PALMYRA TWP. \u2014 Ed Kiesendahl rushed for 142 yards and a pair of touchdowns and Jack Rafferty hauled in a pair of touchdown receptions from Sam Kiesendahl to lead Wallenpaupack past Berwick, 31-14, in the District 2 Class 4A quarterfinals Friday at Wallenpaupack High School.<\/p>\n
Without the likes of leading rusher Gavin Galutia, leading pass-catcher Gabe Decker, key contributor Jake Lisnock and others, the Bulldogs\u2019 season unraveled quickly against the fourth-seeded Buckhorns, who advance to face No. 1 Dallas in the semifinals next week. Dallas defeated Hanover Area, 48-14, on Friday.<\/p>\n
On the first drive of the game, Brady Cleaver \u2014 who made his return to the Bulldogs\u2019 starting lineup for the first time since Week 4 \u2014 missed his twin brother Bryce on what could have been a sure-touchdown pass. Instead, the Bulldogs had to punt, which turned into a muffed punt that only went four yards.<\/p>\n
Several plays later, the Buckhorns (7-4) struck first on an Ed Kiesendahl 8-yard run for the first score of the game.<\/p>\n
On Berwick\u2019s next possession, the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (5-6) lost a fumble that set the Buckhorns up in close scoring range. It only took a few more plays before Rafferty reeled in a 13-yard pass from Sam Kiesendahl to push Wallenpaupack\u2019s lead to 14-0.<\/p>\n
Shiloh Escobar stopped the Buckhorns on fourth-and-1 on their third drive of the night at the Berwick 20. With the new-found life, the Bulldogs\u2019 offense drove into Buckhorns territory, but a Cleaver pass was tipped and intercepted, setting up a long return for the Buckhorns.<\/p>\n
Ed Kiesendahl only needed three plays to move the Buckhorns 49 yards for a score, which included a 28-yard gallop to the end zone with 3:27 left in the half.<\/p>\n
The quick lead for the Buckhorns did not deter the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
Aided by a Cleaver 40-yard scamper on the next drive, the Bulldogs finished off a long scoring drive to end the first half when Cleaver connected with Shiloh Escopar on a 9-yard strike, bringing the score to 21-7 with 17.1 seconds left to play.<\/p>\n
To start the second half, the Bulldogs managed to keep the Buckhorns off the scoreboard on their first possession, keeping them far enough away to miss a field goal attempt with 7:35 left in the third.<\/p>\n
From there, Berwick drove 80 yards, thanks to a 59-yards scurry by Cleaver that set up his 6-yard scoring run that pulled Berwick to within a score.<\/p>\n
Berwick kept its defensive pressure on in the fourth quarter, even though the Buckhorns mounted a long drive that took plenty of time off the clock. It didn\u2019t result in a touchdown for the Buckhorns despite the strong running of Ed Kiesendahl and Rafferty, but it did allow Colby Bonagura to boot a 45-yard field goal for a 24-14 lead with 7:10 left.<\/p>\n
Then came a big play, when on fourth-and-6 from its own 35, Cleaver fired a pass over the head of his intended receiver, resulting in a turnover on downs with less than five minutes left.<\/p>\n
Rafferty then put the game away for the Buckhorns with a 27-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown that gave Wallenpaupack a 31-14 lead.<\/p>\n
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALMYRA TWP. \u2014 Ed Kiesendahl rushed for 142 yards and a pair of touchdowns and Jack Rafferty hauled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-323473","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\/323473","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=323473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}