By Jay Monahan

For Times Leader

WILKES-BARRE — Week four at Wilkes-Barre Memorial Stadium looked a lot like a two-act play.

Act one: Dallas dominated possession, and a feeble-looking Coughlin team looked helpless. Act two: Coughlin seemed unstoppable, and Dallas stood defeated on offense and defense.

Coughlin’s flair for theatrics continued Friday with a 25-14 victory over Dallas between a pair of teams that have fought tooth-and-nail for four straight weeks. The Crusaders scored 25 unanswered points to overcome a two-touchdown deficit through the first 16 minutes.

“I give our defense a lot of credit,” Coughlin coach Ciro Cinti said. “Because in the first half, Dallas kicked our butts. They kicked our butts. We came out of the second half with some fortitude. It didn’t go down to the last minute, so I’m happy.”

The climax of Friday’s game came from an unlikely protagonist – the Crusaders special teams.

With Coughlin’s offense sputtering to the tune of just two first-half first downs, Chris Wright faked a handoff on a punt return and took it 67 yards to the 1-yard line, setting up Coughlin’s first touchdown – a Jacob Cole rush – with 69 seconds left in the first half.

The second half began with Wright receiving a kick, only this time he ran five yards before handing it off to Vincent Todd. The speedy Todd raced 90 yards for a touchdown to start the half, cutting the deficit to just two points.

“We worked very hard on special teams,” Cinti said. “We put some things in in the beginning of the year. They worked. It just turned the whole momentum of the game around. It gave the kids some life, sometime to go for.”

That set the stage for a dominant Coughlin second half. The Crusaders stopped the Mountaineers in the red zone on the ensuing possession. Without any offensive production in the first half, Coughlin found its rhythm and an 11-yard Jacob Soller pass to Josh Hvozdovic in the corner of the end zone gave the Crusaders its first lead of the game (18-14) with 2:51 left in the third.

Things only became worse for the Mountaineers. Cole scored his second touchdown of the game with 9:11 left to make it a two-possession game. Coughlin ran out the final 7:50 of the game with a series of short runs.

In all, the Coughlin rushing attack seemed to moonwalk against a strong Dallas defense. Cole ran 22 times for 145 yards. After throwing interceptions on his first two passes, quarterback Soller often bulldozed opposing linebackers for 115 yards on 17 carries.

“He keeps trying. He just doesn’t give up,” Cinti said. “(Soller) ran like a bear in the second half.”

Dallas went on top by a touchdown with 2:49 left in the first on a James Geiger catch from Matt Harrison. The Mountaineers looked to have the right cards in their hand after Bret Stors ran 72 yards for a score at the 8:22 mark of the second quarter.

Stors finished with 177 yards on 21 carries – 134 of those coming in the first half.

Coughlin 25, Dallas 14

Dallas`7`7`0`0`—`14

Coughlin`0`6`12`7`—`25

First quarter

DAL — James Geiger 1 pass from Matt Harrison (Ron Ostrowski kick), 2:49

Second quarter

DAL — Bret Storrs 72 run (Ostrowski kick), 8:22

COU — Jacob Cole 1 run (kick blocked), 1:09

Third quarter

COU — Vincent Todd 95 kick return (pass failed), 11:46

COU — Josh Hvozdovic 11 pass from Jacob Soller (run failed), 2:51

Fourth quarter

COU — Cole 3 run (Michael Cinti kick), 9:11

Team statistics`D`C

First downs`11`14

Rushes-yards`37-226`46-271

Passing yards`17`24

Total yards`243`295

Passing`3-6-0`2-4-2

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

Punts-avg.`4-42.5`1-29

Fumbles-lost`0-0`0-0

Penalties-yards`2-10`2-10

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — DAL, David Simpson 8-30, Harrison 8-19, Storrs 21-177. COU, Cole 22-145, Soller 17-115, Zach King 3-6, Todd 2-8, TEAM 2-(minus-3).

PASSING — DAL, Simpson 3-6-0-17. COU, Soller 2-4-2-24

RECEIVING — DAL, Geiger 1-1, Stone Mannello 1-13, Storrs 1-3. COU, Cole 1-13, Hvozdovic 1-11.

INTERCEPTIONS — DAL, Jack Tomko 1-0, Tanner Gattuso 1-5.

MISSED FGs — None

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