NANTICOKE — Three Hanover defenders converged on Lake-Lehman’s Jaydon Skipalis as he tucked the football away after catching a third-quarter pass in the flat.
All three players hit the Black Knights’ junior running back at the same time. Somehow, Skipalis was the only one who didn’t fall to the ground.
Skipalis outraced another defender to the front pylon to complete a 35-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Skipalis totaled 120 yards and that touchdown against his former team Friday night as Lake-Lehman won, 48-6, at Nanticoke’s Frank Chicknoski Stadium.
Skipalis ran for more than 650 yards and scored 13 touchdowns for Hanover Area a year ago before transferring to Lake-Lehman in the offseason. But don’t be confused, this wasn’t a revenge game for Skipalis. He didn’t come into it with any ill will. Instead, he said it was a “little weird” to be playing against his former teammates.
“I knew there was going to be a lot of competition coming from those guys,” Skipalis said. “But it was a fun game and I enjoyed it.”
Skipalis helped the Lehman offense to an efficient night with the football. It was already 14-0 before the Knights’ offense ever took the field thanks to a Logan Deyo kickoff return touchdown and a Hayden Evans pick-six. But when they finally did get the ball, it gained yards seemingly at will.
Skipalis had a 24-yard run to set up a 33-yard touchdown pass from Evans to Ben Dowling. On Lehman’s next drive, it recorded first downs on four of its five plays to cover 50 yards, capped by the first of three touchdown runs for Jim Mitkowski.
And even after Hanover ate up 8 minutes of the second-quarter clock with a scoring drive of its own, Lehman needed just five plays to cover 66 yards for its fifth touchdown of the first half with Skipalis having back-to-back carries totaling 53 yards on the drive.
By halftime, the Knights had 35 points on just 16 snaps of the football. They averaged better than 12 yards per play in the first half, including more than 10 yards per rush.
Skipalis and Mitkowski combined for 116 of Lehman’s 134 rushing yards in the first half. Skipalis has given the Knights some depth in the run game this year which has helped open up the entire offense.
“He gives us a two-headed dragon with two good running backs,” Lake-Lehman coach Jerry Gilsky said. “You can spell Jimmy a little bit more. You can take the focus off one back and you still have a good second back. We had both of them on the field at the same time this week, which makes it a little harder for the defense.”
A year ago, Mitkowski averaged just 4.3 yards per carry and didn’t crack 300 yards for the season. Now, he’s averaging nearly 8 yards per carry and went over 700 rushing yards for the year last night. In addition to that, Skipalis is at 7.9 yards per carry this year despite missing time because of a hamstring injury.
And as they showed last night, that two-back run game opened the door in the passing game. Evans completed just four passes, but they went for 20, 33, 10 and 35 yards, and a pair of touchdowns. Skipalis showed his versatility when he caught that third-quarter pass in the flat from Evans and turned it into a touchdown despite meeting a number of Hanover defenders.
“Even I surprised myself there,” Skipalis said of his touchdown catch. I stiff-armed one guy and felt like I was gone. But that definitely surprised me.”
“When you’re able to run it, you’re able to keep it out of your opponent’s hands,” Gilsky said. “And then, at the end of a drive like that, you’re in a situation where you can get a high-percentage pass in there. And when you do that, now you have everybody on your offense making plays.”
Lake-Lehman has already clinched a District 2 playoff spot, but entered this week fifth in the playoff rankings. It’ll face a Dallas team next week which has won six games in a row as it tries to work for a Top-4 seed and a home playoff game in two weeks.
“It’s an important game because it’s a rivalry game,” Gilsky said. “But it’ll also get us ready for the caliber of team we’ll see in the playoffs. We have to be ready for them.”
Lake-Lehman 48, Hanover 6
Lake-Lehman 28 7 13 0 – 48
Hanover 0 6 0 0 – 6
First quarter
LL—Logan Deyo 79 kickoff return (Valentino Cassano kick), 11:47
LL—Hayden Evans 53 interception return (Cassano kick), 10:11
LL—Ben Dowling 33 pass from Evans (kick blocked), 3:42
LL—Jim Mitkowski 12 run (Evans run), 1:10
Second quarter
H—Dewayne Downey 11 run (kick blocked), 4:11
LL—Mitkowski 8 run (Cassano kick), :50
Third quarter
LL—Jaydon Skipalis 35 pass from Evans (kick failed), 7:38
LL—Mitkowski 34 run (Cassano kick), 3:59
Fourth quarter
No Score
LL HA
First downs 13 12
Rushes-yds 18-208 37-96
Com-att-int 4-5-0 5-11-1
Pass yards 98 45
Total yards 306 141
Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 7-61 6-30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing—Lake-Lehman, Jim Mitkowski, 7-98, 3 TDs; Jaydon Skipalis, 6-85; Hayden Evans, 2-18; Anthony Magnotta, 2-10; Connor Poulos, 1-(-3). Hanover, Dewayne Downey, 12-50, TD; Malique Campbell, 9-32; Tyler Herbert, 4-17; Brody Richardson, 2-5; Evan Rought, 2-5; Conor Engelman, 1-2; Jonathan Otway-Kellom, 3-(-4); Josh Richendrfer, 1-(-5); Logan Richardson, 3-(-6).
Passing—Lake-Lehman, Evans, 4-4-0, 98 yds., 2 TDs; Magnotta, 0-1-0. Hanover, L. Richardson, 4-9-1, 30 yds.; Richendrfer, 1-2-0, 15 yds.
Receiving—Lake-Lehman, Ben Dowling, 3-63, TD; Skipalis, 1-35, TD. Hanover, Deacon Eisenbach, 2-17; Luke Willis, 1-15; Conor Richardson, 1-9; Otway-Kellom, 1-4.
INTERCEPTIONS—Lake-Lehman, Evans.
RECORDS: Lake-Lehman (6-3); Hanover (1-8).
