LEHMAN TWP. — Lake-Lehman got off to a hot start on the way to a 35-7 home triumph over Holy Redeemer.
The Black Knights, whose starters on offense only played the first half, scored on five of their first six drives as the Royals had no answer for Lake-Lehman’s overpowering run game and timely passes.
Lake-Lehman won the opening coin toss, and right from jump the offense was on the move.
After junior fullback Matt Kurtz sprinted 56 yards down to the 6-yard line on the first offensive snap, he would finish off the drive just one play later. Kurtz barreled through a score of Holy Redeemer defenders just 40 seconds into the contest to give the Black Knights an early 7-0 advantage.
Kurtz again would find the end-zone with 2:08 remaining in the first stanza as he once again bashed through the Royals’ defense on a 4-yard plunge to increase the lead to 13-0.
Altogether, Kurtz ran for a game-high 126-yards on just nine carries and scored twice from the ground.
The Black Knights seniors would be heard from in their last regular-season home game of their high school football careers. Starting quarterback Nate O’Donell and tailback Trey Borger would get in on all the scoring fun.
With just 13-seconds left in the first quarter, O’Donell would hook up with fellow senior Nate Labar on a 49-yard scoring strike to up Lake-Lehman’s lead to 21-0.
Then with 3:19 left in the second stanza, Borger, who took the ball all the way to the 22-yard line on a nice punt return to start the drive, would finish the scoring drive bouncing off would-be Royals defenders on a 5-yard touchdown rush to bring the lead to 27-0.
O’Donell would hook up with sophomore running back Zack Kojandinovich on a 20-yard scoring strike with just 48-seconds left before halftime to give the Black Knights an overwhelming 35-0 advantage heading into the locker room. On the night, O’Donell completed five of his eight passes he threw for a solid 127-yards and two scores from the air.
After mostly running clock off with backups in the second half, Lake-Lehman would finally lose their shutout for the night with 11:40 remaining in regulation when senior signal caller J.D. Turosky threw up a jump ball into the end zone for his tall sophomore receiver, Jared Piontkowski, to leap up and pull in a 23-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 35-7.
For Holy Redeemer and head coach Dwayne Downing, their losing streak now stands at seven games, as the 1-7 Royals look to bring that to a halt when they travel on the road next Friday night to take on Nanticoke.
Jerry Gilsky’s Lake-Lehman squad has now ripped off five straight wins, as the 6-2 Black Knights have a tough road test next Friday when they take on the Berwick Bulldogs.
The Black Knights have not lost since their 42-0 non-conference defeat to Scranton Prep back in early September, as their head coach believes that early-season two-game losing streak really put things into focus for his football team to turn things around.
“Sometimes losses, especially we had two in a row there, really woke up our guys. You have to say to them, you guys are losing because of this, this, and this. We need to get better at that stuff. So every week in practice and even in games we are looking to get better,” said Gilsky.
