Thursday night lights return with an important Lackawanna Football Conference Division I matchup.<\/p>\n
Wallenpaupack (5-1) takes its five-game winning streak on the road to face Abington Heights (2-4) at Abington Heights High School Athletic Complex at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
After an opening week loss to Honesdale, Wallenpaupack has built confidence and posted impressive wins to tie for first in the LFC Division I with North Pocono and Scranton Prep.<\/p>\n
Edward Kiesendahl, a senior running back\/linebacker, fueled the turnaround with 823 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns. The Buckhorns\u2019 running attack leads the division at 270.8 yards per game.<\/p>\n
Anthony Kiesendahl ranks fourth in the division with 393 rushing yards.<\/p>\n
Wallenpaupack quarterback Jake Rafferty is coming off a strong game against West Scranton. He had 50 rushing yards and a touchdown and completed 7 of 9 passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n
The Buckhorns have allowed just 35 points during the winning streak. Freshman linebacker Billy Motz leads the team with 37 tackles, including 4.5 for a loss. Tyler Preston has 33 tackles and a team-high 4.5 sacks, and Edward Kiesendahl has 31 tackles. Jaxton Pouliot has three interceptions and Cade Pittenger has two.<\/p>\n
Abington Heights is holding onto the No. 1 spot in the District 2 Class 5A playoff chase. Only two of the three \u2013 Abington Heights, Pittston Area, and Delaware Valley \u2013 will qualify for the title game.<\/p>\n
Jayden Anglin leads Division I with 874 rushing yards, but the Comets are struggling to score with only 90 points in six games (15 points per game). North Pocono and Scranton Prep shut out Abington Heights in the last two weeks.<\/p>\n
Quarterback Noah Kayal returned from an early season injury and has completed 15 of 35 passes for 97 yards.<\/p>\n
Abington Heights limited North Pocono to a season-low 21 points, Allentown Central Catholic (4-2) to 10 points and shut out Trinity Prep of Florida.<\/p>\n
Anglin, a linebacker, leads the team in tackles.<\/p>\n
Lakeland celebration<\/p>\n
For the second time this season, Lakeland will honor one of its best high school football teams in a halftime ceremony at its home game against Honesdale on Friday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
The program will celebrate the 1976 Suburban Conference and Eastern Conference Class B championship team that finished 12-1. Captains Jerry Boyarsky, Matt Allen and Bruce Hill led that season\u2019s Chiefs, who were the first to play at Lakeland Stadium. Lakeland played in Mayfield before the opening of the new facility.<\/p>\n
Lakeland defeated Schuylkill Haven, 21-7, and was ranked No. 1 in the state by the United Press International in Class 2A. It was the second of three straight Eastern Conference Class B titles for the program.<\/p>\n
Boysarsky is Lakeland\u2019s most accomplished player. He played at the University of Pittsburgh and had a nine-year NFL career with the New Orleans Saints, Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n
In 1976, Boyarsky was awarded the Suburban Conference\u2019s Lineman of the Year award after leading the team with 95 tackles. Hill was the Back of the Year after completing 47 of 75 passes for 1,179 yards and 19 touchdowns.<\/p>\n
In addition to Boyarsky, Hill and Allen, running back Mark King, linemen Joe Pisano and John Hayley, defensive end Dave White, linebacker Ray Tassiello and defensive back Tom Pidgeon were Suburban Conference first-team all-stars.<\/p>\n
Earlier this season, the school honored the 1980 Big 11 Conference championship team.<\/p>\n
Injury updates<\/p>\n
Lakeland quarterback and defensive back Jackson Pochas will miss the remainder of the season with a leg injury.\u00a0He left last week\u2019s 33-20 win over Riverside in an ambulance early in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
North Pocono all-state athlete Cole West, who missed last week\u2019s game against Wilkes-Barre Area, is expected to return against Scranton Prep on Friday.<\/p>\n
Mid Valley\u2019s Maicol Pacheco, who left last week\u2019s game against Dunmore, is recovering and improving, according to coach Stan Yanoski.<\/p>\n
Delaware Valley running back Devin Estevez and tight end James Dabney both returned to the starting lineup last week after missing games with injury and illness.<\/p>\n
LFC leaders<\/p>\n
Division I: Anglin leads with 874 rushing yards, and Edward Kiesendahl leads with 13 touchdowns and 78 points. West Scranton freshman quarterback Austin Sostre leads with 737 yards and seven passing touchdowns. Valley View sophomore Colin Dempsey has the top passer rating (176.1). West Scranton\u2019s Kaz Colbert has 28 receptions for 402 yards, leading in both categories. West Scranton\u2019s Jonye Sostre leads with four touchdown receptions. Scranton Prep\u2019s Tyler Bianchi has 26 extra points, and North Pocono\u2019s Shane Youngblood has four field goals. Bianchi and Youngblood are tied with 35 kicking points.<\/p>\n
Division II: Honesdale senior Gabe Duda leads with 954 rushing yards, 17 touchdowns, and 106 total points. Lakeland\u2019s Pochas leads with 691 passing yards. Dunmore\u2019s Brady McCormick has 10 touchdown passes and a 242.9 passer rating. Lakeland\u2019s Chase Rosenkrans leads with 29 receptions and 333 yards. Mid Valley\u2019s Nick Hricenak and Lakeland\u2019s Luke McFarland each have five receiving touchdowns. Dunmore\u2019s Russell Toole leads with 30 extra points.<\/p>\n
Division III: Carbondale Area\u2019s Caedon Voglino leads with 573 rushing yards, 10 total touchdowns, and 62 total points. Holy Cross\u2019 Chase Rutkoski leads with 648 passing yards and eight touchdowns. Lackawanna Trail\u2019s Lucas Filipek has the top passer rating (134.6). Old Forge\u2019s Ayden Aversa leads with 24 receptions. Holy Cross\u2019 Luca Berardi has 402 receiving yards. Aversa, Berardi, and Susquehanna\u2019s Mason Keyes each have four touchdown receptions. Montrose\u2019s Gabriel De Llano Duran has 19 extra points.<\/p>\n
7-WALLENPAUPACK
\nAT 9-ABINGTON HEIGHTS<\/p>\n
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Where: Abington Heights HS Athletic Complex<\/p>\n
Records: WAL 5-1, AH 2-4.<\/p>\n
Last: Abington Heights, 31-14 (2025)<\/p>\n
The buzz: Abington Heights leads the series, 22-4. Wallenpaupack has won five straight games after a loss to Honesdale in Week 1. Abington Heights has lost to teams with a combined 21-3 record. Wallenpaupack averages 41.2 points per game in its last five games. Abington Heights was shut out in the last two weeks against North Pocono and Scranton Prep.<\/p>\n
PLAYERS TO WATCH<\/p>\n
EVAN KEIPER,\u00a0Abington Heights, WR:\u00a0He caught three passes for 47 yards against Scranton Prep last week. He has four receptions for 52 yards this season and 18 total tackles.<\/p>\n
JAKE RAFFERTY,\u00a0Wallenpaupack, QB-DB:\u00a0He ran for 50 yards and a touchdown, and completed seven passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-0 win over West Scranton last week. He has 272 rushing yards and 460 passing yards this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday night lights return with an important Lackawanna Football Conference Division I matchup. Wallenpaupack (5-1) takes its five-game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-304044","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\/304044","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=304044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}