DALLAS — The Dallas didn’t use any clever play call on a critical fourth quarter, fourth down call. They looked at junior safety Dylan Geskey and told him to go get the quarterback.
Geskey moved up to linebacker on the play. Trailing by seven points, Wilkes-Barre Area had to convert the fourth-and-10 opportunity or Friday’s game was all but over.
Geskey made sure it was over. He broke through the middle untouched sacking Wolfpack quarterback Jake Howe for a 14-yard loss and all but securing the Mountaineers’ 14-7 win.
The victory kept Dallas unbeaten at 9-0, but it also secured a Wyoming Valley Conference Division I championship. The Mountaineers will look to finish their first unbeaten regular season since 2019 next week when it faces Lake-Lehman for the Old Shoe.
“Number four (Geskey) is just a hell of a football player,” Dallas coach Rich Mannello said. “He’s a safety all night and we put him at the Mike linebacker for that play and just said go get the quarterback. And then there was a rush around him, so there was no where to go.”
Geskey’s sack was the third time the Dallas defense got to Howe last night, but the Mountaineers had consistently moved the sophomore signal-caller off his spot in the backfield throughout the game. When the Wolfpack faced a fourth-and-10 from the Dallas 32-yard line with just over 2 minutes to go, defensive coordinator Matt Austin didn’t take any chances at letting Wilkes-Barre’s stable of athletes get loose. He sent the house at Howe with Geskey being the main firing pin.
By the time Geskey broke through, all Howe could do was retreat looking for space to move. It was a fitting final play for a defense which bent at times last night, but always seemed to come up with an answer when it needed one.
When Wilkes-Barre penetrated to the Dallas 16 in the first quarter, the Mountaineers’ defense forced a turnover on downs. Dallas did the same thing when the Wolfpack got inside its 30 in the second quarter. And the Mountaineers forced an incomplete pass in the end zone on fourth down midway through the fourth quarter.
“We can’t get down in the red zone twice and get nothing,” Wilkes-Barre coach Ciro Cinti said. “Dallas is a great team, and they’re resilient.”
“The defense showed tremendous heart,” Mannello said. “(Wilkes-Barre) has speed all over the place and the quarterback throws the ball well. But that’s a defensive night, and the defense won the football game.”
Wilkes-Barre’s offense finished just 7 of 22 throwing the ball with three interceptions, including one on a second-half halfback pass. But it wasn’t the fault of a pouring rain which bordered on deluge at times. The Dallas defense covered the Wilkes-Barre receivers like the plethora of umbrellas which littered Mountaineer Stadium.
Lucas Tirpak high-pointed a pass for an early interception. Mike Lewis and Gavin Lewis later did the same thing. And even if there were receivers open, Howe didn’t have much time to sit in the pocket and find them.
And because of that defensive prowess, Dallas could focus on playing a ball control and field position game thanks to the 14 points it scored in the first 8 minutes of the game. Mannello said he didn’t want the weather to alter their gameplan after taking a 14-0 lead, but he said it was difficult not to let it affect their plan.
He didn’t want to take unnecessary chances deep in their own zone, so he often called on quarterback Brady Zapoticky to run the ball on third-and-long situations. He knew it likely meant they wouldn’t get a first down, but he also knew he could flip the field position with punter Rowan Laubach, who did a tremendous job of not only getting rid of the football, but giving very little opportunities for Wilkes-Barre to return the kicks.
“He was unbelievable with the punting,” Mannello said. “He rolled an ankle pretty bad in soccer a couple weeks ago, and he was able to fight through it for PATs and kickoffs, but this is the first he’s been able to punt. And to come back and punt this way in this weather says a lot about him.”
Dallas opened the game with a 10-play, 65-yard drive which was capped by a Zapoticky 1-yard scoring run. And seemingly before Wilkes-Barre’s defense knew what hit it, Zach Paczewski went 59 yards yards on a reverse on the next series to put the Mountaineers up 14-0.
Dallas managed just 116 more yards of offense the rest of the game, and only four first downs. But it was enough.
Dallas 14, Wilkes-Barre 7
Wilkes-Barre 0 0 0 7 – 7
Dallas 14 0 0 0 – 14
First quarter
D—Brady Zapoticky 1 run (Rowan Laubach kick), 7:50
D—Zach Paczewski 59 run (Laubach kick), 4:57
Fourth quarter
WB—Howie Shiner 1 run (Jaedyn Sanchez kick), 5:49
WB Dal
First downs 14 9
Rushes-yds 40-114 38-202
Com-att-int 7-22-3 3-8-0
Pass yards 112 38
Total yards 226 240
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-0
Penalties-yards 1-5 8-49
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing—Wilkes-Barre: Howie Shiner, 27-126, TD; Evan Laybourn Boddie, 1-6; Team, 1-(-1); Davon Underwood, 4-(-5); Jake Howe, 7-(-12). Dallas: Dylan Geskey, 16-85; Zach Paczewski, 6-79, TD; Brady Zapoticky, 11-22, TD; Mike Lewis, 4-18; Team, 1-(-2).
Passing—Wilkes-Barre: Jake Howe, 7-21-2, 112 yds.; Howie Shiner, 0-1-1. Dallas: Brady Zapoticky, 3-8-0, 38 yds.
Receiving: Wilkes-Barre: Evan Laybourn Boddie, 4-105; Davon Underwood, 2-3; Treyvon Gembitski, 1-4. Dallas: Dylan Geskey, 2-8; Zach Paczewski, 1-30.
INTERCEPTIONS:Dallas, Lucas Tirpak, Gavin Lewis, Mike Lewis.
RECORDS: Dallas (9-0); Wilkes-Barre (5-4).
