Sean Owens provided two long second-quarter touchdowns and Josh Vinton ran for 194 yards Aug. 30 as Western Wayne defeated visiting Lackawanna Trail 28-7 in a non-league game matching Lackawanna Football Conference divisional favorites.
The loss ended a 14-game, regular-season winning streak for the defending Division 3 champion Lions.
Lackawanna Trail held the Division 2 favorites scoreless for the first quarter of the game between highly regarded small school teams. The Lions are ranked among the top 10 in the state in Class A while the Wildcats are considered one of the Teams to Watch in Class 3A, according to PennLive.com.
Western Wayne had a fourth-and-goal at the 4 in the first quarter and tried to send Owens around right end.
Demetrius Douglas, Isaac Ryon and Logan Edwards were among the Lions there to ruin that play and got help as more Lions swarmed in to throw Owens for a 17-yard loss.
Max Kimmel intercepted a pass in the second quarter to stop another Wildcats drive.
Owens then broke the shutout when he took a John Pyatt pass untouched down the left sideline for a 69-yard touchdown.
The lead reached 14-0 at halftime when Owens turned his third interception of the season into a 66-yard touchdown.
Lackawanna Trail closed within 14-7 after three quarters on a 1-yard touchdown by Tyler Jervis on a quarterback sneak with 4:46 left in the quarter.
Western Wayne broke away with two fourth-quarter scores.
Vinton scored on a 15-yard run ad Pyatt took it in from the 1.
Douglas ran for 57 yards on 12 carries to lead the Lions, who were limited to 3.4 yards per carry on their 45 attempts.
Lackawanna Trail 41, Tunkhannock 7
TUNKHANNOCK – Lackawanna Trail scored four touchdowns in a span of 8:18 during the second quarter Aug. 23 on the way to its first victory ever at Tunkhannock, beating the Tigers in a non-league football opener.
The game served as a Homecoming for Lions coach Steve Jervis, who played quarterback for and began his head coaching career at Tunkhannock.
Jervis was pleased with the way his team responded to trailing 7-0 after one quarter.
“I do give credit to our kids,they didn’t get rattled,” Jervis said. “Kind of settled down. It’s more, we talk a lot about culture and process and all those things. Week One, you get behind and I was real happy with our kids. They went right back to work and I think we had a pretty good bounce-back second quarter there that set the tone for the rest of the game.”
Tunkhannock’s lone score came with just 2:40 left in the first quarter when senior tailback Karver Lewis sprinted to the right side and scored from 16 yards out.
Lackawanna Trail wiped out the Tunkhannock lead with its big second quarter.
Ryon tied the game with a 4-yard touchdown run 9:27 before halftime.
Quarterback Tyler Jervis, Steve’s son, connected with a wide-open Kimmel on a 44-yard touchdown to put the Lions ahead with 5:43 left in the second quarter.
Demetrius Douglas scored two of his three touchdowns in the final three minutes of the half. He scored on runs of 20 and 16 yards.
Ryon, who ran for a game-high 121 yards on 12 carries, scored on a 20-yard runlate in the third quarter to increase the lead to 34-7.
Douglas scored from the 1 with 5:03 left in the fourth quarter to complete the scoring.
Holden Edwards kicked three of the team’s extra points and Ryon had two.
The Lions held statistical advantages of 18-7 in first downs, 266-79 in rushing yards, 96-63 in passing yards and 362-142 in total offense.
Tyler Jervis hit all three of his passes for 96 yards and two touchdowns.
Kimmel had two catches for 82 yards and also intercepted a pass.
