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Delaware Valley rolls past Hazleton Area for football subregional title

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H.S. Football: Dallas gives Berwick the boot in overtime

<p>WEST PITTSTON &#8211; When Lakeland coach Jeff Wasilchak put in a trick play this week, Chiefs quarterback C.J. Dippre was not convinced he would ever get to execute it in a game.</p><p>Surprise.</p><p>Wasilchak not only opened the game with a flea flicker, he went back to it late.</p><p>The two trick plays led to Lakeland touchdowns in the first three minutes and the last seven seconds of Saturday night&#8217;s game and led the Chiefs to a 21-14 upset of previously unbeaten Wyoming Area in the District 2 Class 3A football semifinals.</p><p>Dippre handed to tailback Giovanni Spataro, who headed toward the line, then pitched back to Dippre on the plays. That gave time for speedster Thomas Pidgeon to sprint down the right sideline where he caught passes for 40 and 44 yards.</p><p>&#8220;I was surprised we ran it first of all,&#8221; said Dippre, a 6-foot-5, 245-pound sophomore quarterback who threw for 167 yards and ran for the winning touchdown. &#8220;We put it in this Monday at practice.</p><p>&#8220;I never knew we were going to run it. We have a bunch of trick plays that we never ran.&#8221;</p><p>The first connection, on Lakeland&#8217;s first play after Wyoming Area had fumbled away the first play from scrimmage, set up the opening score as the Chiefs ran out to a 14-0 lead.</p><p>The second completion combined with a series of costly Wyoming Area penalties down the stretch to turn back an impressive comeback by the Warriors.</p><p>&#8220;We came back to it again and it worked,&#8221; Dippre said. &#8220;It put us in the spot to win the game.&#8221;</p><p>Dippre, who finished 7-for-10 with a touchdown, found Pidgeon for 44 yards to the Wyoming Area 7-yard line with 20.8 seconds left.</p><p>&#8220;In that situation, you can&#8217;t let anybody behind you whether it&#8217;s a special play or just a snap and somebody running by you,&#8221; said Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer, who credited Pidgeon for making the play on the catch.</p><p>With the teams jockeying for position and using up their timeouts, Lakeland hit one pass to the 3 and missed on a throw into the end zone.</p><p>The incompletion, however, was followed by consecutive penalties. The first was either pass interference or a personal foul, which is what the official signaled, and the second was unsportsmanlike conduct on the Warriors for their reaction.</p><p>Dippre then pushed it in from the 1 for the winning score.</p><p>The quarterback said the Chiefs were going for the touchdown, not trying to win with a field goal, the entire way.</p><p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t want to kick it,&#8221; Dippre said. &#8220;We figured we want to go for the win; we want to go for it all.&#8221;</p><p>Lakeland followed up the first flea flicker for 40 yards with a Giovanni Spataro 5-yard touchdown run on the next play.</p><p>That was just the start of an early dominance by the Chiefs, who will travel to top-seeded Scranton Prep for next weekend&#8217;s district championship game.</p><p>Lakeland outgained Wyoming Area 173-15 in the first 20 minutes. Dippre hit Colin Walsh with a 46-yard touchdown one play after a failed fake punt by the Warriors, who needed a pair of fourth-down stops in their territory to keep the second-quarter deficit down to 14-0.</p><p>Dominic DeLuca, who accounted for 165 of Wyoming Area&#8217;s 179 yards total offense with 1,000-yard rusher Corey Mruk on crutches on the sideline, led a drive that cut the deficit in half by halftime.</p><p>DeLuca completed two passes for 37 yards, then ran twice in a row from the 17 to complete the drive with 38.7 seconds left in the second quarter.</p><p>Wyoming Area kept pushing, tying the game and generating the better chances of breaking that tie before the final minute.</p><p>&#8220;Initially they did a great job coming out and establishing the run,&#8221; Spencer said. &#8220;I think we came back and kind of evened it out a little bit.</p><p>&#8220;We played well, then got into a situation to potentially get into overtime, but then they hit the big play and finished it on the short field.&#8221;</p><p>The tying score came on a 94-yard drive that took 5:45 off the clock in the third quarter.</p><p>DeLuca was 4-for-4 for 60 yards passing and ran four times for 31 yards, including the 10-yard touchdown, in that drive.</p><p>The Warriors were pinned at the 6 because they were penalized on an unnecessary block on a punt that was not even going to be returned.</p><p>Penalties hurt again when the Warriors returned a punt to the Lakeland 33 with 1:18 left.</p><p>Instead, an illegal block that did not help the return man, cost the Warriors 10 yards and an unsportsmanlike penalty in the aftermath moved the ball back 15 more.</p><p>Wyoming Area stalled, then punted 8 yards into the wind, setting up the winning sequence for Lakeland, which regained possession at its 49 with 29.1 seconds left.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>District 2 Class 3A Semifinal</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Lakeland 21, Wyoming Area 14</strong></p><p><strong>Lakeland`7`7`0`7`&#8212;`21</strong></p><p><strong>Wyoming Area`0`7`7`0`&#8212;`14</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>First quarter</strong></p><p>LAKE &#8211; Giovanni Spataro 5 run (Billy Good kick), 11:23</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Second quarter</strong></p><p>LAKE &#8211; Colin Walsh 46 pass from C.J. Dippre (Good kick), 5:29</p><p>WA &#8211; Dominic DeLuca 10 run (Aleah Kranson kick), 0:38.5</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Third quarter</strong></p><p>WA &#8211; DeLuca 17 run (Kranson kick), 0:41.0</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Fourth quarter</strong></p><p>LAKE &#8211; Dippre 1 run (Good kick), 0:06.9</p><p><strong>Team statistics`LAK`WA</strong></p><p>First downs`14`14</p><p>Rushes-yards`35-117`34-90</p><p>Passing yards`167`89</p><p>Total yards`284`179</p><p>Passing`7-10-0`8-14-0</p><p>Sacked-yards lost`2-11`2-13</p><p>Punts-avg.`4-27.3`3-17.7</p><p>Fumbles-lost`1-0`3-1</p><p>Penalties-yards`9-83`10-72</p><p><strong>INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS</strong></p><p><strong>RUSHING &#8212; </strong>LAKE, Giovanni Spataro 20-81, Josh Kovaleski 5-31, Thomas Pidgeon 2-11, C.J. Dippre 8-minus 6. WA, Dominic DeLuca 21-76, Nick Elko 3-12, Leo Haros 7-12, Zajquay Williamson 1-10, Brian Williams 1-minus 8, Team 1-minus 12.</p><p><strong>PASSING &#8212;</strong> LAKE, Dippre 7-10-0-167. WA, DeLuca 8-14-0-89.</p><p><strong>RECEIVING</strong> &#8212; LAKE, Pidgeon 3-84, Spataro 3-37, Walsh 1-46. WA, Williams 3-68, Haros 2-11, Derek Ambrosino 1-18, Cameron Carr 1-minus 3, DeLuca 1-minus 6.</p><p><strong>INTERCEPTIONS &#8212;</strong> None.</p><p><strong>MISSED FIELD GOALS &#8211; </strong>None.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area&#8217;s Brian Williams straddles the Warriors sideline on the opening kickoff before being brought down by Lakeland&#8217;s Josh Kovaleski in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal game Saturday night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111118HSF-WyoArea-Lakeland_1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Area&#8217;s Brian Williams straddles the Warriors sideline on the opening kickoff before being brought down by Lakeland&#8217;s Josh Kovaleski in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal game Saturday night. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111118HSF-WyoArea-Lakeland_2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area quarterback Dominic DeLuca scrambles and avoids a tackle on a 10-yard touchdown run against Lakeland in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal game Saturday night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111118HSF-WyoArea-Lakeland_2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wyoming Area quarterback Dominic DeLuca scrambles and avoids a tackle on a 10-yard touchdown run against Lakeland in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal game Saturday night. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111118HSF-WyoArea-Lakeland_3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area freshman running back Nick Elko plows into the Lakeland defensive line in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal game Saturday night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111118HSF-WyoArea-Lakeland_3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Wyoming Area freshman running back Nick Elko plows into the Lakeland defensive line in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal game Saturday night. </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111118HSF-WyoArea-Lakeland_4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area&#8217;s Leo Haros has the ball stripped by Lakeland&#8217;s Colin Walsh during a kickoff return in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal gameSaturday night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111118HSF-WyoArea-Lakeland_4.jpg</photo3><caption3>Wyoming Area&#8217;s Leo Haros has the ball stripped by Lakeland&#8217;s Colin Walsh during a kickoff return in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal gameSaturday night. </caption3><photoCredit3>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111118HSF-WyoArea-Lakeland_5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area kicker Aleah Kranson follows through on an extra point attempt as Dominic DeLuca holds in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal game against Lakeland on Saturday night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111118HSF-WyoArea-Lakeland_5.jpg</photo4><caption4>Wyoming Area kicker Aleah Kranson follows through on an extra point attempt as Dominic DeLuca holds in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal game against Lakeland on Saturday night. </caption4><photoCredit4>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Robinson</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>SATURDAY&#8217;S SCORES</strong></p><p><strong>D2/1-A Championship</strong></p><p>Lackawanna Trail 45, Bristol 7</p><p><strong>D2-2A Championship</strong></p><p>Dunmore 60, Susquehanna 19</p><p><strong>D2-3A Semifinal</strong></p><p>Scranton Prep 28, Western Wayne 0</p><p><strong>D2/11-5A Championship</strong></p><p>Wallenpaupack 29, East Stroud. South 7</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader Sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLSports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Area falls to Lakeland