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WVC football: Big fourth quarter powers Nanticoke Area past Holy Redeemer

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WVC football: Western Wayne shuts out Hanover Area

YATESVILLE &#8212; For two quarters, Pittston Area held Wallenpaupack in check in the running game and led by seven points at halftime.But, when you&#8217;re outsized in the interior, it&#8217;s a matter of time before that catches up with you.In the second half, the Buckhorns&#8217; offense busted through the Patriots line for more than 100 yards on the ground, including 130 from Shadrak Agyei in the second half alone en route to a 21-14 victory on Friday night at Charley Trippi Stadium.&#8220;When you have guys like that are leaning on ya for four quarters &#8211; and we don&#8217;t have a lot of depth on the D-line either so we&#8217;re running, six, seven kids in but they get smaller as we go &#8211; they just wore us out with their size,&#8221; Patriots coach Nick Barbieri said.Wallenpaupack (2-3) has four linemen on the roster listed at 275 pounds or more. The Patriots (1-4) have two such players, and they&#8217;re both sophomores. Meanwhile, the Patriots were playing linemen that were outweighed by about 100 pounds. That&#8217;s how &#8217;Paupack wore down the Pittston Area line in the second half. Agyei, who went for a game-high 154 yards, broke off just one big run in the evening, a 49-yarder in the fourth quarter that setup his go-ahead 11-yard TD run with 10:13 to go that gave the team a 21-14 lead.On 24 carries, Agyei had five runs of 10 yards or more as he picked on the Patriots&#8217; defense.&#8220;That&#8217;s gonna be our problem. We can throw it. But we can&#8217;t stop the run, and we can&#8217;t run the ball. And in high school football, you&#8217;re in trouble if you can&#8217;t do either of those things,&#8221; Barbieri said. &#8220;We&#8217;re trying. We fought for four quarters. We did the best we could, but we&#8217;re just outmanned up front right now, size-wise. We&#8217;re fighting. Don&#8217;t get me wrong. Our 160-, 170-pound guards going after 270-pound tackles for four quarters is tough. It&#8217;s a physics thing right now.&#8221;Pittston Area only managed 89 yards on the ground on 26 carries, but quarterback Mike Nocito had a big game. The senior tossed for 236 yards completing 18 of 34 passes with a pair of interceptions and ran for a touchdown. His favorite target was Andrew Krawczyk, who hauled in nine receptions for 142 yards.&#8220;He&#8217;s the kind of kid that&#8217;s gonna put everything on him. Whether he plays great or he doesn&#8217;t he&#8217;s gonna put it on him,&#8221; Barbieri said about Nocito. &#8220;He comes up to me after the game and apologized to me. For what? He had a great night. A couple balls weren&#8217;t perfect, but nobody has a perfect night. My heart breaks for him because he&#8217;s trying his hardest. He&#8217;s doing a great job. We&#8217;re just not balanced enough to help him out.&#8221;The Patriots went up 7-0 after their first drive of the game went for 65 yards on 12 plays, including a fake punt on a fourth-and-6, capped on a 1-yard dive from Dylan Lukachko.Wallenpaupack answered right back with a seven-play, 74-yard drive to tie the game at 7-7 on a 8-yard score from Agyei with 31 seconds remaining in the first quarter.Pittston Area went ahead 14-7 on the last play of the first half when Nocito ran around the end for a 2-yard TD putting the team in front.The Buckhorns tied it up at 14-14 on a 63-yard passing play from Alex Gardsy to JT Tirjan with 3:49 to go in the third.<ins>Wallenpaupack 21, Pittston Area 14</ins><ins>Wallenpaupack `7`0`7`7`&#8212;`21</ins><ins>Pittston Area`7&#8217;7`0`0`&#8212;`14</ins><ins>First Quarter</ins><ins>PA &#8211; Dylan Lukachko 1 run (Matt Soy kick) 4:28</ins><ins>WAL &#8211; Shedrak Agyei 8 run (Roman Levant kick) :31</ins><ins>Second Quarter</ins><ins>PA &#8211; Mike Nocito 2 run (Soy kick) :00</ins><ins>Third Quarter</ins><ins>WAL &#8211; JT Tirjan 63 pass from Alex Gardsy (Levant kick) 3:49</ins><ins>Fourth Quarter</ins><ins>WAL &#8211; Agyei 11 run (Levant kick) 10:13</ins><ins>Team statistics`WAL`PA</ins><ins>First downs`13`14</ins><ins>Rushes-yards`33-216`26-89</ins><ins>Passing yards`84`261</ins><ins>Total yards`300`350</ins><ins>Passing`16-28-0`19-35-2</ins><ins>Sacks by-yards lost`0-0`0-0</ins><ins>Punts-avg.`2-35.0`2-33.0</ins><ins>Fumbles-lost`0-0`4-1</ins><ins>Penalties-yards`3-20`3-15</ins><ins>INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS</ins><ins>PASSING &#8211; WAL, Alex Gardsy 5-10-0-84. PA Mike Nocito 18-34-2-236, Jimmy Spindler 1-1-0-25.</ins><ins>RUSHING&#8212; WAL, Shadrak Agyei 24-154, Alex Gardsy 3-41, Seamus Smith 4-23, TEAM 2-(minus-2). PA, Dylan Lukachko 17-64, Mike Nocito 5-18, Devin Atkins 4-7.</ins><ins>RECEIVING&#8212; WAL, Josh Cruz 1-15, Agyei 2-3, JT Tirjan 2-66. PA, Franny George 2-15, Andrew Krawczyk 9-142, Alex Anastasi 6-57, Brennan Higgins 2-47.</ins><ins>INTERCEPTIONS &#8211; WAL, Matt Horak. Tirjan.</ins><ins>MISSED FG&#8217;S &#8211; WAL, Levant (43, short).</ins><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Dave RosengrantFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div>

WVC football: Paupack pulls away from Patriots with run game