Warriors Continue Dominance

Many people thought the Wyoming Area Warriors would have a letdown after their huge win against the Berwick Bulldogs. Boy were those people wrong as the Warriors beat the Coughlin Crusaders 35-9 on a Saturday afternoon game at Wilkes-Barre Memorial Stadium.
Lead by sophomore Tyler Serbin the Warriors controlled the ground game as they rushed for a season best 326 yards including Serbin’s two runs for a combined 138 yards and two touchdowns. In addition to the 326 yards on the ground, the Warriors were a perfect 4-4 passing for 72 yards and one touchdown.
The Warriors started the game very slowly by punting and fumbling on their first two possessions of the first quarter. The Crusaders were forced to punt their first two possessions keeping the game at a scoreless tie through the first quarter keeping fans wondering, could the Warriors be beat this week?
The Warriors responded to that question as they went 67 yards on their first possession of the second quarter to put themselves ahead 7-0 with a 4 yard Justin Pointkowski run. The next three possessions finished out in punts, two by Coughlin and one by the Warriors. The Crusaders controlled the field position battle though moving the Warriors all the way back to their own 6 yard line.
The bad starting field position didn’t matter to the Warriors though as Ryan McDonnell ran 12 yards on the first play to give WA some breathing room. Just the next play the Warriors took the breath away of all the fans in the stadium as Sophomore Tyler Serbin ran 82 yards down the sideline eluding several Crusaders to score and put the Warriors ahead 14-0 with just 1:33 left in the half.
The half wasn’t over yet though as Matt Finn picked off a Crusader pass just 2 plays later to give the Warriors the ball at the Coughlin 39 yard line. Just 2 plays after that Ryan McDonnell sent a bomb down field to Rob DiPietro for a 34 yard touchdown that put the Warriors up 21-0 with 1:03 remaining in the second quarter. The Crusaders drove the ball down field but the clock ran out before they were able to strike for a score and the teams went into the locker room with Wyoming Area leading 21-0.
The Warriors came out in the second half and ran the ball down the field easily led by McDonnell and Tyler Saville but a McDonnell fumble at Crusader 17 yard line proved costly as the home team picked up the ball and ran far into Warriors territory. Just 3 plays later the Crusaders scored to make it a ball game 21-7 with 7:01 left in the 3rd quarter.
It didn’t take long for WA to respond with Tyler Serbin taking just his second carry of the game for his second touchdown in the form of a 54 yard scamper down the field to put his team ahead 28-7 with 4:16 left in the 3rd. Coughlin had a long 13 play drive to follow up Wyoming Area’s fourth touchdown but we’re stopped a yard short of the goal line to keep the Warriors ahead by 3 touchdowns at the end of the third quarter.
The first play of the final period was an exciting one as a Wyoming Area player fumbled right into the end zone and Justin Pointkowski fell on it to give the Crusaders a safety, the first in a Wyoming Area game this season. That made it 28-9 with 11:53 left in the game.
John Petrucci finished up the scoring for the Warriors with a 5 yard touchdown run late in the game to make the final score 35-9 in favor of the Warriors.