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La Festa Italiana comes to Courthouse Square in Scranton Sept. 1 to 4

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Chance Adams struggles against the Rochester Red Wings again as SWB RailRiders fall 5-1

WILKES-BARRE TWP. &#8212; McCarthy Stadium was loud all Thursday night for King&#8217;s football opener.The near-capacity crowd went into a frenzy when defensive end Aaron Vascos sacked Moravian quarterback Doug Erney on fourth down with 51 seconds left that secured the Monarchs&#8217; first season-opening victory since 2009 winning 30-27 over Moravian.&#8220;We&#8217;ve lost umpteen ways very close&#8230;so to finally make a play for us and to go our way it was electric on the sideline,&#8221; King&#8217;s coach Jeff Knarr said. &#8220;It was electric in the crowd. It was awesome. I&#8217;m proud of the kids because they worked really hard for it. And now they can use this to build and improve and hopefully have the season they want.&#8221;Mike Tumminello hit his third, and longest, field goal of the game with 1:37 to go putting King&#8217;s in front by three. The 38-yarder that snuck right into the lower right part of the goal post. Tumminello only had brief varsity experience during his tenure and barely won the starting kicker job during camp. But a gut instinct by Knarr was right on.&#8220;I knew Tummi would rise up and he did,&#8221; Knarr said.There was still time for the Greyhouds to get something going, but the defense, which was solid all night, stepped up.The King&#8217;s defense forced the Greyhounds into four plays and a turnover on downs.Three times the stifling unit by the Monarchs held the Greyhounds to a pair of field goals despite getting inside the 10-yard line both times. The third time, Moravian missed a 28-yard field goal attempt.&#8220;There you gotta put your foot in the ground and try to get them out of the red zone if you can and no points or at least hold them to field goals,&#8221; Knarr said. &#8220;Our defense did that. They found ways to make a play (and) stop them.&#8221;The fast-paced King&#8217;s offense got the start the team needed using just under 4 minutes to go 57 yards and score the first points of the game. The eight-play drive was capped by a 2-yard TD run by Zach Whitehead as the Monarchs went up 7-0 with 5:47 to go in the first quarter.Before the first half ended, the King&#8217;s offense put together another fast scoring drive when Whitehead ran in for his second rushing TD of the game. This time from 6 yards out, it ended a 6-play 40-yard possession that lasted just 35 seconds.The Greyhounds tied the score at 14-14 on the first drive of the second half. A pass interference penalty called on King&#8217;s on third-and-15 gave Moravian a first down and renewed life to set up the score.Whitehead had an extraordinary game with 83 rushing yards and three running scores, while passing for 309 yards.King&#8217;s 30, Moravian 27Moravian`0&#8217;6`14`7`&#8212;`27King&#8217;s`7`7`10`6`&#8212;`30SCORING SUMMARYFirst QuarterKing&#8217;s &#8211; Whitehead 2 run (Tumminello kick) 5:47Second QuarterMOR &#8211; Kane 23 field goal 14:16MOR &#8211; Kane 22 field goal 5:14King&#8217;s &#8211; Whitehead 6 run (Tumminello kick) :17THIRD QUARTERMOR &#8211; Erney 34 run (Brown pass from Erney) 12:46KING&#8217;S &#8211; Tumminello 36 field goal 7:50MOR &#8211; Erney 58 run (kick blocked) 7:26KING&#8217;S &#8211; Whitehead 6 run (Tumminello kick) 1:47FOURTH QUARTERKING&#8217;S &#8211; Tumminello 27 field goal 6:29MOR &#8211; Petros 26 pass from Erney (Kane kick) 5:32KING&#8217;S &#8211; Tumminello 38 field goal 1:37Team statistics`MOR`KCFirst downs`18`23Rushes-yards`36-161`36-122Passing yards`212`309Total yards`373`431Passing`16-29-1`27-44-0Sacks by-yards lost`1-2`0-0Punts-avg.`3-29.3`3-31.3Fumbles-lost`1-0`1-0Penalties-yards`1-0`4-28INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSPASSING &#8211; Erney 16-29-1-212. KING&#8217;S, Whitehead 27-44-0-309RUSHING&#8212; MOR, Erney 16-130, Petros 1-18, George 1-11,. Hudson 2-1, Redmond 16-0. KING&#8217;S, Whitehead 20-83, Nelson 7-28, Downes 7-15, TEAM 2-(minus-4).RECEIVING&#8212; MOR, Redmond 6-34, Petros 2-56, Pierce 2-27, Hudson 3-48, Brown 2-40, Tate 1-7. KING&#8217;S, Marroni 9-155, Downes 4-31, Miller 6-40, Flynn 3-46, Campbell 4-23, Curry 1-14.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Kings College football player remove their helmets for the Anthem before the start of the game with Moravian at McCarthy Stadium. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_kings_opener5_faa.jpg</photo0><caption0>Kings College football player remove their helmets for the Anthem before the start of the game with Moravian at McCarthy Stadium. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_kings_opener2_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Kings College running back Jordan Downes (38) drags a pair of Moravian defenders gaining several yards for the Monarchs Thursday at McCarthy Stadium Wilkes-Barre Twp. ---------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 8-31-17</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_kings_opener2_faa.jpg</photo1><caption1>Kings College running back Jordan Downes (38) drags a pair of Moravian defenders gaining several yards for the Monarchs Thursday at McCarthy Stadium Wilkes-Barre Twp. ---------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 8-31-17</caption1><photoCredit1>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Dave RosengrantFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</shirttailMeta></div>

King’s holds off Moravian to win season-opening nailbiter