H.S. Football: New-look Hazleton Area opens with win over Pittston Area

Aug. 26—HAZLETON — Coming into the season, the expectation was that somebody was going to have to step up and lead the Hazleton Area offense after the departure of so many critical pieces from a year ago.

Brady Mizenko had it covered.

The senior shined in his first game as a lead back for the Cougars, rushing for 256 yards and a touchdown as Hazleton Area rolled through Pittston Area 28-7 to open up the season at Harman-Geist Memorial Field.

"I love Brady Mizenko and I'm so proud of him," said Hazleton Area coach Dennis Buchman after the game. "We've known for a while now, through this offseason, what he is."

Pittston Area became well acquainted with Mizenko as he bulldozed his way through the defense, shedding tacklers and hitting holes time and time again.

"We were working on it (the run game) all season, that was our game plan," Mizenko said. "We wanted to shove the ball down people's throats, and we came out here and we did that."

It wasn't an instant impact, as both teams spent the first quarter working out the kinks and trying to break through.

The Patriots, led by veteran quarterback Drew DeLucca, looked to pass early and often but couldn't find the chunk plays necessary to drive the ball down the field.

On the Hazleton Area side, a promising first drive came up empty as a would-be touchdown was negated by a holding penalty, and eventually a missed field goal gave the ball back to Pittston Area.

The Cougars broke through with a 9-yard touchdown run from Mizenko in the second quarter, only to be answered by a DeLucca strike to Lucas Lopresto to tie the game 7-7.

That would be all for the Patriot offense, as the Hazleton defensive unit found itd form and stonewalled Pittston Area the rest of the way.

"I was very impressed with the way we were able to be active and creative up front," Buchman said.

The Cougars went ahead 14-7 courtesy of new quarterback Austin Wilson connecting with Zander Coleman for 16 yards on his first career touchdown pass before the half.

Coleman would score once again in the third quarter, this time as a running back after Mizenko came off the field for a breather. It wasn't much of a break for the Pittston Area defense, as Coleman barreled through a few tacklers for five yards and a score.

One final insurance score would come from Wilson in the final minutes of the game, rolling out of the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield and finding a wide-open Carlos Gonzalez in the back of the end zone to put the finishing touches on Hazleton Area's victory.

Pittston Area had a number of opportunities in the second half, but the run game just wasn't there and the Cougars pressured DeLucca all night, keeping the quarterback uncomfortable and preventing him from doing much damage with his arm.

"They started bringing a lot of pressure and we didn't handle it really well," said Pittston Area coach Nick Barbieri. "We had no run game tonight ... as good as Drew DeLucca is, if you can't run the ball you're not going to win high school football games."

Hazleton Area will stay at home next week, welcoming Wallenpaupack to town. Pittston Area will look for its first win of the year at home against Williamsport.

Hazleton Area 28, Pittston Area 7

Pittston Area'0'7'0'0 — 7

Hazleton Area'0'14'7'7 — 28

Second quarter

HAZ — Brady Mizenko 9 run (Levi Kurtz kick) 6:21

PA — Lucas Lopresto 34 pass from Drew DeLucca (Gavin Wolfe kick) 4:26

HAZ — Zander Coleman 16 pass from Austin Wilson (Kurtz kick) 1:50

Third quarter

HAZ — Coleman 5 run (Kurtz kick) 1:07

Fourth quarter

HAZ — Carlos Gonzalez 12 pass from Wilson (Kurtz kick) 0:48

Team statistics'PA'HAZ

First downs'6'17

Rushes-yards'15-30'46-366

Passing yards'135'67

Total yards'165'433

Passing'14-21-0'9-11-0

Sacked-yards lost'0-0'0-0

Punts-avg.'5-36'2-24.5

Fumbles-lost'0-0'2-1

Penalties-yards'8-55'4-35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — PA, Brody Spindler 4-13, Chris Pietrzak 1-1, Xzavyier Blackshear 6-13, DeLucca 1-8, LoPresto 1-(minus-1), Team 1-(minus-1). HAZ, Mizenko 28-256, Wilson 12-84, Gonzalez 3-12, Coleman 2-8, Hunter Johnson 1-6.

PASSING — PA, DeLucca 14-21-135-0. HAZ, Wilson 9-11-67-0.

RECEIVING — PA, Gerry Groom 2-17, Lopresto 5-76, Matt Walter 4-20, Ciran Bilbow 3-32. HAZ, Gonzalez 3-21, Mizenko 1-7, Coleman 2-19, Logan Gennaro 1-8, Yohansel Moran 1-10, Johncarlos Peralta 1-2.

INTERCEPTIONS — none.

MISSED FGs — HAZ, Kurtz, 1-30.