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Casey DeSmith, Leland Irving split time in net in Penguins preseason loss

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Local Sports: Jake Gurtis’ 4 goals lead Wyoming Valley West past Wyoming Area in boys soccer

WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Holy Redeemer&#8217;s offense managed to put some yards together in the second half. The problem was the Royals were already deep into the mercy rule by that point.Athens scored 24 points in the opening quarter, and carried a 38-point lead into halftime as the Wildcats rolled to a 52-7 victory over Redeemer Thursday night at Wilkes-Barre Memorial Stadium.Athens, a District 4 school that lost to GAR Saturday night, improves to 4-3 on the season. Redeemer fell to 1-6.&#8220;Athens played well, and we knew this was going to be a tough game,&#8221; Redeemer head coach Dwayne Downing said. &#8220;We are a young team and hopefully we can learn from this.&#8221;It took Athens more than two hours to reach Luzerne County. Head coach Jack Young even mentioned the team stopped at a rest stop on Interstate 81 and ran some dummy plays in the grass.&#8220;People were looking at us like we were crazy,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think just focusing on the game during a long bus ride helped a lot.&#8221;Obviously, the plan worked.The Wildcats scored less than two minutes into the game on a 50-yard pass from quarterback Justin Reagan to speedy Kalen Keathey on a play where the receiver got behind the Royals secondary and went down the left sideline.It was a near perfect quarter for Athens. The Wildcats crossed the goal line on two of their first three drives and added an Avery Chandler 27-yard fumble return for a score after the ball was snapped 20 yards over the Redeemer quarterback&#8217;s head.The Wildcats didn&#8217;t run out of steam in the second quarter, either. Following a Kaden Rude interception that set Athens up on the Redeemer 28, the team needed just four plays to score. Zack Jayne capped it off with a 20-yard run right through the heart of the defense for a 30-0 lead 15 minutes in.Athens racked up 140 yards on the ground and four scores, two each from Jayne and freshman Damian Hudson.&#8220;It was important to get out to a good start because we&#8217;ve struggled at times,&#8221; Young said. &#8220;Offensively, we&#8217;ve just been killing ourselves with penalties and turnovers. Or we miss an assignment that leads to a big play. Offensively tonight, we did what we wanted to do in terms of our game plan with running certain plays.&#8221;Redeemer&#8217;s only scoring drive was the opening series of the second half.Starting on its own 19, the Royals &#8211; mostly behind the arm of J.D. Turosky &#8211; drove the length of the field in eight plays, recording four of its nine first downs on that series.Big gains to John Winters, Robb McClay and Dorien Ryans set up a second down from the Athens 19. On the snap, Turosky rolled to his right and found McClay wide open on a busted coverage in the secondary for the easy, 19-yard score with 6:39 left in the quarter.But Athens punched in two more in the mercy-rule shortened fourth on Hudson runs of 5 and 43 yards.&#8220;Athens really didn&#8217;t do anything fancy,&#8221; Downing said. &#8220;We just had too many breakdowns and gave up plays at the wrong time. We kind of hurt ourselves. We shoot ourselves in the foot too many times, but that comes with inexperience. We have guys that have potential. We just have to keep fighting.&#8221;Turosky finished with 148 yards passing, hooking up with five different receivers. McClay led all receivers with five grabs for 76 yards.Athens 52, Holy Redeemer 7Athens `24`14`0`14 &#8211; 52Holy Redeemer `0`0`7`0&#8211; 7First QuarterATH &#8212; Kalen Keathley 50 pass from Justin Reagan (Zack Jayne run), 10:32ATH &#8212; Jayne 30 run (Jayne run), 6:32ATH &#8212; Avery Chandler 27 fumble return (Reagan run), 0:06Second QuarterATH &#8212; Jayne 19 run (run failed), 9:25ATH &#8212; Jarod Stanfield 3 pass from Reagan (Damian Hudson run), 1:14Third QuarterHR &#8212; Robb McClay 19 pass from JD Turosky (Nate Roppelt kick), 6:39Fourth QuarterATH &#8212; Hudson 5 run (run failed), 7:17ATH &#8212; Hudson 43 run (Nick Watkins run), 1:28Team Statistics`ATH`HRFirst Downs `10`9Rushes-Yards `30-140 `21-(-3)Passing Yards `112`148Total Yards `252`145Passing `6-10-1`12-27-3Sacked-Yards Lost `0-0`5-32Punts-Average `2-35`2-13Fumbles-Lost `2-0`3-2Penalties-Yards `8-65`8-68INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING &#8212; ATH, Zack Jayne 11-73, Damian Hudson 4-50, Nate Bradley 9-20, Kalen Keathley 2-10, Matt Depew 1-1, Matt Collins 1-(-2), Team 1-(-2), Kaden Rude 1-(-10). HR, Dorien Ryans 7-18, JD Turosky 10-15, John Winters 1-(minus-1), Tom Engle 1-(minus-2), Cade Fahey 1-(minus-3), Team 1-(minus-20).PASSING &#8212; ATH, Justin Reagan 6-10-1-112. HR, JD Turosky 12-27-3-148.RECEIVING &#8212; ATH, Kalen Keathley 5-109, Jarod Stanfield 1-3. HR, Robb McClay 5-76, John Winters 2-23, Dorien Ryans 2-21, Cade Fahey 2-21, John Sartin 1-7.INTERCEPTIONS &#8212; ATH, Kaden Rude 2, Jory Woodward. HR, John Winters.MISSED FGs &#8212; None.<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Tom FoxFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLSports</shirttailMeta></div>

Holy Redeemer football can’t keep up with Athens