:26.
Gawlik rambled 46 yards to set up first-and-goal and Jeffries gave the Cougars a 6-0 lead on third-and-goal with 2:01 left in the opening quarter.
The Devils threatened on the ensuing drive, but were denied when Yeager intercepted a pass in the end zone. Later, Yeager forced a fumble to stop an FDU-Florham drive at the Misericordia 29-yard line and Damian Diaz recovered. Brady Williams connected with Isaiah Williams for a 50-yard toouchdown pass put the Cougars up 13-0 with 6:21 left in the first half.
Isaiah Williams returned the punt 24 yards and Gawlik picked up 21 yards, then capped off the four-play scoring march with a five-yard touchdown run to make it 20-0 with 3:37 to go in the second period.
Brady Williams hit Isaiah Williams for 28 yards and went the final 12 yards on a keeper for a score to give the Cougars a 27-0 lead just 18 seconds before halftime.
The Cougars eventually stretched their lead to 40 points before the Devils scored two touchdowns in the closing minutes.
King’s 35, Alvernia 28
King’s took a 28-7 lead into halftime against visiting Alvernia and held off the Golden Wolves late in the fourth quarter to earn an MAC victory.
King’s scored its first points on a safety after punter Joe Carchio pinned Alvernia at its own 2-yard line.
Three plays after the free kick, King’s quarterback Tyler Moore connected with Jayner Gorospe for a 31-yard TD and a 9-0 lead.
After Alvernia cut the deficit to 9-7, King’s went on a 60-yard scoring drive that was capped by a 3-yard run by receiver Gabe Boccella on a direct snap.
Jordan Downes added two scores in the second quarter for a 28-7 King’s lead. He scored on a 10-yard run and a 12-yard pass from Moore.
King’s pushed its lead to 35-14 early in the fourth quarter on a1-yard run by Moore that ended a 70-yard drive.
Moore finished 12-of-17 for 143 yards. Downes was once again an all-purpose monster for King’s, finished with 132 yards on the ground, five catches for 72 yards, 84 return yards and two touchdowns.
Defensively, Charles McCall led King’s with seven tackles including 1.5 tackles for loss.
Lackawanna College 69, Hocking 6
Mike Crawford, David Amankwa and Jasiah Purdie all returned interceptions for touchdowns, part of a ball-hawking Falcons defense that picked off six passes to lead Lackawanna College to a school-record 19th consecutive victory.
The Falcons are the No. 3 team in the NJCAA National Poll.
Crawford took his interception back for a 25-yard touchdown return in the first quarter, Amankwa ran his pick back for a 41-yard touchdown in the second and Purdie went 80 yards for a touchdown with his interception in the third quarter.
Lackawanna College freshman quarterback Matt Cavallaro threw for 210 yards and six touchdowns.
Delaware Valley 42, Wilkes 0
Delaware Valley`14`7`7`14`—`42
Wilkes`0’0`0`0`—`0
SCORING SUMMARY
First quarter
DV – Allen 25 pass from Fontana (Restaino kick) 9:44
DV – Barksdale 64 punt return (Restaino kick) 8:20
Second Quarter
DV – Norton 19 pass from Fontana (Restaino kick) 1:21
Third Quarter
DV – Fontana 1 run (Restaino kick) 4:07
Fourth Quarter
DV – Manigo 30 pass from Fontana (Restaino kick) 14:44
DV – Nelson 60 pass from Bohannan (Restaino kick) 10:18
Team statistics`DV`WU
First downs`20`4
Rushes-yards`32-81`20-25
Passing yards`302`80
Total yards`383`100
Passing`23-32-0`10-24-1
Sacks by-yards lost`5-34`4-32
Punts-avg.`4-38.5`11-34.3
Fumbles-lost`1-1`0-0
Penalties-yards`7-70`6-41
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
PASSING – DV, Fontana 23-30-0-242, Bohannan 1-2-0-60. WU, Tabora 10-22-1-80, Hoovler 0-2-0-0.
RUSHING— DV, Simmons 6-36, Nigro 6-26, Barksdale 1-20, Ennis 1-9, Weldon 1-4, Wint 2-0, TEAM 1-(minus-1), Fontana 12-(minus-26). WU, Gonzalez 3-14, Sheals 3-7, Reed 2-7, Acker 3-7, Malatesta 2-4, Lesczynski 1-0, Hoovler 1-0, Tabora 10-(minus-19).
RECEIVING — DV, Nelson 5-108, Manigo 5-58, Allen 3-47, Davis 3-23, Norton 2-26, Ennis 2-12, Russell 1-11, Pauls 1-11, Simmons 1-6. WU, Nelson 3-7, Whitaker 2-47, Yanik 2-14, Ermeus 2-7, Acker 1-5.
INTERCEPTIONS – DV, Fetterman 1-3
MISSED FG’S – DV, Restaino (33, WR)
