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WILKES-BARRE — Four first-half drives, four touchdowns. Two more scores on special teams before halftime. New starters all across the field were coming through for GAR.
The Grenadiers even managed to surprise themselves on Friday night.
Sure, they were feeling pretty good headed into the season opener against Honesdale. But a 49-7 win that was 42-0 at the break?
“It was a surprise the way we played in the first half, yeah,” GAR coach Paul Wiedlich Jr. said. “Honesdale’s a program that’s getting better. Today wasn’t indicative of it, but give kudos to our kids. Our kids played well in all three facets.”
It didn’t take long to prove that.
The Grenadiers defense forced a fumble on the opening drive of the game. The offense then scored on its first play from scrimmage on the season as Austin Yelland tossed up a 29-yard score to a wide-open Gerson Peralta.
It was 20-0 at the end of the first quarter and 28-0 by the time special teams took over. Tailback Josh Goodwin had already found the end zone once on the night when he fielded a punt, made a sharp cut past a defender and took off down the home sideline for a 69-yard score.
“I just wanted to catch it and field it,” Goodwin said. “I saw a nice space and Yelland got a block for me on the edge. And it was off to the races after that.”
Anthony Blake followed it up by recovering a fumble on another Honesdale punt after the snap sailed some 30 yards back toward the Hornets end zone. And it was a 42-point lead after just 24 minutes of football.
Yelland did a little bit of everything for the Grenadiers in his debut as starting quarterback. He completed all three of his passes with two going to Peralta for touchdowns.
But just as important, he was able to give the offense an extra dimension with his legs, ripping off two big runs — a 33-yarder that set up a first-quarter score and a 24-yarder for a touchdown to close things out in the fourth.
“That was surprising, actually,” Goodwin said with a smile. “He’s a dropback guy, so I didn’t think that was gonna happen. But he can take off and do a good job with it.”
“Austin did really well — running the veer and throwing the ball,” Wiedlich said. “We’re just trying to keep teams off balance.”
Goodwin credited a strong effort by the Grenadiers offensive line for opening up cutback lanes as the senior finished with 101 yards on just 13 carries. He also got some encouragement earlier in the week from Anthony Maurent, GAR’s feature back from the last couple years, to help boost his confidence.
And it all happened despite missing veteran fullback Mike Drozda with an injury. Muhaideen Tajuddin picked up some carries in his place, rushing for 57 yards and a touchdown himself.
Wiedlich was quick to keep things in perspective, pointing out that GAR lost two fumbles in the second half and had some alignment issues throughout the game.
Even still — tough to start much better than that.
“They’re still getting their legs with the season starting earlier and just one scrimmage under our belt,” Wiedlich said. “It was tough, but our kids played well.”
GAR 49, Honesdale 7
Honesdale`0`0`0`7`—`7
GAR`20`22`0`7`—`49
First quarter
GAR — Gerson Peralta 29 pass from Austin Yelland (Muhaideen Tajuddin kick), 10:31
GAR — Josh Goodwin 3 run (Tajuddin kick), 6:28
GAR — Peralta 15 pass from Yelland (pass failed), 0:38
Second quarter
GAR — Tajuddin 1 run (Goodwin pass from Yelland), 5:51
GAR — Goodwin 69 punt return (Tajuddin kick), 3:14
GAR — Anthony Blake 5 fumble return (Tajuddin kick), 1:15
Fourth quarter
HON — Garyn Barnes 21 run (Beau Freiermuth kick), 10:27
GAR — Yelland 24 run (Tajuddin kick), 6:15
Team statistics`HON`GAR
First downs`7`17
Rushes-yards`32-85`32-270
Passing yards`29`50
Total yards`114`320
Passing`7-13-0`3-3-0
Sacked-yards lost`0-0`0-0
Punts-avg.`4-34.0`0-0.0
Fumbles-lost`2-2`3-2
Penalties-yards`3-25`5-30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — HON, Garyn Barnes 23-104, Tyler McConnell 1-8, Ethan Dunn 2-6, Beau Freiermuth 3-6, Matt Davis 1-(minus-2), Dyllon Fillebrown 1-(minus-6), Team 1-(minus-31). GAR, Josh Goodwin 13-101, Austin Yelland 5-60, Muhaideen Tajuddin 5-57, Anthony Blake 3-31, Malachai Williams 1-13, Gerson Peralta 1-9, Tashawn Qualls 1-7, Team 1-(minus-1), Christian Hernandez 2-(minus-7).
PASSING — HON, Dunn 7-12-0-29, McConnell 0-1-0-0. GAR, Yelland 3-3-0-50.
RECEIVING — HON, Nik Krempasky 2-13, Freiermuth 2-9, Barnes 2-6, Nicolas Vlacich 1-1. GAR, Peralta 2-44, Nate Luckey 1-6.
INTERCEPTIONS — None.
MISSED FGs — None.
