Dallas’ Jeremiah Van Orden returned an interception for Division II in the annual UNICO All-Star Football Game in 1992 at Wilkes-Barre Memorial Stadium.
Times Leader file photo
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Different formats have been used to divvy up talent in an attempt to make the UNICO All-Star Football Game more competitive.
Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it flopped. In 1992, it worked and resulted in an exciting finish at Wilkes-Barre Memorial Stadium.
The teams were divided by Division I and Division II, scrapping the long-standing East-West format. Division II used a big play to pull out a 26-25 victory.
A pair of Hanover Area teammates accounted for the winning score as quarterback Erik Pearson hooked up with receiver Dennis Monk for a 69-yard touchdown for the one-point lead.
The touchdown allowed Monk to make amends for a fumble on a punt that led to a Division I touchdown on a 3-yard run by Wyoming Valley West’s George Young for a 25-20 lead.
“When the punt came, I didn’t think the guy was that close,” said Monk, whose fumble came with just under five minutes left. “He just hit me and I fumbled.”
Monk’s TD was the third time the lead changed hands in the fourth quarter.
Pearson threw for two touchdowns and Nanticoke Area’s Rodney Koch and Hanover Area’s Jamie Proctor each ran for a touchdown for Division II.
Valley West’s Ted Wozniak ran 17 times for 167 yards for Division I. He also caught one of three touchdown passes throw by high school teammate Bill Davidson.
1967
Don Engle threw a no-hitter as Mountain Top defeated Glen Lyon in Central League baseball.
Joe Skvarla was the catcher.
1969
James “Knobby” Walsh, of Luzerne, scored a hole-in-one at Hollenback Park. He aced the No. 5, 190-yard hole.
Walsh was golfing with Bill Shedleski.
1990
Meyers graduate and Notre Dame receiver Raghib Ismail was named the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy in The Sporting News College Football 1990 Yearbook.
The Sporting News wrote that Ismail was the “most lethal weapon in the country.” He was predicted to finish ahead of Colorado quarterback Darian Hagan.
Ismail would go on to finish second in the Heisman voting to Brigham Young quarterback Ty Detmer. Detmer received 316 first-place votes to Ismail’s 237.
After rushing for over 1,000 yards and passing for over 1,500 in 1989, Hagan didn’t come close to those numbers in 1990. He wasn’t even in the top 10 of the Heisman voting.
1993
Dan Sekanovich, the defensive line coach for the AFC champion Buffalo Bills, was in town to speak at the West Hazleton Booster Club Dinner. Sekanovich was a two-way lineman at West Hazleton, graduating in 1948. He earned a scholarship to the University of Tennessee and played in three bowl games.
Sekanovich was in his second year with the Bills and was an assistant under head coach Marv Levy in the CFL with the Montral Alouettes before moving to the NFL with Levy in 1992. He spent six years in Buffalo.
He was also the defensive line coach of the New York Jets from 1977-81 and had stops at the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins before heading to the CFL.