OLD FORGE \u2014 Pizza was being served at the concession stand, but on the field, Old Forge\u2019s defense was serving up turnovers.<\/p>\n
The Blue Devils forced a seven turnovers \u2014 four fumbles and three interceptions \u2014 as they picked up their first win of the season, 36-6, over Tunkhannock Area in a nonconference football game Friday night at Old Forge Veterans Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n
Elio Castaldi intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. Rylan Gutowski had an interception and recovered a fumble, and Dante Gonzalez and Aaron Mohammed recovered fumbles to lead a dominant night for the Blue Devils.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working hard all week, we haven\u2019t played as well as we think we could have,\u201d Old Forge head coach Michael Schuback said. \u201cWe moved some guys around and made some changes to the starting lineup, and it was able to come together tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issues for Tunkhannock\u2019s offense started right out of the gate when an errant snap sailed over the punter\u2019s head and out of the end zone for a safety and the first points of the game. The Blue Devils then took the free kick right down the field as quarterback Parker Harte hit Ayden Aversa for a 27-yard touchdown pass and an 8-0 lead.<\/p>\n
The second quarter is when the turnovers really started to pile up as Castaldi recovered a fumble in the end zone for a Blue Devils touchdown, and Gonzalez recovered a fumble that led to a Cristopher Nino 20-yard field goal.<\/p>\n
Old Forge\u2019s offense got its share, too, as Harte threw a 21-yard touchdown to Joey Dominick, and Aversa scored his second touchdown on a reverse with 29 seconds to go in the second quarter, giving the Blue Devils a 29-6 halftime lead.<\/p>\n
Tunkhannock\u2019s last ditch try to score before halftime ended with an interception by Castaldi.<\/p>\n
Old Forge wasted little time at the start of the third quarter as Mohammed forced and recover a fumble on Tunkhannock\u2019s opening drive, and Gutowski capitalized with a 15-yard touchdown run to cap the scoring.<\/p>\n
Gutowski finished with 106 yards on the ground, and Harte passed for 107 yards and two scores. Aversa had five receptions and Dominick four for the Blue Devils.<\/p>\n
Tunkhannock\u2019s only score came on an 80-yard touchdown run from Lucas Ciprich in the second quarter. Ciprich finished with a game-high 152 yards rushing on 15 carries.<\/p>\n
A celebratory night would turn into a somber one as Old Forge freshman Carlo Pisano suffered a gruesome leg injury with one minute to go in the game. Both teams agreed to let the clock run down as Pisano was taken from the field in an ambulance and both teams met at the 50-yard line for a postgame prayer.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Pisano) didn\u2019t even shed a tear, he\u2019s a warrior, such a tough kid,\u201d Schuback said as several members of his team were fighting back tears. \u201cOur ninth grade class is a tough bunch of kids. They\u2019re really playing hard for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OLD FORGE \u2014 Pizza was being served at the concession stand, but on the field, Old Forge\u2019s defense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-289613","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\/289613","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=289613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}