H.S. Football: Skipalis scores 3 TDs, Lehman shakes off early deficit in win

TUNKHANNOCK — On the first October Friday night of the season, the visiting Lake-Lehman Black Knights were victorious by a 26-13 margin over the hometown Tunkhannock Tigers to earn their third straight win.

The star of the night was Lehman’s standout senior tailback, Jaydon Skipalis, who ran for a trio of touchdowns in the contest and rushed for a game-high 171 yards on 30 carries as the Black Knights went above .500 at 4-3 overall.

Skipalis’ night started off in tough fashion when he fumbled his first carry and set up the Tigers deep in Lehaman territory. From there Tunkhannock’s junior quarterback Zach Latwinski turned that big turnover into the first points of the game when he connected with senior wideout Colin Gregory for an 11-yard touchdown for a 6-0 advantage just 2:24 into the the first quarter.

However, after being held scoreless in the opening quarter, the Black Knights answered right back just 54 seconds into the second when Skipalis would redeem himself and sprint into the end zone from 29 yards out to knot the game up at 6-6.

Then right before the half-time whistle sounded with just three seconds left on the clock, Skipalis converted on third-and-goal when he barreled in from the 3-yard line to give the Knights their first lead of the night at 12-6.

To make matters worse for the Tigers, on the last play before halftime, instead of taking a knee to run out the clock threw a Hail Mary downfield that Lehman junior Vincenzo Sparacio picked off and took it to the house for a 66-yard return to give his squad an 18-6 advantage.

Skipalis and his teammates were determined to rebound from their early mistakes to come out on top in this tough showdown.

“I think that when you think about your mistakes and when you use that as your motivation, you can come back and do better,” Skipalis said. “I think when we scored those two touchdowns in the final three seconds before the half it was really great and it really set the tone for this game. We came into the second half hyped, and I think that really made a big difference for us.”

In the second half, Tunkhannock got off the mat and fought back to cut the deficit to just one score when senior Randall Paxton threw a 45-yard strike to Gregory to make it an 18-13 game with 6:19 remaining in the third quarter.

However, after being held scoreless in the third, Lehman would put the game away for good when Skipalis tallied his third rushing touchdown of the night, this time converting on a fourth-and-3 from the 5-yard line. That, alongside junior quarterback Anthony Magnotta’s successful 2-point run would make it a 26-13 lead with 9:42 remaining.

In the final moments when Tunkhannock had one last gasp for a comeback, senior Chris Yetter picked off Latwinski’s pass to clinch a 13-point road triumph.

Long-time head coach Jerry Gilsky and his 4-3 Lehman squad will attempt to stretch their winning streak to four straight games when they next host a formidable Wyoming Area Warriors team next Friday night on their home black turf.

“My O-line did great,” Skipalis said. “We made a couple of mistakes, but we can always make up for it on Monday at practice. We’re going to come in and come harder and get ready for Wyoming Area.

“We need a lot of practice, watch a lot of film, and I think we are going to make up for every mistake that we had tonight and use that for next weekend to be stronger and better.”

Meanwhile, head coach Pat Keating and his 2-5 Tigers will look to bounce right back and snap their three-game losing skid when they next host Montrose next Friday evening for their annual homecoming game.

Lake-Lehman 26, Tunkhannock 13