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YATESVILLE – Not every high school football team is as comfortable throwing the ball as Pittston Area.
One of the Patriots’ goals this season was to find out which ones were not.
“This is the first time we made a team stop running the ball,” senior linebacker Tyler Ferlick said after Friday night’s 35-13 Homecoming win over visiting GAR. “Make them throw the ball; make them make mistakes.
“That’s the first time we ever did that. It feels good.”
Pittston Area’s defense held GAR scoreless until after the Mercy Rule went into effect midway through the fourth quarter.
The Grenadiers managed just two first downs and 16 yards total offense until the final minute of the third quarter and finished with just 74 total yards.
Ferlick had a lot to do with that with a big first half that included six tackles, two of which were for losses, and an assist.
Once Pittston Area gave quarterback Walter Coles enough time, his accuracy improved and he eventually picked GAR apart, throwing two touchdown passes each to Dorian Ryans and Andrew Krawczyk. Coles finished 11-for-22 for 200 yards.
Keemar Woodruff added to the offense with 107 yards and a touchdown.
With Pittston Area protecting a 14-0 halftime lead, Coles threw just five second-half passes, but he completed four, each for at least 23 yards and three of them resulting in touchdowns.
“Any improvement is a good sign,” Pittston Area coach Nick Barbieri said after his team improved to 2-3. “The last two touchdowns, I wish didn’t happen.”
Those late scores provided a big boost for winless GAR, the only Wyoming Valley Conference team allowing more than 40 points per game.
“The score isn’t indicative, but we got better this week,” GAR coach Paul Wiedlich Jr. said. “That’s all we’re looking to do.
“The injury bug has caught us.”
Special teams helped break the shutout.
Tai’Wan Bradley’s 53-yard kickoff return set up an 11-yard Ronald Peguero-to-Will Johnson touchdown pass and Jalil Timmons blocked a punt that Zynear Bradford scooped up on a bounce and took 29 yards for a touchdown.
Pittston Area needed a pair of passes to convert fourth downs in order to score in each of the first two quarters.
Walter Coles found Dorian Ryans in the left flat on fourth-and-five and Ryan stretched across the goal line for a 15-yard touchdown with 1:14 left in the first quarter.
Woodruff reached high to catch a 28-yard Coles pass on a fourth-and-12 post pattern and safely tumbled to the ground with the ball. He then scored on a run from the 4.
Coles threw touchdown passes of 25 yards to Krawczyk and 23 to Ryans in the third quarter and 27 yards to Krawczyk in the fourth.
