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Dallas had to deal with one type of speed last Friday against Imhotep Charter.
Now the District 2 champion Mountaineers need to handle another kind of speed as they play District 4 champion Jersey Shore at 6 p.m. today at Danville High School in a PIAA Class 4A semifinal game.
The game starts an hour earlier than the usual starting time of a Friday night game. It’s part of a doubleheader at Danville as D2 champ Lackawanna Trail plays D6 champion Bishop Guilfoyle at 1 p.m. in a Class A semifinal matchup.
Jersey Shore likes to dictate the pace. The Bulldogs line up quickly, run a play and then repeat the process. When Jersey Shore coach Tom Gravish was running the Williamsport program, the Millionaires didn’t show the same offensive urgency.
Jersey Shore runs an average of 65.3 plays per game. For comparison’s sake, Dallas’ defense has been on a field an average of 49.1 plays per game. Now a 16-play difference might not seem overly taxing, but when an opponent accelerates the action it can feel like more.
“There is a big challenge there,” Dallas coach Rich Mannello said. “Their pace will be the fastest we’ve seen to date in between plays. They run a lot of plays. It goes back to special teams and finding that hidden yardage that will add up as the game goes on. Then over on defense, being able to get lined up correctly because they are going to spread us out.
“Then it’s the same thing we talk about over and over with these spread offenses. Can you tackle in space?”
The onus against Imhotep was on the Dallas defensive line to keep shifty quarterback Jalen Sutton-Christian from creating on the fly and finding his speedy teammates. The Mountaineers did that for the most part, limiting Imhotep to a handful of big plays in the 43-36 victory.
Tonight it’s the Dallas secondary which must come through. Defensive backs Luke DelGaudio, Jacob Esposito, Ben Fife, Matt Maransky and RJ Wren — along with sam linebacker Dylan Schuster, who also has coverage responsibilities — won’t face the same flat-out speed Imhotep possessed. Jersey Shore, though, will have them stretched out across the field.
Maransky missed the Imhotep game with an injury, but Mannello believes he’ll be good to go tonight.
Plus, Jersey Shore has a skewed run-pass ratio compared to other high school teams. Most pass about 30 percent of the time and run the ball the other 70 percent. The Bulldogs put the ball in the air on 45 percent of their offensive plays.
Dallas has fared well vs. the pass. Tunkhannock threw for 203 yards in the season opener, but no opponent has topped 200 passing yards since then. The Mountaineers have recorded at least one interception in 11 of their last 12 games. Esposito and Fife lead the team with four picks each followed by Wren with three.
Of course, keeping Jersey Shore’s offense off the field is one way to slow the pace. Dallas has the backfield to do so with running backs Lenny Kelley and Danny Meuser. Quarterback Michael Starbuck was 14-of-16 vs. Imhotep, using a short catch-and-run passing strategy to move the chains. Dallas was 7 of 9 in third-down conversions against Imhotep.
Dallas last made the state finals when it won the Class 2A title in 1993. The Mountaineers are trying to be the first Wyoming Valley Conference team to play for a state championship since Berwick in 1997. Wyoming Area can do the same in a Class 3A semifinal, but the Warriors’ game starts an hour later so Dallas can beat them to the punch.
“They’ve put so much into it,” Mannello said. “We’ve talked about it over and over about the process. It’s ingrained in them, they live it. The process does change through the course of the months throughout the year. As you go through it, it’s different, but it’s the same every year.
“They’re dialed into it, they’re on the rails and they understand that.”
Jersey Shore has never advanced to a state championship game.