PLAINS — Jake Howe stood in the pocket unbothered and surveyed the football field. But there was nowhere to go with the football. The junior quarterback for Wilkes-Barre with a rifle of a right arm bounced on the balls of his feet looking for any opening to deliver a pass on fourth down late in the fourth quarter Friday night.
But there was nothing open, not against a Williamsport defense which harassed Howe all night and made throwing the football much more difficult than the gusting wind in his face.
Finally, Howe unloaded a rocket to the end line as one of his receivers flashed into open space. Williamsport’s Giovanni White batted down the pass, which never even reached the receiver. It was the last gasp for a Wilkes-Barre offense which never found its footing Friday night in the District 2/4 Class 6A championship game.
Williamsport’s defense forced four turnovers, including three interceptions, and Samir Williams scored a touchdown on both sides of the football as the Millionaires captured their first district championship since 2016 with a 14-0 win. In a wild season which has seen Williamsport open with a four-game winning streak before losing five in a row, the Millionaires have now won their last three — two against Wilkes-Barre — and will face District 6 champion State College in the first round of the state tournament next week.
“I feel like we’re a tough team,” said Williams, who scored on a 27-yard touchdown run and a 58-yard interception return. “We kept our heads up all season and kept pushing through and we ended up here. But the job’s not done.”
“It means everything to us because these opportunities for these kids don’t come a million times in your life,” Williamsport coach Mike Pearson said. “Playing hard competition preps you for these runs. So we’re thankful for that run in the middle of the season. It was really hard weeks, but now we get to leave here as district champs.”
It wasn’t exactly pretty for Williamsport, but nobody in cherry and white seemed to particularly care. The Millionaires managed just 115 yards of offense and made only two first downs over the final three quarters. But it didn’t particularly matter. Between a defense which pitched its third shutout of the season and a howling wind which negated Wilkes-Barre’s ability to throw the football consistently, Williamsport was still massively in control of the football game.
And it was because the Millionaires allowed Wilkes-Barre to convert just 4 of 16 third downs, and four times in the second half they turned the Wolfpack away inside the Williamsport 15-yard line. Howe, who completed 21 of 29 passes in the teams’ first meeting just two weeks ago, completed just 13 of 33 last night. Kyreek Bradshaw intercepted a pass in the first half when a Howe deep ball hung up in the wind and Bradshaw outjumped a defender for it for the first of his two interceptions.
“We hoped that the wind was going to blow because of the respect we have for Jake. I hope people realize he’s one of the best quarterbacks in Northeast PA,” Pearson said. “It was blowing so hard that even at your back, the wind would just catch the football and it would go. But our defense wouldn’t be denied.”
The Millionaires didn’t give much throwing room for Howe to deliver the ball. Members of the secondary were in the Wolfpack’s hip pocket on almost every route. And coupled with a relentless pass rush which saw Howe struggle to get through his progression before having to scramble, there wasn’t much room for the Wilkes-Barre offense to move.
The Wolfpack gained just 29 yards in the first half. And even when it did move the ball in the second half, Bradshaw’s second interception ended a drive at the Williamsport 3-yard line, the secondary forced an incomplete pass on fourth-and-3 at the Williamsport 16, and linebacker Anthony Manley stuffed Wilkes-Barre fullback Gene Ardo for a 1-yard gain on fourth-and-2 on the Millionaires’ 24.
In fact, Wilkes-Barre held a 45-17 edge in plays run in the second half, but came away with zero points.
And then there was Williams, who had nearly jumped a couple hitch routes Wilkes-Barre loves to run in its passing offense earlier in the game. But with under 9 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, he jumped another one, and when the ball was tipped, it floated right into his hands and he went 58 yards untouched to put Williamsport up 14-0.
“I knew they’d run that because they love to run hitches,” Williams said. “We work on tip drills in practice specifically for that moment.”
When White knocked down Howe’s final pass of the night in the end zone, the play was emblematic of how the secondary handled an explosive Wilkes-Barre passing game. It forced Howe to make throws into tight windows just to see if they could get something started. White’s pass breakup came on the 18th play of a drive which took nearly 6 minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter and left Wilkes-Barre with zero points.
“(Wilkes-Barre) has outstanding receivers, and on a calm night this could be a completely different football game,” Pearson said. “But our secondary has been a very good unit. They work very hard and I’m so proud of those kids.”
Williamsport 14, Wilkes-Barre 0
Williamsport 7 0 0 7 – 14
Wilkes-Barre 0 0 0 0 – 0
First quarter
W—Samir Williams 27 run (Parker Johnson kick), 1:42
Fourth quarter
W—Samir Williams 58 INT return (Johnson kick), 8:49
Will WB
First downs 7 13
Rushes-yds 35-104 37-96
Com-att-int 2-13-0 13-33-3
Pass yards 11 82
Total yards 115 178
Fumbles-lost 4-1 3-1
Penalties-yards 4-25 4-40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing—Williamsport, Jamel Bailey, 14-42; Kahyear Whaley, 14-35; Samir Williams, 1-27, TD; Parker Johnson, 1-4; Giovanni White, 2-(-2); Elijah Way, 3-(-2). Wilkes-Barre, Davon Underwood, 10-41; Jake Howe, 15-36; Khalil Smith, 3-18; Treyvon Gembitski, 1-3; Gene Ardo, 6-0; Rajon Watson, 1-(-1); Team, 1-(-1).
Passing—Williamsport, Elijah Way, 2-12-0, 11 yds.; Samir Williams, 0-1-0. Wilkes-Barre, Jake Howe, 13-33-3, 82 yds.
Receiving—Williamsport, Kyreek Bradshaw, 1-8; Samir Williams, 1-3. Wilkes-Barre, Jordan Keselowsky, 4-22; Treyvon Gembitski, 4-21; Davon Underwood, 2-18; Rajon Watson, 2-14; Gene Ardo, 1-7.
INTERCEPTIONS—Williamsport 3, Samir Williams, Kyreek Bradshaw (2).
RECORDS: Williamsport (7-5); Wilkes-Barre (6-6).
