as District 11 champion Northwestern Lehigh defeated the District 2 champion, 42-14, on Friday night at Crispin Field<\/a>, ending the Cavaliers\u2019 season in the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinals for the third straight season.<\/p>\nHowever, that play and that drive proved a microcosm of their season, as the Cavaliers (8-6) never gave up against any adversity all season.<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep started the season 0-3, playing without its star quarterback McPartland as he worked his way back from a torn ACL he suffered in the state quarterfinal loss last season. The Cavaliers lost to Valley View, 14-10, in the season opener, and then dropped games against tough nonconference opponents Loyola Blakefield, 45-13, and Canisius, 41-28.<\/p>\n
They looked headed for an 0-4 start when they trailed eventual District 2 Class 5A champion Delaware Valley, 31-7, in the third quarter. However, McPartland\u2019s stellar return, which included seven touchdowns and more than 400 yards of offense, propelled Scranton Prep to a 49-44 victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super proud. We\u2019ve been through thick and thin together,\u201d McPartland said. \u201cIt says a lot about who we are as people. I\u2019m just really proud of the way we fought, even until the end. Just going down with a fight, it shows who we really are and how much we care about the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
From their, the Cavaliers won six of their next eight games, including a 42-7 rout of undefeated Berwick in the District 2 Class 3A title game.<\/p>\n
Once again, Scranton Prep found itself down, 14-0, against District 4 champion Mifflinburg in the first round of states, but again rallied for a 28-21 victory, holding the Wildcats scoreless in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows how good our coaches are, it shows what they\u2019ve been through and how they coach us,\u201d Croom said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been through a lot all season and our coaches have just been on us, saying you\u2019re gonna go through adversity. You\u2019ve just got to keep pushing and we believe it, we all bought in, we trust that and we play to the final whistle regardless of win or loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers fell behind less than three minutes into Friday\u2019s game, when Braxton Lakatosh intercepted a McPartland pass and returned it 34 yards for a touchdown.<\/p>\n
However, Scranton Prep answered with Will and Braedon McPartland. Braedon secured two first downs with runs of 15 and seven yards, while Will\u2019s 33-yard run set up his two-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 7 with 6:07 left in the first.<\/p>\n
When the Northwestern Lehigh offense stepped on the field, quarterback Shane Leh put the pedal to the medal. The Marist commit was 5 for 5 on the up-tempo drive, including an 11-yard touchdown pass to Brady Zimmerman to give the defending state champion Tigers, who are on a 30-game win streak, a 14-7 lead with 3:57 left in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep moved the ball into Northwestern Lehigh territory on the ensuing possession, but two penalties stalled the drive. Then, the ball was snapped over the head of punter Owen Jeffers, who did a nice job recovering the ball and getting the punt off.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, they have a great group of kids, but you can\u2019t make mistakes like that against really good football teams,\u201d Scranton Prep coach Terry Gallagher said. \u201cIf you make mistakes like that, it\u2019s gonna cost you, and I thought we made a ton of self-inflicted mistakes that cost us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leh went back to work, going 4 for 4 on the drive including an 11-yard touchdown pass to Shane Hulmes for a 21-7 lead with 8:10 left in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
After a Scranton Prep punt, Croom forced a turnover on downs, breaking up a pass on fourth-and-5 \u2014 Leh\u2019s first incompletion with 3:57 left in the second quarter after completing 10 straight passes.<\/p>\n
However, the Cavaliers turned the ball over on downs, and Leh hit Michael Lagowy down the middle for a 19-yard touchdown to give the Tigers a 28-7 advantage with 18 seconds left in the half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe run game wasn\u2019t working as well as we wanted it to, but the pass game was on fire tonight, and you\u2019ve got to give props to the linemen blocking and giving me time back there,\u201d said Leh, who finished the game 17 of 19 for 225 yards passing and five touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Leh added a six-yard touchdown pass to Zimmerman to start the third quarter before Scranton Prep\u2019s final touchdown drive of the season, with\u00a0Will McPartland\u2019s 18-yard pass to Croom sparking the score.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll year we\u2019ve had a connection, Will and I and Will and all the receivers, and I was just able to get open and able to make a play,\u201d Croom said. \u201cI knew he had my back, I knew he knew where I was gonna be and we just made it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will McPartland then secured two first downs on runs of four and 12 yards before Noah Krzywiec set the Cavaliers up on the five-yard line with a 12-yard run. On third-and-4, Will McPartland hit Sean McCormack in the corner of the end zone to cut the deficit to 35-14 with 11:20 left in the fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says a lot about the seniors, the leadership, just not going down without a fight, and just showing kind of who we are,\u201d Will McPartland said.<\/p>\n
Kaleb Pagnotti and Braedon McPartland had back-to-back tackles for no-yard and one-yard gains, respectively, and forced a three-and-out. However, Northwestern Lehigh answered by also forcing a three-and-out. On the ensuing possession, Leh hit Zimmerman for a 40-yard touchdown on fourth-and-7 for the 42-14 lead with 4:37 left in the game.<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers never stopped fighting, driving into Northwestern Lehigh territory two more times, but couldn\u2019t find the end zone again. Their senior leader Will McPartland finished with 79 yards rushing and a touchdown on 16 carries and was 9 for 22 for 95 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t rather do it with any other guys,\u201d said Croom, who finished with three catches for 40 yards. \u201cThe guys in this locker room, the guys I play for, we all put on the same jersey. I wouldn\u2019t trade them for anyone else. We\u2019ve done a lot, we\u2019ve been through a lot, we took some lumps together, we\u2018ve had some highs together and I wouldn\u2019t trade it for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northwestern Lehigh (14-0) will face District 3 champion Trinity next weekend in the semifinals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton Prep\u2019s Sean McCormack (19) reacts after a penalty is called on his teammate during the PIAA Class…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-41431","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\/41431","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=41431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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