Dallas’s Logan Geskey pushes Lake-Lehman defensive back Chris Yetter away as he goes for a touchdown in the second quarter.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Dallas defensive back Bobby Gallagher reacts to making an interception early in the first quarter against Lake Lehman.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Lake-Lehman running back Jaydon Skipalis breaks away in the first quarter against Dallas for a touchdown.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Dallas linebacker Nico Wilk signals to his bench that the defense scored a safety on a blocked punt, the first points of the game against Lake-Lehman.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Dallas tailback Mark Saracinaj carries the ball in the first quarter, while Lake-Lehman’s Trent Gaus pursues on the play.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
DALLAS TWP. — Before the Mountaineers could start looking toward next week’s district playoffs, they had one important bit of business to attend to first.
It was mission accomplished for Dallas on senior night: the Old Shoe would be staying at Mountaineer Stadium.
Talan Geskey was named MVP after scoring five total touchdowns, and the Mountaineers won their fourth straight in the Old Shoe rivalry with a 44-6 romp over Lake-Lehman on Friday night.
The sophomore quarterback’s first trip to the end zone was on a QB sneak, and then Geskey took to the air for 156 yards and four more scores: two to Nico Wilk and two to his brother, Logan Geskey.
The Geskeys would link for a total of seven catches and 116 yards. The first score was a perfect throw-and-catch from Talan to Logan, and the second was a simple screen pass where Logan made several Black Knights miss on his way for a 27-yard score down the left sideline.
“Growing up with him (Logan), we have a lot of chemistry,” Talan Geskey said. “Being able to do that tonight, it’s a real blessing.”
“We’ve been doing it since we were kids,” Logan Geskey added. “I’m glad to play with Talan, great kid.”
Before the Geskeys and the rest of the Dallas offense, it was the special teams unit getting things started for the Mountaineers.
After forcing a Lake-Lehman punt attempt deep in the Knights’ own territory, Dallas was able to get to the ball and block the punt out the back of the end zone for a safety.
It was a sign of things to come for Dallas’ defense and special teams units in this one: the Mountaineers picked off three passes, one by Bobby Gallagher and two by Trevor Slavinski, and recovered two fumbles against an overwhelmed Lake-Lehman offense.
In addition to the blocked punt, the Mountaineers also blocked Lake-Lehman’s extra-point attempt after the Black Knights’ lone scoring play.
Lake-Lehman ended the night with 112 yards of total offense, more than half coming on one 59-yard touchdown run from Jaydon Skipalis late in the first quarter.
That score, following just 40 seconds after Talan Geskey’s touchdown run, made it a 9-6 game in favor of Dallas at that point.
The Mountaineers rattled off 35 straight from there, and kept Lake-Lehman almost exclusively on their own side of the field from there on.
“We’ve won the turnover battle most of the season … we’ve been getting them right along, but our offense hasn’t always played complementary football,” Dallas head coach Rich Mannello said. “We always start with special teams, we blocked a punt, that’s what we do.”
Mark Saracinaj added a late rushing touchdown for the Mountaineers and was the team’s leading rusher with 71 yards.
Dallas finishes the regular season with a 5-5 record and a four-game winning streak. The Mountaineers head to Valley View next week for the District 2 Class 4A semifinals.
Dallas 44, Lake-Lehman 6
Lake-Lehman`6`0`0`0 — 6
Dallas`9`14`14`7 — 44
First quarter
DAL — Safety, blocked punt in end zone 5:48
DAL — Talan Geskey 1 run (Brandon Miller kick) 1:41
LL — Jaydon Skipalis 59 run (kick blocked) 1:01
Second quarter
DAL — Logan Geskey 26 pass from T. Geskey (Miller kick) 10:10
DAL — L. Geskey 27 pass from T. Geskey (Miller kick) 2:08
Third quarter
DAL — Nico Wilk 20 pass from T. Geskey (Miller kick) 5:13
DAL — Wilk 5 pass from T. Geskey (Miller kick) 0:18
Fourth quarter
DAL — Mark Saracinaj 1 run (Miller kick) 11:07
Team statistics`LL`DAL
First downs`5`14
Rushes-yards`29-112`51-194
Passing yards`0`156
Total yards`112`350
Passing`0-5-3`11-13-0
Sacked-yards lost`1-3`1-1
Punts-avg.`6-27.3`3-32
Fumbles-lost`3-2`1-1
Penalties-yards`5-49`4-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — LL, Devon Albee 1-3, Skipalis 12-75, Alex Smith 1-(minus-3), Anthony Magnotta 9-24, Chris Yetter 1-8, Jake Evans 1-(minus-7), Cordyn Harris 2-18, Team 2-(minus-5). DAL, T. Geskey 11-43, Saracinaj 19-71, Wilk 1-1, Sam Kelley 6-31, L. Geskey 1-17, Luke Kostick 7-37, Team 6-(minus-6).
PASSING — LL, Evans 0-5-3-0. DAL, T. Geskey 11-13-0-156.
RECEIVING — LL, none. DAL, L. Geskey 7-116, Kelley 1-10, Tyce Mason 1-5, Wilk 2-25.
INTERCEPTIONS — LL, none. DAL, Bobby Gallagher 1-0, Trevor Slavinski 2-41.
MISSED FGs — none.
