SCRANTON – Lake-Lehman possessed the ball for more than 16 minutes of the 24 in the first half Saturday afternoon, but that was not enough to offset the damage London Montgomery could do in much less time.

And, the Black Knights were unable to convert on their multiple threats.

Montgomery returned from two weeks off to produce 406 yards and six touchdowns for Scranton Prep in a 41-8 victory over Lake-Lehman in a non-league game between District 2 Class 3A football teams at Scranton Memorial Stadium.

Montgomery carried 18 times for 353 yards and five touchdowns and took a screen pass from Laflin resident Sean Monahan 53 yards for another score.

Lake-Lehman moved the ball well throughout the first half and scored on its second possession.

A 13-play drive on its first possession ended in a fumble on the Scranton Prep 5 and the Black Knights went 60 yards in 10 plays to score on a Colby Roberts run to make it 14-8 with nine minutes left in half.

They did not score again.

With starting quarterback Landon Schuckers sidelined, converted wide receiver Gavin Wallace played well at quarterback, particularly early. He managed the ballhandling needed in the wing-T and went 6-for-13 for 87 yards passing in the first half despite a couple of drops by Lake-Lehman receivers.

Lake-Lehman had drives come up short after reaching the Scranton Prep territory twice more, including getting to the 24, the unbeaten Cavaliers scored the game’s last 27 points.

“They did a good job,” Scranton Prep coach Terry Gallagher said of Lake-Lehman’s offense, which churned out 11 first downs in the first half before adjustments allowed the Cavaliers to control the Black Knights better in the second half. “I think they were in transition last year from the spread. They went back to a little bit of their wing stuff.

“We repped the snot out of it in practice and we just didn’t play very well for the first quarter, quarter and a half on defense.”

Offense was a different matter with Montgomery back after COVID precautions kept him away from his teammates for two weeks, including wins over Honesdale and Tunkhannock.

Montgomery announced his return by running 70 yards for a touchdown on the first play. He went 77 yards for another score before the quarter was over, then added two touchdowns again in both the second and third quarters.

Monahan found Robert Rossi four times and benefitted from Montgomery’s running ability on the screen pass. He finished 5-for-10 for 93 yards while running an offense that produced 496 yards Saturday and has scored at least 41 points in all eight games this season.

“We had a couple things in our passing game that we can clean up here and there,” said Gallagher, who is preparing the Cavaliers to face fellow unbeaten Friday night for the Lackawanna Football Conference Division 2 title. “That will happen.

“I thought Sean has done a really good job. We’ve opened it up the last few weeks, which is good, but we’re going to run the football and continue to playoff off the run.”

Gavin Paraschak led the defense for Lake-Lehman (3-5). He forced and recovered a fumble on one of his two sacks and was in on three other tackles.

Scranton Prep 41, Lake-Lehman 8

Lake-Lehman`0`8`0`0`—`8

Scranton Prep`14`14`13`0`—`41

First quarter

SP – London Montgomery 70 run (Ray Rinaldi kick), 11:49

SP – Montgomery 77 run (Rinaldi kick), 2:37

Second quarter

LL – Colby Roberts 2 run (Santino Diana pass from Gavin Wallace), 9:00

SP – Montgomery 7 run (Rinaldi kick), 7:39

SP – Montgomery 53 pass from Sean Monahan (Rinaldi kick), 0:14

Third quarter

SP – Montgomery 16 run (Rinaldi kick), 7:16

SP – Montgomery 33 run (kick blocked), 1:07

Fourth quarter

None

Team statistics`LL`SP

First downs`14`21

Rushes-yards`34-71`39-403

Passing yards`126`93

Total yards`197`496

Passing`8-19-2`5-10-0

Sacked-yards lost`1-6`2-9

Punts-avg.`4-29.8`1-46.0

Fumbles-lost`1-1`5-1

Penalties-yards`1-15`4-44

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — LL, Roberts 13-44, Colo Morio 6-22, Brandon Ritinski 3-6, Diana 7-5, Justin Pudimont 2-4, Mason Konigus 1-minus 1, Jake Daum 1-minus 3, Wallace 1-minus 6. SP, Montgomery 18-353, Quenten Palermo 7-47, Jamie Barrett 3-16, Michael Golay 2-7, Max Tierney 2-6, Tyler Mackrell 1-3, Team 3-minus 7, Monahan 3-minus 22.

PASSING — LL, Wallace 8-19-2-126. SP, Monahan 5-10-0-93.

RECEIVING – LL, Dustin Heinrich 34-2, Gavin Paraschak 2-36, Morio 2-23, Konigus 1-25. SP, Robert Rossi 4-40, Montgomery 1-53.

INTERCEPTIONS — LL, None. SP, Rossi 1-0, Robert Maguire 1-0.

MISSED FIELD GOALS – None.