The Crestwood Comets pile on running back Jimmy Hawley after he scored the winning touchdown in overtime in a 20-17 victory over Lake-Lehman on Saturday afternoon.
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WRIGHT TWP. — As Crestwood teammates piled on running back Jimmy Hawley after he scored the winning touchdown in overtime Saturday afternoon, there was a quick flash of doom.
“Ryan’s hurt,” a voice said.
Nope, not starting quarterback Ryan Petrosky but coach Ryan Arcangeli. Seems in the 300-plus pound coach in a leap of joy came down awkwardly on his right ankle. He exited the field on crutches.
A small price to pay for a 20-17 victory over previously unbeaten Lake-Lehman that gave Crestwood the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 football championship.
Hawley’s 1-yard scoring run came after Lehman took a 17-14 lead in overtime on a 31-yard field goal by Max Paczewski. The Black Knights opened overtime by gaining 5 yards on their first two plays. Then on third down, running back Ryan Eiden took a short pass from quarterback Ethan Adams and then flipped it back to Adams as he was being tackled, resulting in a 6-yard loss.
Hawley scored on third down, completing a rally which saw Crestwood score all its points in the final 4:44 of regulation and overtime.
“We played 39 minutes of uncharacteristic football, not terrible football, uncharacteristic,” Arcangeli said. “And we killed ourselves because we controlled the game. We moved the ball between the 20s. We had excellent pass protections. I’m so proud of our young line. You can’t say the same about our defense, but you have to play the whole time.
“Until the bell rings, you got life. And I’m so proud of our guys. I really am.”
Crestwood (5-0 Div. 2, 7-0) will host Dallas in the District 2 Class 4A championship game 7 p.m. Friday.
Lehman (5-1 Div. 2., 7-1) finished tied with Crestwood for the most wins in District 2, yet its playoff fate was in the balance as the Valley View at Scranton Prep game was still in progress when the Black Knights exited Crestwood’s stadium. They needed Prep to lose.
“We don’t know if there’s a next week,” Lehman coach Jerry Gilsky said. “Right now, Valley View is winning 27-14 against Prep. We don’t know. Right now, there’s hope, which we never thought we’d be in this position having eight games under our belt, being 7-1 (battling for playoffs) against teams with only four wins or five wins. You look how the WVC came together and really worked hard to have an eight-game season. I give all of our teams credit. But right now, we’re waiting to see and will probably on the road.”
Lehman dropped from first to third temporarily in the D2-3A standings with the loss. Once Valley View ended up defeating Prep 34-21, the Black Knights moved into second and will play at Lakeland (4-0) 7 p.m. Friday for the championship.
It didn’t seem Lehman was going to need to resort to scoreboard watching to make the postseason. The Black Knights went up 14-0 at 1:33 of the third quarter on a 3-yard run by quarterback Ethan Adams, his second scoring run of the game.
The Lehman defense was doing enough to keep Crestwood out of the end zone, and the Comets weren’t helping matters with several penalties that sapped their momentum. A sack by Kaleb Benjamin that stopped Lehman on a fourth-and-11 from the Crestwood 23-yard line early in the fourth quarter changed things.
Crestwood used two passes to convert third-down situations. The second pass was the big one as receiver Paul Feisel won a jumpball for a 32-yard gain to the Lehman 9. Two plays later, Petrosky jumped over the pile and stuck the ball in the end zone for the Comets’ first score at 4:44.
The Crestwood defense then forced its first three-and-0ut of the game with 2:30 remaining in regulation. The Comets needed five plays to score and knot the game at 14-14 with 34 seconds left. Again, another big reception by Feisel, this one for 40 yards, put the ball at the Lehman 9. Petrosky threw 8 yards to Brenden DeMarzo to finish off the drive.
Crestwood 20, Lake-Lehman 17 OT
Lake-Lehman`7`0`7`0`3 — 17
Crestwood`0`0`0`14`6 — 20
First quarter
LL — Ethan Adams 7 run (Max Paczewski kick), 0:24
Third quarter
LL — Adams 3 run (Paczewski kick), 1:33
Fourth quarter
CRE — Ryan Petrosky 1 run (Ethan Shudak kick), 4:44
CRE — Brenden DeMarzo 8 pass from Petrosky (Shudak kick), 0:34
Overtime
LL — Paczewski 31 FG
CRE — Jimmy Hawley 1 run (no try)
Team statistics`LL`CRE
First downs`13`17
Rushes-yards`37-152`49-146
Passing yards`121`181
Total yards`273`327
Passing`9-14-0`10-13-0
Sacked-yards lost`4-31`3-17
Punts-avg.`2-23.5`2-37.5
Fumbles-lost`1-0`1-0
Penalties-yards`4-26`10-87
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Lehman, Ryan Eiden 12-29, Adams 24-123. Crestwood, Hawley 27-107, Petrosky 16-22, Kaleb Benjamin 4-12, Noah Schultz 2-5.
PASSING — Lehman, Adams 11-14-0-121. Crestwood, Petrosky 10-13-0-181.
RECEIVING — Lehman, Eiden 10-23, Jake Trumbower 4-45, Marshall Woodrosky 2-31, Jacob Monko 1-28, Adams 0-(minus-6). Crestwood, DeMarzo 5-80, Hawley 1-16, Nick Kreuzer 2-13, Paul Feisel 2-72.
INTERCEPTIONS — none.
MISSED FGs — Crestwood, 35WR