Expand<\/a><\/p>\nMOSCOW \u2013 Scranton Prep and North Pocono presented an unforgettable performance for the thousands of high school football fans who crammed into the North Pocono Trojans bleachers Friday night.<\/p>\n
Owen Jeffers saw an opening and sprinted through it for a touchdown. Braedon McPartland then delivered a punishing, unrelenting run for a 2-point conversion, ending a clash of champions and setting off a frenzied celebration.<\/p>\n
No. 3 Scranton Prep earned a 37-36 win over No. 1 North Pocono in a showdown that lasted three overtimes between top teams in the Lackawanna Football Conference Division I.<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep (6-1 overall, 4-0 in the division) seized sole possession of first place in the division. North Pocono (6-1, 3-1) lost for the first time in 16 regular-season games.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll week, everybody said this was a championship week,\u201d Jeffers said. \u201cTwo top teams in the league. It was going to be a hard-nosed game. In the first half, it was physical, low-scoring. Things started opening up a little in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really us having trust in our guys. Everybody does their job, and you win games like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeffers threw for 161 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 59 yards and three scores, including the one in the third overtime, pulling Scranton Prep to within 36-35.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe line gave me time,\u201d Jeffers said. \u201cGuys got out of their rush lanes. North Pocono covered the pass well. I had to make a play in that situation to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
A penalty against North Pocono advanced the ball to the 1-yard line. McPartland took a direct snap, withstood a physical tackle attempt, and powered across the goal line for the game-winning 2-pointer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played good teams in the beginning of the year, so in times like this, in a tough game, we know that we will respond,\u201d said McPartland, who finished with 43 yards rushing and 75 yards on five receptions. \u201cIt was an amazing game. Even the referee said to me, \u2018When you are 60 like me, you are going to remember this game.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI am going to cherish this for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wild finish added the exclamation point after Scranton Prep and North Pocono slugged it out for 48 minutes and 18 extra plays in the three overtimes.<\/p>\n
All the stars supplied big plays, and the game had an old-school-clash feel, featuring intense play on the line of scrimmage, open-field collisions and an overflow of emotion.<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep scored first when Jeffers raced in on a 22-yard run on the opening possession.<\/p>\n
North Pocono answered right back when Chase Zimmerman capped a 12-play, 80-yard drive with a 1-yard sneak with 3:19 remaining in the first.<\/p>\n
The teams failed on chances to build a lead. North Pocono kicker Shane Youngblood just missed a 39-yard field goal late in the half. Scranton Prep kicker Tyler Bianchi had a 33-yard field goal attempt at the end of the second blocked by North Pocono\u2019s Henry Wolff.<\/p>\n
On its first possession of the second half, North Pocono took a 14-7 lead on a Wolff 11-yard burst through the middle with 8:23 on the clock. Wolff finished with 119 yards on 26 carries for the Trojans.<\/p>\n
North Pocono\u2019s defense held the Cavaliers out of the end zone through most of the second half. The Trojans then marched down the field and reached the Scranton Prep 25 but failed to score.<\/p>\n
Jeffers connected with Ricky Dewey for a 29-yard reception that led to a 12-yard touchdown pass to McPartland with 2:26 remaining, locking the teams up at 14.<\/p>\n
In the extra time, Cole West, who missed the last game with an injury, threw a touchdown pass to Jayden Taylor.<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep had a couple of penalties on its possession, but Jeffers scrambled and hit McPartland for 12 yards, and Dewey cradled one in a low pass for a 5-yard touchdown on fourth down to tie it at 21.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had our two receivers crossing over the middle, and the linebacker split, and I just needed Owen to get me the ball,\u201d Dewey said. \u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe it. It was so crazy to me. I caught it, and I feel great about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep started the second overtime and turned to McPartland on three straight carries. Jeffers finished the drive with a 1-yard plunge. After a penalty on North Pocono, Brandon Farmer just lunged into the end zone for a 2-point conversion.<\/p>\n
North Pocono tied it again. Chase Zimmerman, who had 136 passing yards on 7 of 13, found Wolff, who toe-tapped for a touchdown on fourth down. Matt Laboranti caught the tying 2-point conversion.<\/p>\n
West took the first play of the third overtime with an explosive run to give the Trojans a 36-29 lead, setting up Scranton Prep\u2019s wild response and finish to win the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton Prep\u2019s Noah Krzyweic (2) runs the ball during a football game on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. JASON…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-303548","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\/303548","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=303548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-12.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-15.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-17.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-13.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-14.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-10.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-1.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-2.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-3.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-9.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-7.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-4.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-8.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-11.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-16.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-19.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-21.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-18.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-20.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-NPFOOTBALL-1010-6.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n