HS Football: Scranton Prep rallies, picks off Delaware Valley
Sep. 24—MILFORD — Scranton Prep never stopped believing.
Not after it missed out on two scoring opportunities in the first half. Not after Delaware Valley opened a 13-point lead early in the third quarter.
Behind the play of sophomore quarterback Louis Paris and their defense, the No. 7 Cavaliers rallied to stun the No. 3 Warriors, 20-13, in a Lackawanna Football Conference Division I game Friday night at Warrior Stadium.
Paris ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns and also threw for 77 yards.
"We just kept believing in each other throughout the whole game," Paris said. "There were ups and downs, but we relied on each other, stuck together and this was the result.
"Our defense did a phenomenal job. They kept us in the football game. Delaware Valley is a hell of a football team. We knew we'd have to come up here and play our best football and we did that tonight."
Indeed, Scranton Prep's defense intercepted Delaware Valley five times. Andrew Summa had three of the picks with one each by Liam Barrett and Jake Gentile.
"Coach Terry (Gallaher) gave us a game plan and we went out there and executed it," Summa said. "We knew we could get the win and we went out there and did it.
"We knew we had to keep getting the ball back for our offense in good field position. We knew sooner or later they were going to punch it in."
Delaware Valley (1-4) appeared to be in control when Ryder Machado scored a 65-yard touchdown run on the second play of the third quarter to give the Warriors a 13-0 lead. Then, three plays into the ensuing Scranton Prep possession, Landon Machado recovered a fumble.
But the Cavaliers defense forced a three-and-out and the offense took over at its 23 following a punt. On first down, Paris hit Gentile for 58 yards to the Warriors 19. Three plays later, Paris scored on a 1-yard sneak and Raymond Rinaldi's kick made it 13-7 with 6:51 left in the third quarter.
Later in the quarter, Gentile picked off a Tyler Bird pass and returned it 25 yards to the Delaware Valley 30. Four plays later, Quenten Palermo scored on a 12-yard run and Rinaldi's kick put Scranton Prep (3-2) ahead, 14-13, with 33 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Cavaliers defense took it from there.
Ambrose Rossi batted down a pass on fourth-and-5 on the ensuing Warriors possession to turn the ball over on downs. Summa halted the next Delaware Valley possession with his third pick at the Warriors 37.
On first down, Paris kept the ball and raced the distance for the touchdown to extend Scranton Prep's lead to 20-13 with 4:22 remaining.
"Props to my offensive line, they opened the whole for me," Paris said. "I started cramping up a little bit toward the end of the run, but I stuck it out and got in the end zone."
Delaware Valley again turned the ball over on downs with 2:44 left when Summa and Rossi pressured Logan Olsommer into a fourth-down incompletion.
The Warriors defense held and forced a Scranton Prep punt. Taking over at its 20 with 2:19 left and no timeouts, the offense was able to pick up five first downs in the two-minute drill to get to the Scranton Prep 17 with two seconds left. However, Olsommer's pass attempt into the end zone on the final play was batted down and the Cavaliers held on for the win.
"You can't turn the ball over five times against anybody, let alone a team so well-coached and whose kids play hard," Delaware Valley coach Keith Olsommer said. "They ate us alive on a couple of their drives. I thought at times our kids played pretty good defense because we were on the field quite a bit. But at the end of the day, you can't have five turnovers and a ton of penalties (8 for 61 yards)."
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