40-36 victory for the District 2 champs in the PIAA Class 4A first round<\/a> Friday night at Jack Mancini Stadium.<\/p>\nIt was a game that featured six lead changes in the final 16 minutes with West\u2019s touchdown landing the final blow for North Pocono (13-0). The Trojans advance to the quarterfinals next week against the District 12 champion, either Cardinal O\u2019Hara or West Philadelphia. Those teams are scheduled to play Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis game was just body shot after body shot,\u201d West said. \u201cCoach Dolhon preached to us that we had to keep punching. That\u2019s why this was such a great game. They got out a few times, but ultimately we had the better team and got through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Josiah Gray carried 22 times for 139 yards and three touchdowns. He also recovered the fumble that sealed the victory for the Trojans. West added 84 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries and quarterback Chase Zimmerman ran for 59 yards and a score and threw for 90 yards.<\/p>\n
Quarterback Anthony Aquila passed for 231 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 55 yards and another score for Bishop Shanahan (8-5). Aidan Civitella had seven catches for 168 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n
The second of those scoring receptions, a 50-yarder with 2:14 to play, gave the District 1 champion Eagles a 36-33 lead.<\/p>\n
On the home sideline, though, Bishop Shanahan coach Paul Meyers had the same feeling that North Pocono had.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, we did look at the clock and thought that,\u201d Meyers said. \u201cTheir size wore us down during the game. I think that was the difference, just coming right at us. We battled, our kids gave us everything. Just a little too light in the (butt) and it caught up to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the ball near midfield and two timeouts, North Pocono coach Greg Dolhon didn\u2019t think his team\u2019s running game could be stopped. The Trojans finished with 303 yards on the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think we needed to throw the ball,\u201d Dolhon said. \u201cSomebody said, \u2018We\u2019ve got to throw\u2019 and I said, No, we\u2019re going to run the ball for a touchdown and win the game. Because I thought we could run at them.\u201d<\/p>\n
West returned the ensuing kickoff 21 yards to his 45. Gray ran for five yards on first down and Aidan Maguire for one yard on second down to set up third-and-4 at the Bishop Shanahan 49. Zimmerman went for 13 yards to pick up the first down to the 36 and West carried for 15 yards to move the ball to the 21. West then took a direct snap and ran to his right. He broke two tackles at the 15 and kept going. He carried two Eagles defenders on his back the final four yards before falling across the goal line for the touchdown. Shane Youngblood\u2019s kick made it 40-36 with 45.5 seconds left.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts up front with everybody. That doesn\u2019t happen without the team,\u201d West said. \u201cRight before the play happened, (offensive lineman) Warren (Kramer) said, \u2018Run right behind me\u2019 and that\u2019s what I did. I trust my guys. Nothing happens without them. And\u00a0Coach Dolhon had faith in me to get the ball in, so that\u2019s what I had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Bishop Shanahan had time. Danny Keenan returned a short kickoff to the North Pocono 49. On first down, Aquila looked to pass. He felt some pressure and stepped up in the pocket. That\u2019s when the Trojans\u2019 Seamus Maguire sacked Aquila from behind and forced a fumble. Gray was there to recover for North Pocono with 34.5 seconds left, touching off a wild celebration by the players and the large group of North Pocono fans who made the two-plus-hour trip for the game and packed their side of the bleachers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just rushed the quarterback and tried to make a big play,\u201d Maguire said. \u201cHe stepped up in the pocket and came right back out. I slipped the guy who was blocking me, made a hit and the ball came out. I saw Josiah fall on it. It was a great play by my friend. Couldn\u2019t ask for any better teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great, intense, physical game. I feel good playing in these types of games. I enjoy playing in the close games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recovering the game-clinching fumble meant more to Gray than his three touchdowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it solidified the game and there was no chance for them to come back after that,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI dropped back in pass coverage to make sure nothing got behind me. I saw my outside linebacker Seamus come around and swipe the ball. I saw it on the ground. I just jumped on it and made sure I had control of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offensively, Gray\u2019s third touchdown \u2014 an 18-yard run with 7:06 left in the third quarter \u2014 gave North Pocono a 20-7 lead. He had a pair of 3-yard touchdown runs in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
But Bishop Shanahan scored twice in a 47-second span to take its first lead. Aquila had an 8-yard touchdown run with 4:51 left in the third. Then, two plays into the ensuing North Pocono possession, a Zimmerman pass was deflected at the line of scrimmage and into the arms of Keenan, who returned it 24 yards for a touchdown with 4:04 left, giving the Eagles a 21-20 lead. Salvi Debellis added both extra points.<\/p>\n
That ignited a scoring spree that saw each team keep answering the other.<\/p>\n
North Pocono put together an 11-play, 64-yard drive, culminating in a 4-yard touchdown run by West, that gave the Trojans a 26-21 lead with 11:38 left in the fourth quarter as the two-point conversion try was no good.<\/p>\n
Facing third-and-14 from their 48, Aquila and Civitella connected for a 52-yard touchdown pass on Bishop Shanahan\u2019s next possession. Aquila then gave a shovel pass to Nate Bracken for the two-point conversion and put the Eagles in front, 29-26, with 8:29 to play.<\/p>\n
Henry Wolff returned the ensuing kickoff 34 yards to the Bishop Shanahan 46. That set up an eight-play scoring drive for North Pocono with Zimmerman scoring on a 1-yard sneak on third-and-goal with 3:39 remaining. Youngblood\u2019s kick gave the Trojans a 33-29 lead.<\/p>\n
Aquila and Civitella then connected on their 50-yard touchdown to give the Eagles the lead one final time. However, the score wound up happening too quick and North Pocono was able to rally again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of our kids,\u201d Dolhon said. \u201cI want to say hats off to (Bishop Shanahan). They\u2019re a good program, they\u2019ve got great players. Their quarterback is an excellent player and No. 7 (Civitella) is a great wideout. We just had a little more tonight. I think the game always comes down to five or seven plays and I think we made the majority of those five to seven plays.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Pocono Head Coach Greg Dolhon points to the fans after defeating Bishop Shanahan for the PIAA Class…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-35136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-high-school-sports","9":"tag-scranton","10":"tag-scranton-headlines","11":"tag-scranton-news","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35136","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=35136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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