as the third-seeded Bucks defeated No. 2 Riverside, 27-7, on a blustery Friday night at Riverside Veterans Memorial Stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\nDunmore avenged a 17-14 overtime loss in Week 1 and snapped a three-game losing streak in the series. More importantly, the Bucks (8-3) advanced to the District 2 Class 2A championship game for an 11th consecutive time dating back to 2014, with no title game in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came in with a chip on our shoulder because that Week 1 loss really stung, especially with how close it was and how well we played,\u201d Mecca said. \u201cThat motivated us a lot. Everything happens for a reason. We let it fuel us, and look at us now, we are in the district championship game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In the final, Dunmore earned another rematch when it travels to play Lakeland (10-1), which beat No. 4 Holy Redeemer, 49-0, in the other semifinal.<\/p>\n
Dunmore converted big plays into points in the second meeting with Riverside (8-3).<\/p>\n
In the season opener, the Bucks held a 299-92 advantage in total yards and an 18-3 edge in first downs, but couldn\u2019t overcome turnovers.<\/p>\n
Yannone and Mecca\u2019s speed and power running made the difference on offense this time.<\/p>\n
Dunmore did have a lost fumble on its second possession, but it shook it off when Yannone sprinted 72 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead after Johnley Jean\u2019s extra point with 2:53 left in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
The burst was the sixth touchdown of more than 40 yards in the last two weeks against the Riverside defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was important,\u201d Yannone said. \u201cWe knew it was going to be a dogfight, and we started slow. When I broke that one, I felt the wind leave their sails, and we got all the momentum.<\/p>\n
In the second, Yannone launched a pass that knifed through the whipping wind, and Jack Costanzo cradled it in over his shoulder for a 74-yard gain to the 2-yard line. After a penalty on Riverside, Yannone pushed his way in for a 14-0 lead with 7:08 left in the half.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that we had to limit the turnovers,\u201d Yannone said. \u201cWe had a couple, but we bounced back from them. We had to keep the ball in our hands. Riverside has a lot of weapons and a lot of trickery, so we had to stay disciplined. Our big plays hit, and I can\u2019t thank the line enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur whole team came together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunmore\u2019s defense overmatched Riverside, which struggled to execute some intricate play designs by juggling handoffs.<\/p>\n
Overall, the Vikings had nine plays that resulted in minus-50 yards. They also had five penalties for 55 yards and two interceptions.<\/p>\n
During the first half, Riverside had 71 total yards on 27 plays, with 41 yards coming on a Brayden Rose pass to Carmelo Barnett.<\/p>\n
Jackson Harding led the defensive charge for Dunmore. He had five tackles, then forced a fumble that he recovered and ran in for a touchdown that gave the Bucks a 20-0 lead with 7:58 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came out here looking to beat them physically,\u201d Harding said. \u201cThey have a big guy over there in (Tavian) Branch and some other big guys. We had to impose our will physically and let them know that we came to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunmore pushed the lead to 27-0 when Mecca took a handoff right and broke two tackles on his way to a 60-yard touchdown with 5:52 left that all but sealed the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the huddle when he called the play, all I thought was that I had to score,\u201d Mecca said. \u201cThe line blocked it perfectly, and I broke a few tackles. Once I got in the open field, nobody was going to catch me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Costanzo and Yannone had interceptions in the second half. Yannone prevented a touchdown, and he returned it 106 yards for a touchdown that got wiped out by a penalty.<\/p>\n
Riverside avoided the shutout when freshman Charlie Anstett scored on a 5-yard run with 28 seconds remaining. The Vikings, who won last season\u2019s district championship, ended the season with two straight losses at home.<\/p>\n
The loss also brought Tavian Branch\u2019s high school football career to a close. Riverside\u2019s outstanding two-way lineman, who is committed to Penn State and is taking a visit to Ole Miss, had three tackles for loss.<\/p>\n
Dunmore, which won a total of 14 championships and 13 in Class 2A, met Lakeland six times in the District 2 championship game, with the two traditional powers splitting the meetings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dunmore\u2019s Weston Yannone pushes back Riverside\u2019s Carmelo Barnett during the District 2 Class 2A semifinals at Riverside Veteran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-21916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-high-school-sports","9":"tag-scranton","10":"tag-scranton-headlines","11":"tag-scranton-news","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Riverside\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/STT-L-DUNRIVERFOOTBALL-103125-07.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Riverside\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/STT-L-DUNRIVERFOOTBALL-103125-02.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Dunmore\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/STT-L-DUNRIVERFOOTBALL-103125-06.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Dunmore\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/STT-L-DUNRIVERFOOTBALL-103125-04.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Riverside\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/STT-L-DUNRIVERFOOTBALL-103125-03.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Dunmore\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/STT-L-DUNRIVERFOOTBALL-103125-10.jpg\")
<\/p>\n