WYALUSING – Wyalusing’s offense looked pretty solid for most of its season-opening game against Nativity BVM on Saturday night. The Rams outgained the Green Wave 261-211 for the game and had success both running and passing.
But Wyalusing struggled to finish its drives, and also committed some costly turnovers – three total, two of which led directly to Nativity touchdowns – and Nativity overcame some early turnovers of its own to pick up a 28-14 win over Wyalusing.
“I was very happy with the way we were able to move the ball on them – bully ball, between the tackles type of stuff, we were able to drive the field, but we have to be able to finish,” said Wyalusing coach Rich Rogers.
Wyalusing was only able to finish two drives, one early and one late. But in between, Nativity did its damage, as it took advantage of three overall turnovers by the Rams, two of which led directly to touchdowns, and also added a special teams touchdown.
It didn’t look like things might turn out that way early on, however. Coming off a disappointing season last year, Nativity BVM coach Pat Mason was thinking ‘Here we go again’ after Ben Kreitzer’s first pass attempt of the year on Nativity’s second play from scrimmage was picked off by Cade McMicken at the Wyalusing 36, giving the Rams a short field. They would capitalize as Ayden Hunsinger burst up the middle for a 26-yard touchdown run to put the Rams up 6-0 a little over two minutes into the game.
Another interception ended Nativity’s second possession as well after the Green Wave drove into the red zone. But from there, Green Wave cleaned things up and would not commit another turnover for the remainder of the game.
“We had an incredibly tough year last year – not what we’re used to, and we’ve come a long way,” said Mason. “These kids really went through a lot of adversity and then with how the game started, I’m like ‘here we go again,’ but they came back. This shows a lot for their character and this is a big win after only winning three games last year. We have a lot of kids that stepped up and played well tonight.”
Things looked a bit dismal early for the Green Wave, however. Nativity drove down to the Wyalusing 20 on its next drive, but it was once again stopped by an interception, as Dylan Johns picked off Kreitzer and returned it to the Wyalusing 41.
From that point, however, the Green Wave bore down on defense. They forced back-to-back three-and-outs for the Rams and then picked up their own takeaway deep in Wyalusing territory as they recovered a Ram fumble at the Wyalusing 27 early in the second quarter.
Two rushes by Sam Spolski, one for 16 yards and one for 11 produced a touchdown to tie the game 6-6.
Nativity forced a punt on Wyalusing’s next drive, and it was returned by Noah Dolbin 65 yards for a touchdown, the first of two returns for a score by Dolbin on the night. John Borrell punched in a two-point conversion to put the Green Wave up 14-6 with 5:35 left in the first half.
The Green Wave then came up with a big defensive stop to end the half as Wyalusing drove it all the way down to the Nativity 3-yard line in 15 plays but were stopped three yards short of the end zone at the halftime horn.
Wyalusing also received the second-half kickoff and proceeded to put together another long drive that took up nearly five minutes and spanned another nine plays, but it, too, was stalled as the Green Wave stopped the Rams on fourth down from the Nativity 23 – giving Nativity’s defense 24 straight plays on the field on either end of halftime without yielding a score.
Later in the third quarter, the Green Wave defense came up with another takeaway as Dolbin picked off a McMicken pass at the Wyalusing 43. Five straight rushes by Borrell resulted in another touchdown with :18 left in the quarter to put the Green Wave up 21-6. Borrell, who led the way on the ground for Nativity with 84 yards on 12 carries, picked up 43 of his yards on that drive.
“We need to work on contain, that’s been a huge thing and we’ve been working on it but we need to focus even more and find the right people that can do that for us,” said Rogers. “We’re still attacking and we caused some turnovers and are doing the things we’ve been focusing on, but we have to find the people that can contain and stop the big plays around the corner. We can’t give up the big stuff.”
Dolbin ended Wyalusing’s second straight possession on the Rams’ ensuing drive when he picked off Parker Petlock and this time returned it 41 yards for a touchdown to put the Green Wave up 28-6 early in the fourth.
“We really had some kids step up and Noah Dolbin is lights out, he’s a player,” said Mason. “I thought we ran the ball pretty well, John Borrell really did well running the ball in the second half. It was a great team effort, I’m proud of my guys and we’re really hoping we can keep this thing rolling.”
Nativity BVM 28, Wyalusing 14
Nativity BVM (1-0) 0 14 7 7 – 28
Wyalusing (0-1) 6 0 0 8 – 14
First quarter
9:53 – (W) Ayden Hunsinger 26-yard run (run failed), 4-36, 1:42
Second quarter
8:41 – (N) Sam Spolski 11-yard run (pass failed), 2-27, :34
5:35 – (N) Noah Dolbin 65-yard punt return (Borrell run)
Third quarter
:18 – (N) John Borrell 1-yard run (Ferhat kick), 5-43, 1:42
Fourth quarter
11:38 – (N) Noah Dolbin 41-yard interception return (Ferhat kick)
4:30 – (W) Ayden Hunsinger 16-yard run (God run), 4-77, 1:28
Statistics
N W
First downs 14 14
Rushes-net yards 36-160 40-150
Passing yardage 51 111
Passing 3-10-0-2 10-18-0-2
Fumbles-lost 2-0 2-1
Penalties-yards 11-74 3-25
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Nativity BVM: John Borrell (12-84-1), Sam Spolski (10-51-1), Nolan Ferhat (5-9), Ben Kreitzer (4-23), Colt Mason (3-2), TEAM (2-(-9)); Wyalusing: Ayden Hunsinger (15-67-2), Cade McMicken (9-29), Casey God (6-17), Isaac Shaffer (5-25), Dylan Johns (4-11), Parker
Petlock (1-1)
PASSING: Nativity BVM: Ben Kreitzer (3-10-51-0-2); Wyalusing: Cade McMicken (6-9-38-0-1), Parker Petlock (4-9-73-0-1)
RECEIVING: Nativity BVM: Noah Dolbin (2-36), John Borrell (1-15); Wyalusing: Parker Petlock (3-20), Isaac Shaffer (3-16), Joey Gonsauls (2-60), Dylan Johns (1-12), Casey God (1-3)
