H.S. Football: Huge 2nd quarter carries GAR past Nanticoke

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Strong finish propels Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to 4-1 win

LEHMAN TWP. &#8212; Nick Eury took the hand-off and exploded through the line.As he reached the second level of the Hanover Area defense and ran 66 yards for the score on the game&#8217;s first play, Eury was serenaded by the Lake-Lehman student section.&#8220;You can&#8217;t stop him,&#8221; the students yelled every time the senior back touched the pigskin.They were spot on.Eury accounted for seven touchdowns in the first half, six rushing and one receiving, and rolled up 222 yards on 12 carries as Lehman scored 56 points in the first 24 minutes in a 56-26 victory Friday night.Eury&#8217;s seven-touchdown effort was one short of the Wyoming Valley Conference record. The senior carried the ball just one time in the second half, rumbling for 32 yards before leaving the game.The back finished with 279 yards of total offense.&#8220;The line does an amazing job with opening up those holes. Honestly, there isn&#8217;t a better feeling in the world than hitting a big hole, and scoring a touchdown with no penalty on the field,&#8221; Eury said. &#8220;There is no greater feeling than having a performance like this on senior night. There are no words to describe it.&#8221;Lehman&#8217;s two senior backs put on quite a display in their last regular-season home game on the black turf.Eury was completely dominating, and honestly, that may not be giving him enough credit.He had the 66-yard score on the first play, and ran for 145 yards on his first four carries &#8211; three of them going to the end zone.The senior scored on runs of 41, 30, 11, 11 and 3 in addition to the 66-yard burst. And his seventh touchdown may have had him smiling the most &#8211; hauling in a 23-yard pass on Nate O&#8217;Donell&#8217;s first attempt of the game.&#8220;How about that? Lake-Lehman passing the ball,&#8221; Eury grinned.Joey Vigil wasn&#8217;t too bad himself.The speedster slashed and dashed the Hanover defense for 191 yards and one score. A 53-yard second-quarter run put him over 1,000 yards for the season.In all, the Black Knights rushed for 425 yards &#8211; averaging 12.5 yards per carry.&#8220;Our kids were aggressive because it was a senior night game,&#8221; Lehman head coach Jerry Gilsky said. &#8220;I think everyone was fired up. It was good to see that physical play up front. We were focused. We aren&#8217;t a team that&#8217;s going to circle specific games before the season. We circle every game on the calendar because they are all big. You have to take care of business every week.&#8221;Hanover, which racked up most of its yards against the Lehman second-team defense, was shell-shocked right off the bat.The Black Knights had a 35-0 lead before the Hawkeyes even moved the sticks for a first down .Mike McCree&#8217;s bunch did hit two big plays to get on the board in the first half.Quarterback Jake Peters found receiver Brandon Brueckner on a fourth-and-short for a 25-yard score, and late in the second quarter, the senior signal-caller threw a beautiful spiral to a wide-open Brandon Chafin for a 61-yard strike.By then, Hanover already had a huge hole to dig out of.&#8220;Their offensive line is the best we&#8217;ve seen all year,&#8221; McCree said. &#8220;They are well-coached, tough, physical kids. They won the battle in the box today. And we couldn&#8217;t tackle Eury. He ran so hard. Our weakness on defense all year has been tackling and he exposed it. We couldn&#8217;t stop him tonight.&#8221;McCree&#8217;s group punched two in during a mercy-ruled shortened fourth quarter &#8211; thanks to a 5-yard reverse by Chafin and Josh Jopling&#8217;s 8-yard dart with less than three minutes left.The Hawkeyes finished with 277 yards of offense &#8211; 171 of those yards coming in the second half.Lake-Lehman 56, Hanover Area 26Hanover Area`0`12`0`14 &#8211; 26Lake-Lehman`28`28`0`0 &#8211; 56First QuarterLL &#8212; Nick Eury 66 run (Ian Dawsey kick), 11:$7LL &#8212; Eury 41 run (Dawsey kick), 6:39LL &#8212; Eury 30 run (Dawsey kick), 4:26LL &#8212; Joey Vigil 10 run (Dawsey kick), 2:26Second QuarterLL &#8212; Eury 23 pass from Nate O&#8217;Donell (Dawsey kick), 10:56LL &#8212; Eury 11 run (Dawsey kick)HAN &#8212; Brandon Brueckner 25 pass from Jake Peters (kick missed), 6:54LL &#8212; Eury 11 run (Dawsey kick), 1:52HAN &#8212; Brandon Chafin 61 pass from Peters (run failed), 1:04LL &#8212; Eury 3 run (Dawsey kick), 0:00Fourth QuarterHAN &#8212; Chafin 5 run (Peters pass to Brueckner), 11:49HAN &#8212; Josh Jopling 8 run (pass failed), 3:51Team statistics`HA`LLFirst Downs `8`15Rushes-Yards `25-116 `34-425Passing Yards `161`82Total Yards `277`507Passing `7-26-1`3-4-0Sacked-Yards Lost `4-20`1-5Punts-Average `5-29.2`2-26Fumbles-Lost `2-0`1-0Penalties-Yards `3-35`4-32INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING &#8212; HAN, Brandon Chafin 10-68, Josh Jopling 5-37, Sean Westawski 6-30, Team 1-(-5), Mike Gronkowski 2-(-7), Jake Peters 1-(-7). LL, Nick Eury 12-222, Joey Vigil 12-191, Jesse Tomolonis 3-9, Trey Borger 1-6, Luke Hummel 1-5, Matt Benn 1-1, Tyler Wojciechowski 1-(-2), Team 1-(-2). Jake Tomolonis 1-(-5).PASSING &#8212; HAN, Jake Peters 5-20-1, 152 yards; Brandon Chafin 2-6-1, 9 yards. LL, Nate O&#8217;Donell 3-4-0, 82 yards.RECEIVING &#8212; HAN, Brandon Chafin 2-69, Nick Minich 1-47, Brandon Brueckner 1-25, Christian Percy 1-11, Zakee Nettles 2-9. LL, Nick Eury 2-57, Noah Gorski 1-25.INTERCEPTIONS &#8212; LL, Jarrett DaumMISSED FGs &#8212; NoneRECORDS &#8212; HAN 1-8, LL 9-0<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Tom FoxFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</shirttailMeta></div>

H.S. Football: Nick Eury’s 7 TDs pace Lake-Lehman