DALLAS TWP. — On a chilly first Friday night in November under the lights in the Back Mountain, the Dallas Mountaineers dominated throughout, cruising to a 43-11 home playoff victory over the visiting Wallenpaupack Buckhorns to remain unbeaten at 11-0 this season.
With the win in the District 2 Class 4A quarterfinal, the top-seeded Mountaineers advanced to host No. 5 Nanticoke Area at 7 p.m. next Friday in the semifinals.
This was the Mountaineers’ second win over the Buckhorns this year, following a 31-3 road victory on Oct. 13.
“We don’t worry or talk about what we did against Wallenpaupack three weeks ago, it doesn’t matter or anything,” Dallas coach Rich Mannello said. “It’s all about tonight, and tonight we did well on special teams. Defense as always gave us a lot of opportunities, and offensively we got the thing spread around pretty good.”
“… It doesn’t matter about the 11 games we’ve played so far, this is one and done. You lose and you go home and you don’t have this ever again. So we go about every Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, it’s all the same. I know you hear that all the time but that’s how we live.”
After falling just short at the goal line on their opening offensive possession, the Mountaineers came roaring right back and opened their scoring barrage with 5:17 left in the first quarter.
Junior quarterback Brady Zapoticky connected with senior wideout Zach Paczewski on a 30-yard aerial strike into the end zone to give his squad an early 7-0 advantage.
Then, just 36 seconds into the second quarter, Zapoticky threw his second touchdown of the contest, this one a 21-yard pass to fellow junior Mike Lewis to complete an impressive 65-yard drive and increase the lead to 14-0 over the Buckhorns with 11:24 remaining in the first half.
About four minutes later, the standout junior tailback Dylan Geskey, who in this game eclipsed the 1,000 yard rushing milestone on the season, found the end zone on a 25-yard touchdown run to stretch his team’s advantage to 21-0 with 7:06 left in the second.
Four minutes after that, Geskey tallied his second touchdown run on the evening, this one from 4 yards out, to up his squad’s lead to 28-0 with 3:17 left in the half.
“(Geskey) gets downhill as good as anybody I’ve seen,” Mannello said.
For Dallas’ fifth and final score of the first half, the Mounts capitalized on a fumble recovery by senior A.J. Fife deep in Buckhorns territory. And just a few plays later Zapoticky converted on a 1-yard QB sneak, with junior Nate Malarkey running in a two-point converstion to make it 36-0 at halftime.
For Dallas’ final score of the night, Malarkey would intercept Wallenpaupack quarterback Aydin Geene’s pass and return it for an electrifying 75-yard touchdown to give his team an overwhelming 43-0 lead with 6:11 remaining in the third quarter.
The Buckhorns ended the shutout bid three minutes later when sophomore tailback Logan Caruso barreled into the end zone for a 1-yard score with a Mark Nilsen two-point run making it 43-8 with 3:02 left in the third.
After holding Dallas scoreless in the fourth, the Buckhorns would score one last time, this time on a 28-yard field goal by senior Gannon Decker with 9:22 left in regulation.
The Buckhorns finished their 2023 campaign at 2-9 overall.
District 2 Class 4A quarterfinals
Dallas 43, Wallenpaupack 11
Wallenpaupack`0`0`8`3 — 11
Dallas`7`29`7`0 — 43
First Quarter
DAL — Zach Paczewski 30 pass from Brady Zapoticky (Rowan Laubach kick), 5:17
Second Quarter
DAL — Mike Lewis 21 pass from Zapoticky (Laubach kick), 11:24
DAL — Dylan Geskey 25 run (Laubach kick), 7:06
DAL — Geskey 4 run (Laubach kick), 3:17
DAL — Zapoticky 1 run (Nate Malarkey run), 0:28
Third Quarter
DAL — Malarkey 75 interception return (Laubach kick), 6:11
WAL — Logan Caruso 1 run (Mark Nilsen run), 3:02
Fourth Quarter
WAL — Gannon Decker 28 field goal, 9:22
Team statistics`WAL`DAL
First downs`10`21
Rushes-yards`30-165`34-238
Passing yards`32`160
Total yards`197`398
Passing`2-6-3`10-15-0
Sacked-yards lost`0-0`0-0
Punts-avg.`2-35`1-20
Fumbles-lost`1-1`3-0
Penalties-yards`5-40`9-100
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — WAL, Dylan Podrazil 11-58, C.J. Doty 6-20, Aydin Greene 2-3, Aiden Pierson 1-2, Logan Caruso 8-67, Xaiden Schock 2-15. DAL, Dylan Geskey 13-95, Zach Paczewski 4-46, Mike Lewis 1-7, Brady Zapoticky 3-16, Logan Geskey 7-57, Hunter Pitcavage 1-12, Bob Booth 1-6, Sam Kelley 3-neg.1, Jim Youngblood 1-0.
PASSING — WAL, Aydin Greene 0-2-0-0-1, C.J. Doty 1-3-8-0-2, Dylan Podrazil 1-1-24-0-0. DAL, Brady Zapoticky 10-15-160-2-0.
RECEIVING — WAL, Michael Passenti 2-32. DAL, Zach Paczewski 5-71, Mike Lewis 1-21, Gavin Lewis 3-48, Nick Farrell 1-20.
INTERCEPTIONS — DAL, Nate Malarkey 2-90, Lucas Tirpak 1-20.
MISSED FGs —None.