LEHMAN — Nanticoke coach Ron Bruza joked senior lineman Ryan Wiaterowski was going to jump in the bus and drive the team home from Lake-Lehman High School on Friday night. Why not? The senior had done just about everything else for the Trojans in a 42-0 win over the Black Knights.
Wiaterowski ran for a pair of touchdowns as a fullback in Nanticoke’s full house backfield, and he also intercepted a tipped pass and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown. And just for good measure, he was in on one of the three sacks recorded by the Trojans’ defense as they snapped a three-game losing streak to improve to 2-3.
“We put him in a position to make plays, just like he’s done for the last three and a half years for us,” Bruza said. “We’re really proud of Ryan. All the success he gets, he deserves because he works hard.”
Wiaterowski was the engine that pushed the bulldozing of Lake-Lehman on its own turf Friday night. Use whatever analogy you wish, a runaway freight train, a rolling snowball, it doesn’t matter. They all properly explain what happened in a matchup of 1-3 teams last night. Nanticoke never relinquished the momentum it gained after returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Lake-Lehman never recovered from the downswing that opening play caused.
Lehman turned the ball over on two of its first three possessions. It added two more turnovers before the first half was completed. And seemingly before the Black Knights blinked last night, Nanticoke had a three score lead and Wiaterowski was in the middle of it all.
The senior 265-pound lineman was out front blocking when Zack Fox (171 yards, TD) caught the corner and raced 61 yards for a score. He caught a tipped screen pass about 90 seconds later and raced untouched 32 yards for a score. He finished drives with touchdown runs of 5 and 1 yards.
It all was so uncommon for a guy with the number 53 on his jersey. But nobody on the Nanticoke sideline seemed particularly surprised. Wiaterowski is a lineman with good feet, speed and athleticism and made him the natural choice to run lead blocker and even carry the football against Lehman.
“We just got a little clever and changed some of our blocking schemes,” Bruza said. “Being a Wing-T team, we usually have some undersized linemen who can run. But Ryan is a big guy who can run, so we just threw a little glitch into what we usually do.”
“I’m just super excited,” Wiaterowski said. “The pick six is the one that got me most excited because you just don’t usually see that from defensive linemen.”
Nanticoke has been plagued by injuries and mistakes ever since opening its season with a convincing win over Carbondale. But on Friday, the Trojans limited the mistakes and finally had a little bit of health. Fox returned after missing last week’s game against Wyoming Area and being limited against Lackawanna Trail the week before.
And he returned in a big way. The senior carried only 12 times, but six of them went for double-digit yardage and three of them went for more than 20 yards.
Nanticoke tried to get Fox to the corner, and while he ripped off chunks of yards, he finally hit a home run with a 61-yard run in which he outran a defender who seemed to have an angle on him toward the sideline.
“Zack is great because he can give us a little threat between the tackles, and he finishes runs hard,” Bruza said. “But he’s a threat when he gets on the edge. He gets that second gear, third gear and fourth gear, and he starts pulling away from guys.”
“If we can get a few of those runs in the middle, it opens the outside a lot because people start stacking the box,” Wiaterowski said. “So that opens up the outside and just lets Zack run. And it’s a blast to watch him run.”
For the first time since that Week 1 win, Nanticoke appears to be back on track. It was a perfect night against Lake-Lehman, but it was about the closest thing to it. And it seemed to get the good vibes flowing through the Trojans’ postgame huddle.
“We had to come out and play Trojan football, eliminate mistakes and get back to fundamentals,” Bruza said. “Our goals are still there for us. We’ve got a good football team. But we have to stop beating ourselves and play football, and we did that.”
Nanticoke 42, Lake-Lehman 0
Nanticoke 29 13 0 0 – 42
Lake-Lehman 0 0 0 0 – 0
First quarter
N—Mychal Julian 86 kickoff return (Zack Fox run), 11:47
N—Ryan Wiaterowski 5 run (Gio Heratauro kick), 8:08
N—Zack Fox 61 run (Heratauro kick), 3:18
N—Waiterowski 32 interception return (Heratauro kick), 1:49
Second quarter
N—Wiaterowski 1 run (kick blocked), 6:21
N—Jaidyn Johnson 34 pass from Seth Raymor (Heratauro kick), 1:33
Nan LL
First downs 14 5
Rushes-yds 43-271 21-75
Com-att-int 1-4-0 1-6-2
Pass yards 34 7
Total yards 305 82
Fumbles-lost 1-1 4-3
Penalties-yards 8-70 8-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing—Nanticoke, Zack Fox, 12-171, TD; Chris Julian, 4-31; Reagan Jackson, 7-24; Ryan Wiaterowski, 4-21, 2 TDs; Treston Allen, 5-17; Eugene Gyle, 3-11; Stephen Armstrong, 2-3; Mike Taylor, 1-(-1); Mike Stachowiak, 5-(-6). Lake-Lehman, Ben Dowling, 6-28; Sam Plummer, 2-27; Gavin Shoemaker, 2-17; Jim Mitkowski, 5-13; Chris Yetter, 1-12; Hayden Evans, 5-(-22).
Passing—Nanticoke, Seth Raymor, 1-1-0, 34 yds., TD. Lake-Lehman, Hayden Evans, 1-6-2, 7 yds.
Receiving—Nanticoke, Jaidyn Johnson 1-34, TD. Lake-Lehman, Ben Dowling, 1-7.
INTERCEPTIONS—Nanticoke, Ryan Wiaterowski, Landon Lore.
RECORDS: Lake-Lehman (1-4); Nanticoke (2-3).
