Abington Heights used a high-powered offense to string together four straight victories and put the Comets into a big game to open the second half of the regular season.
The Comets took a halftime lead on Valley View Sept. 30 before the defending champion Cougars finally became the first team to shut down the Abington Heights offense this season while rallying for a 35-14 road victory in a game to see which team would join Delaware Valley as the last two with unbeaten records within Division 1 of the Lackawanna Football Conference.
Abington Heights headed into October with a 1-1 LFC Division 1 record and 4-2 overall mark. The losses came against two of the four unbeaten teams in District 2.
Quarterback Nick Bradley and receiver/defensive backs Mason Fedor and Kevin Schmidt have led the improvement by the Comets, who are averaging 33.2 points per game. Abington Heights fell 31-28 to Dallas Opening Night, exceeded that total in each of the games of the winning streak and took a 14-7 halftime lead before being held scoreless by Valley View in the third and fourth quarters.
Bradley, a sophomore, has hit more than 64 percent of his attempts while passing for 906 yards and a 13-2, touchdown-interception ratio.
Fedor and Schmidt have each caught five touchdown passes. Fedor has 30 receptions for 373 yards. Schmidt has 18 catches for 280 yards.
Anthony Curra has 298 yards and five touchdowns to lead a ground game, which has gone from virtually non-existent a year ago to chipping in 6.1 yards per carry and 139.8 per game.
Austin Boersma leads the team in tackles and Schmidt has three interceptions.
A recap of recent games:
Valley View 35, Abington Heights 14
Camryn Higgins carried 33 times for 228 yards and a touchdown while leading the ball-control attack that Valley View used to rally past Abington Heights.
The Cougars ran 69 plays to 33 by the Comets and held the ball for most of the second half while outscoring Abington Heights, 28-0, in the last 18 minutes. Valley View led in rushing yards 365-57 and total yardage 420-204.
Zach Cwalinski ran for short third-quarter touchdowns to tie the game and put Valley View ahead.
Nick Kucharski scored on a 24-yard run and Higgins added a 4-yard touchdown in a span of well under two minutes midway through the fourth quarter.
Schmidt ran 25 yards for the tying touchdown in the first quarter and Bradley passed 23 yards to Cayd Sespico in the second quarter for a 14-7 halftime lead.
Gavin Anders, Fedor and Dom Vergnetti all finished in double figures in tackles on a busy day for the Abington Heights defense. Fedor and Declan Walsh intercepted passes.
Abington Heights 35, Wallenpaupack 28
Abington Heights recovered from a third-quarter comeback by host Wallenpaupack in the fourth quarter of the LFC Division 1 opener Sept. 22 to beat the Buckhorns in the fourth quarter.
Anthony Curra ran 4 yards for his third touchdown to tie the game with 9:45 left. Bradley hit Fedor from 17 yards out for their second touchdown and the game-winner with 4:09 remaining.
Wallenpaupack had scored three times in less than eight minutes in the third quarter to turn a 21-7 halftime deficit into a 28-21 lead.
Fedor caught 13 passes for 157 yards. Bradley was 18-for-27 for 197 yards. Curra carried 18 times for 136 yards.
Abington Heights 34, Western Wayne 14
Schmidt scored four touchdowns in the Sept. 16, non-league home victory.
Bradley was 12-for-15 for 191 yards and two touchdown passes to Schmidt.
Schmidt caught six passes for 108 yards, returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown and ran for another score.
Anders made four tackles, including two for losses, assisted on six more and intercepted a pass.
Abington Heights 47, Berwick 21
BERWICK – The recipe was there for an inspiring victory out of Berwick’s storied past.
A quick-hitting running game that chewed up yardage and clock.
A feisty attitude that had the crowd at Crispin Field roaring.
And an old high school hero who was suddenly calling the shots from the sideline.
In the end, though, that recipe turned to disaster.
Bradley threw four touchdown passes and ran for two more scores Friday and Abington Heights roared back to blast Berwick Sept. 8.
“We played two halves of football,” Berwick’s interim head coach Bo Orlando said.
The Bulldogs took a 21-14 halftime lead behind a strong running game that helped keep a vulnerable defense off the field.
“We were up by seven, getting the ball to start to start the second half,” said Orlando, who is also the school’s athletic director and quarterbacked the Bulldogs to a No. 1 national high school rating during his playing days before spending 10 seasons in the National Football League. “We ran the ball on them. But it was like two different halves of football.”
In the second half, the Comets dominated.
After Bradley tossed an 8-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Schmidt to even the score at 21-21 early in the third quarter, Berwick marched 38 yards to near midfield when the Bulldogs lost a fumble.
With it, the Bulldogs lost momentum.
Bradley cashed in the turnover with a 1-yard scoring strike to a leaping Fedor as Abington Heights regained the lead.
The Comets never looked back.
They built their advantage to 34-21 with a 92-yard touchdown drive, capped by Bradley’s 1-yard scoring surge, then used turnovers to put the game away.
Schmidt picked off a pass and returned it 42 yards, setting up Bradley’s fourth touchdown pass of the night — a 4-yarder to Walsh.
Just over two minutes later, with Berwick driving toward a feel-good score, Fedor went 98 yards on a pick-six interception to set the final score.
Bradley passed for 145 yards and ran for 69.
