Expand<\/a><\/p>\nSCRANTON \u2014 Matt Nawrocki admits he\u2019s never seen it before.<\/p>\n
Two players with back-to-back, interception returns for touchdowns less than one minute apart. But the Wallenpaupack coach is quick with another observation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind seeing more of it from our side,\u201d he smiled.<\/p>\n
With the way his Buckhorns have been playing on the defensive side of the ball, anything and everything is possible.<\/p>\n
Jaxton Pouliot and Cade Pittinger had the house calls in the second quarter as Wallenpaupack eased past Scranton, 54-0, on Friday night in a Lackawanna Football Conference Division I game at Scranton Veterans Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n
Wallenpaupack (3-1) ran for 364 yards as Edward Kiesendahl and Ben Defeo each finished with more than 100 yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose interceptions, credit to our kids because they are just doing what they are coached to do,\u201d Nawrocki said. \u201cThey were in positions where they were supposed to be, and they are trusting it right now. I would contribute our last two wins to defense and special teams. We\u2019ve created a lot of turnovers, and that\u2019s something we preach in practice every day. To see it come out on the field, it\u2019s really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edward Kiesendahl\u2019s third touchdown of the game, a 2-yard run through the middle, gave Paupack the 21-0 lead with 9:40 left before halftime.<\/p>\n
Enter Pouliot.<\/p>\n
On a second-down play, the Buckhorns junior jumped the route perfectly, picking off quarterback Christopher Manning with nothing but green turf in front of him. Twenty yards later, Pouliot had the first touchdown of his high school career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just dropped back in my coverage. I was watching the quarterback the entire time, so I was able to undercut the ball and go for six,\u201d Pouliot said. \u201cI had a lot of confidence in that moment that I was going to be able to make the catch and run it in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enter Pittinger.<\/p>\n
Two plays after Pouliot\u2019s pick-6, Pittinger also perfectly read a screen pass \u2014 picking off Scranton\u2019s second quarterback Jack Cabets near the Buckhorns sideline and taking it back 26 yards for the score.<\/p>\n
In a two-minute span, a two-score lead blossomed to a five-touchdown bulge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw what they lined up in, and I heard our sideline calling out about the screen,\u201d Pittinger said. \u201cI sat back, saw it and just went after it. Honestly, my mentality at that moment was to get into the end zone. Nothing was going to stop me.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack-to-back picks like that, it was awesome. The defense was just so hyped in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Buckhorns\u2019 defense was tenacious and ferocious, holding the Knights to 15 yards for the game as Scranton fumbled 10 times \u2014 losing one of them late in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defense played amazing. It\u2019s always an amazing game when you can shut out a team,\u201d Pouliot said. \u201cI am just so proud of them. The defense played great. Now, we have to work hard in practice, and watch a lot of film going into next week (against Delaware Valley). We will be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scranton\u2019s best drive came on its opening possession as a long kickoff return by Sean Fairweather set up the Knights in Wallenpaupack territory. A Manning-to-Ismael Salazar completion pushed the ball in the red zone, but a bad snap on fourth down ended any scoring hopes.<\/p>\n
It was the only time Scranton (0-4) drove deep into Wallenpaupack\u2019s side of the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallenpaupack\u2019s Ben Defeo runs in the second half against Scranton at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Scranton on Friday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-289391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289391","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=289391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Wallenpaupack\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/STT-L-FB-PAUP-SCR-0919-01.jpg?w=620\")
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