Abington Heights players prepare to take the field for their second straight home opener played on the turf at the high school.
Ben Magnotta | Abington Journal
Two Wyoming Valley Conference running backs possessing different styles each rushed for more than 200 yards while sending the Abington Heights football team to an 0-2 start.
Parker Bolesta, a bruising Dallas tailback, made the most of limited carries Aug. 26 in a 44-13, home-field victory on Opening Night.
Mekhi Nelson, a Wilkes-Barre Area back who usually relies more on quickness, handled a heavy workload while helping the Wolfpack spoil the Abington Heights home opener, 21-14, Sept. 2 on the turf field at the high school.
Bolesta carried 11 times for 237 yards and four touchdowns in the opener.
Nelson ran 40 times for 216 yards and the fourth-quarter touchdown that proved to be the game-winner.
Wilkes-Barre Area 21, Abington Heights 14
Abington Heights scored first and last in its home opener, but Wilkes-Barre Area ran off 21 straight points and Nelson’s running helped the Wolfpack kill the clock after the Comets closed within a touchdown with 3:34 left.
Jack Burke led the Abington Heights offense with four catches for 138 yards.
Burke started the scoring on a 56-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Shawn Theodore, one of two quarterbacks the Comets used. Burke went deep down the left side, caught the pass at the 25 as his defender fell down and went into the end zone untouched.
The score gave the Comets a 7-0 lead after one quarter.
Wilkes-Barre Area, which built a 294-5 lead in rushing yardage, gradually took over the game.
The Wolfpack went in front 13-7 at halftime on a long drive for the tie and a conversion of the special teams setting it up in the Red Zone for the go-ahead score.
Freshman quarterback Jake Howe scored on a 1-yard run and fullback Howie Shiner went in from the 9.
Nelson scored on a 5-yard run early in the fourth quarter and Howe ran for the two-pointer.
Abington Heights turned to its own freshman quarterback for a fourth-down score.
Nick Bradley found Mason Fedor for the 7-yard touchdown. It was Fedor’s fifth catch of the night. Bradley finished 4-for-6 for 89 yards.
Mike Hartshorn added his second extra point.
Jake Grimaldi led the defense with seven tackles and nine assists. Christian Henzes and Austin Boersma were each in on 13 stops.
Dallas 44, Abington Heights 13
Bolesta ran for 188 yards just on his second-half touchdowns as Dallas, a likely contender in WVC Division 1 and District 2 Class 4A, broke open what was a 10-0 game at halftime.
The senior, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season, scored from 66 and 34 yards in the first 5:29 of the third quarter. He added an 88-yard touchdown run in the fourth.
Bolesta also capped a 12-play scoring drive on the game’s opening possession by scoring from the 7.
“It’s just 1000 miles an hour, everything he does, every single day and it rubs off on everybody,” Dallas coach Rich Manello said of Bolesta in a preseason interview. “He’ll play all over the field on both sides of the ball.
“We’ve got to lean on him, lean on that experience.”
Abington Heights, which lost three interceptions and a fumble, drove 80 yards to score on a 1-yard Theodore sneak to cut the deficit to 23-6 with 2:12 left in the third quarter.
Freshman Cayd Sespico provided the other score, capping another 80-yard drive with another 1-yard run, this time with 19 seconds left in the game.
Sespico and Anthony Curra each provided 45 of the 156 Abington Heights rushing yards.
Theodore finished 14-for-25 for 152 yards passing. Fedor had eight catches for 119 yards.
Connor Casey led the defense with six tackles and seven assists. Boersma had one sack and assisted on another.
