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Lakeland gets miracle win over Wilkes-Barre @LHSChiefs

Tagged under: District 2, Gameday Hub, News

| October 14, 2020

Nick Mancuso races to the endzone and celebrates after his 75 yard punt return to set up the winning play. Pic Aaron Yurkanin

Going into the fourth quarter with a 19 – 6 lead, Lakeland head coach David Piwowarczyk knew his team was in trouble. Wilkes-Barre scored three times in the fourth quarter to take a 26 -19 lead with six minutes left to play. After a failed fourth down play, Wilkes-Barre had the ball with just over 3 minutes to run out for the win. For Lakeland, it looked hopeless. The Chiefs held and with just 4.7 seconds on the clock the Wolfpack lined up and punted the ball way. The rest as they say his history.

Lakeland‘s Nick Mancuso fielded the punt at the 25, made a move and raced 75 yards to the end zone with no time left on the clock. Lakeland lined up for the two point play.  Dippre took the ball, executed a mediocre jump pass and a diving Robert Romanowski made the catch for the win.

Romanowski with the game winning catch Pic Aaron Yurkanin

“I’m just in shock, I can’t believe we hit that play there at the end” said Piwowarczyk . “I knew we were in trouble in the fourth quarter. We were gassed. But that’s a testament to my kids, they never gave up.” Lakeland was facing a much larger opponent in a game that was scheduled on Saturday. That fact was very evident on the first drive of the game as the Wolfpack drove 73 yards to the Lakeland 1 yard line, however, Diprre and Giovanni Spataro busted through the line, knocked the ball away from Wolfpack quarterback Javant McClary. Giovanni scooped the ball and dashed 95 yards to put Lakeland up by 7 after the kick.

The Wolfpack offense was able to move the ball up and down the field but they were plagued by turnovers in the first half, giving the ball away three times. It wasn’t until the second quarter when McClary connected with Elijah Jordon for a 59 yard touchdown pass, the pat failed leaving Lakeland with the 7-6 lead.

The Chiefs offense sputtered for most of the first half but found an extra gear on the last drive of the second second quarter. Spataro found a couple seams, broke a couple runs and caught 2 key passes to get the Chiefs to the Wilkes-Barre 19.  With just seconds left in the half Dominic brought his team to the line and it looked like the Wolfpack defense was expecting him to spike the ball, however, the ball was snapped and Spataro found Mike Pidgeon in the endzone wide open. The drive covered 82 yards on 9 plays. At the break it was 14-6 Lakeland.

 

Receiving the ball in the second half, the Chiefs built on their momentum and scored again making it 19 to 6. The drive was capped by another Spataro/Pidgeon pass, this one from 22 yards out with 8:50 left in the third quarter. Once again, turnovers plagued the Wolfpack. Dippre forced another fumble but Lakeland wasn’t able to convert on fourth down. Wilkes-Barre almost saw disaster when Giovanni Spataro picked off a McClary pass and raced to the endzone, but the td was called back for an illegal block. The Wolfpack defense held again giving their offense a spark. McClary found the enzone on a 20 dash up the middle to pull his team within 6 with 9:44 left to play. That one opened the flood gates.

Wilkes-Barre forced another three and out, and on the next play Jordan sprinted 39 yards to the end zone. The kick was good and the Wolfpack had their first lead of the game. What happened next started a bit of irony. On the ensuing kick, Mancuso, who had the game winning return, saw the ball roll through his legs and watched as he thought it was going to roll out of bounds. It didn’t. Wilkes-Barre pounced on the rock and had the ball at the 2 yard line where Noah Taylor carried it in for the score on the next play.

 

Lakeland had another shot after the Taylor td. Driving to the 26, the Chiefs offense sputtered and a penalty drove them backwards. They actually got two chances. The first came when Spataro was nearly sacked but got away down the sidelines on fourth down. On the play there was a holding call on Lakeland and a face mask on the Wolfpack. The offsetting penalties gave Lakeland one more shot. Irony struck again as the player who threw the game winning duck saw a Spataro pass glide through his hands in the end zone. “Yeah, as I went up for the catch I got a cramp in my leg that distracted me” said Dippre. “But as I said earlier to my team, we came here to shock the world and we did.” Later when he was asked about the “lame duck” pass, Dippre laughed “it stuck to my glove coach.”  The many ironies of this game made it one of the most exciting games I’ve seen while covering high school football.

 

Lakeland player celebrate after Romanowski caught the game winner Pic Aaron Yurkanin

Lakeland travels to Riverside while Wilkes-Barre looks to rebound at Berwick on Saturday.

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