Old Forge express rolls through Tunnel Hill

In what was hyped to be a clash of the top teams Lackawanna Football Conference Division III, turn out to be just another walk in the park for Old Forge has the Blue Devils steamrolled Lackawanna Trail, 35-14, at Lions Pride Stadium on Friday night in Tunnel Hill.

The game started with the promise of a defensive battle as the Lions held Old Forge twice on its first two possessions, allowing just one yard on its first seven plays.

But the Blue Devils defense turned the tide as Anthony Piccolini picked off a  Zach Goodrich pass and returned it 13 yards to the Trail 32.

Two plays later Brian “Bubba” Tomasetti scampered untouched up the middle for a 28-yard touchdowns for a 6-0 lead with 4:57 left in the opening period.

The Big Blue Wrecking Crew continued its dominance as Shane Schuback recorded two tackles for no gain around a Jorden Sekol tackle after two yards to force a Lions punt.

It took Tomasetti only two plays again to score, this time going 47 yards after a nifty move past a linebacker before racing to the pylon for a touchdown. The two-point run failed, and Old Forge (7-0) led 12-0 with 1:45 remaining in the first quarter.

Liam Dougherty returned the ensuing kickoff for Trail to the Old Forge 39. But after moving to the 13, the Lions self-destructed with an offsides penalty before three straight incompletions turned the ball back over the the Blue Devils.

On the next play, Tomasetti followed tackle Ryan Paulish, over the left side and sprinted 83 yards to paydirt with just 2:19 gone in the second stanza. Matt Mancuso drilled the extra-point and Old Forge led 19-0.

The Lions answered with a 10-play drive to the Blue Devils 35, but Schuback broke through the line untouched and sacked Goodrich for a 13-yard loss on fourth-and-6 to put the explosive Old Forge offense back on the field.

Again, it did not take long for the Blue Devils to find the endzone.

On the ensuing play, quarterback Brenden Wahl rolled to the home sideline and lofted a perfect pass the Anthony Piccolini on a backside post for a 52-yard scoring strike. Mancuso was true again on the PAT to give Old Forge a 26-0 lead with 4:10 left before halftime.

The Blue Devils were not finished scoring.

Despite starting at its own 5-yard line after forcing a Trail punt, Old Forge moved to the Trail 21. Wahl found Jake Manetti twice on 35-yard and 25-yard completions, and scrambled for a 23-yard gain to get the Blue Devils within field goal range.

After an offsides penalty on the Lions, Mancuso tucked a 33-yard kick inside the right upright to give Old Forge a 29-0 cushion at intermission.

Trail finally responded out of the locker room with a 15-play scoring drive, aided by a fake punt on fourth-and-4 and a questionable spot on a fourth-and-4 play on the Old Forge 35. The Lions cashed in on the 66-yard drive when Jeremy Greenley scored from 1-yard out to cut the deficit to 29-7 with only 3:41.

The Blue Devils came right back as Wahl connected with Warren Welsh for seven yards on second-and-6 before scrambling for eight yards on two carries to set the stage for yet another big play.

On third-and-2, Wahl hit Schuback on a quick out to the home sideline. Schuback evaded one would-be tackler, then ran through two more before sprinting past the goalline for a 47-yard touchdown play and a 35-7 lead with 35 seconds left in the third quarter.

Welsh ended the following Trail drive with an interception but Wahl gave it right back to set up the Lions second score of the game, a 3-yard run by Greenley with 4:47 left in the game.

Tomasetti made sure that Trail got no closer, busting through for a 24-yard gain on fourth-and-1 to salt the game away.

The senior tailback finished with 205 yards on 14 carries to push him over the 1,200-yard rushing mark for the season. Tomasetti also added three touchdowns to his totals, giving him 21 rushing scores on the season.

Wahl went over the 800-yard passing mark for the year, connecting on 7-of-12 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns. The first-year senior signal-caller connected with five different receivers.

B&G Blog Player of the Game: Bubba Tomasetti. Bubba has been unstoppable this season between the tackles and on Friday night he showed he has some jets to go with his brute strength. Tomasetti had scoring runs of 83, 57 and 28 yards to go with another 24-yard run as he totalled 205 yards on just 14 carries. He also recorded six tackles on defense.

B&G Blog Player who is not Bubba Player of the Game: This award recognizes that I have probably slighted Bubba too much the past few weeks in order to get some recognition for some of the other members of the Blue Devils. Well, that all stops today with the creation of a new award, the PWINBPOTG!!! The first PWINBPOTG is Anthony Piccolini. Picc started his big night defensively with an interception to push momentum in the Blue Devils favor. He also added four tackles from his outside linebacker position. On offense, Picc reeled in a 52-yard scoring strike from Brenden Wahl to put Old Forge ahead 26-0.

B&G Blog Defensive Player of the Game: Warren Welsh. Welsh Welker had his best defensive game of the season with eight tackles and an interception. This Buckeye Booster also made two catches for 11 yards - both picking up first downs for Old Forge.

B&G Blog Play of the Game: The Wahl to Piccolini connection for a touchdown really put the nail in the coffin for the Lions. With Wahl on a designed rollout to the short side of the field, Piccolini ran his back side post pattern to perfection. Wahl’s pass was perfectly lofted to the middle of the field where Picc simply ran under the football and into the endzone after the catch.

B&G Blog Coaching Move of the Game: Backed up to his own 5-yard line with just 1:40 left in the first half, Old Forge Head Coach Mike Schuback decided he had nothing to lose. So after handing the ball to Tomasetti on first down, Schuback called for a play-action pass which Wahl delivered to Jake Manetti for a 35-yard gain to set the Blue Devils up at their own 43. The move set up Matt Mancuso’s 33-yard field goal at the buzzer.