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H.S. Football: Crestwood, Dallas to battle for District 2 Class 4A championship

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There was no happy ending to Lake-Lehman&rsquo;s regular season.
				But that&rsquo;s over and it&rsquo;s on to the next pages. Whether the story continues on will be determined at 7 p.m. Friday when the Black Knights (7-1) travel to Lakeland (4-0) for the District 2 Class 3A football championship.
				&ldquo;We have tough kids and they know how to turn the page in the chapter,&rdquo; Lehman coach Jerry Gilsky said. &ldquo;And you have to in this scenario.&rdquo;
				Lehman was less than five minutes from the first undefeated regular season in school history on Saturday. Crestwood, though, scored with 4:44 left and then again with 34 seconds remaining to force overtime. The Comets won 20-17.
				&ldquo;They were in the red zone twice, we held them,&rdquo; Gilsky said. &ldquo;Realistically, you know how they run the ball. They got us on a couple big plays. When you&rsquo;re up seven and they&rsquo;re running the ball with four minutes left in the game I believe &#8230; you&rsquo;re like &lsquo;OK, keep it in front of us. Keep it in front of us. Eat the clock up.&rsquo;&rdquo;
				Crestwood struck for a long pass to set up the touchdown with 34 ticks left. Then after the overtime loss, the Black Knights had to wait to see if Scranton Prep was going to lose to Valley View or else their season would have been over.
				Prep fell and now Lehman is in the D2-3A title contest for the first time since 2017. The Black Knights last won a District 2 title in 2013 at the Class 2A level.
				Lakeland had a story of its own to tell. The Chiefs went into an Oct. 23 meeting with Dunmore all but certain it would be their last game of the season. The school district decided a few days earlier to shut down fall sports on Oct. 28 because of too many COVID-19 problems. The decision was reversed and Lakeland sat home last weekend waiting for things to unfold.
				Everything broke the Chiefs way as not only did they make the D2-3A title game they also got to host it with Lehman losing.
				Of course, it&rsquo;s not overly surprising considering Lakeland had a fairy book ending to its game with Wilkes-Barre Area on Oct. 13. A very rare Tuesday night game, arraigned just a few days earlier as both teams lost opponents because of COVID-19, had a very rare ending.
				WBA led 26-19 with 4.7 seconds left when it punted to Lakeland. Lakeland&rsquo;s Nick Mancuso returned the punt 75 yards for a touchdown and tight end CJ Dippre, lined up in the backfield, took a handoff on the two-point conversion try and tossed a pass to Rob Romanowski to give the Chiefs a 27-26 win.
				Lakeland overcame a sloppy first quarter a week later to defeat Dunmore 21-6. The Chiefs haven&rsquo;t played since.
				Dippre, a Maryland recruit, is a force on both sides of the ball. Senior running back Giovanni Spataro is the school&rsquo;s all-time leading rusher and has 552 yards and six TDs. He is averaging 8.5 yards per carry. Sophomore quarterback Dominico Spataro, Giovanni&rsquo;s brother, has settled in and has throw for 725 yards and 10 TDs with only one interception.
				Lehman quarterback Ethan Adams will finish the WVC season as the conference leader in passing yards (1,665) and passing touchdowns (18). Running back Ryan Eiden currently leads Division 2 in rushing yards with 529 and is tied for rushing touchdowns with nine.
				 The winner plays the District 3 champion &#8211; either Middletown (4-1) or Wyomissing (6-0) &#8211; next weekend in the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinals.

H.S. Football: Lake-Lehman heads to Lakeland to decide D2-3A championship