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Lackawanna Trail throttles Old Forge

Tagged under: District 2, Gameday Hub, News, pfn

| September 27, 2024

There has been some bad blood over the years whenever Old Forge plays Lackawanna Trail. Over the last few years, these 2 teams have traded spots as the top 1A team in District 2, and along the way there have been some great matchups both in the regular season and post-season. Recently, however, it has been the Lions who have gotten the best of things, winning the last 2 District-2 1A titles. With both rosters facing some turnover due to graduation recently, there were some who thought this game might play out differently.

Not this time.

Lackawanna Trail took advantage of a short field midway through the 1st half on 2 straight possessions to race out to a 2-score lead and never looked back as the Lions throttled the Blue Devils 49-13 at Old Forge Veterans Memorial Stadium. Lion RB Isaac Ryon had another big game with an unofficial 221 yards on the ground and 4 TD’s plus a 2-point conversion. Blue Devil RB Cael Krushnowski had an 80-yard kickoff return for a TD in the losing effort. The Lackawanna Trail defense came ready to play and stymied Old Forge all night, forcing 4 3-and-outs on the night.

Old Forge took the opening kickoff for a touchback and started at their own 20. They immediately went to the ground with Senior RB Cael Krushnowski, who ran it 5 times on the drive. Unfortunately, most of the yardage gained was negated on a holding penalty which pushed the Blue Devils back to their own 20. Krushnowski then lost 3 yards as Trail started penetrating the backfield and disrupting the running game for Old Forge. Facing a 4th-and-23, Old Forge punted it away. The Blue Devils took a page from the Lion defensive playbook and applied pressure to stop the run. Senior RB Demitrius Douglas had 3 short runs and when Trail went for it on 4th-and-6 from the Old Forge 42, RB Isaac Ryon gained only 2 yards and the Lions turned it over on downs. Unfortunately, Old Forge then followed this up with a 3-and-out and punted it right back to the Lions.

On their 2nd drive, Lackawanna Trail started at their own 45. Ryon had a nice 7-yard run, and then RB Holden Edwards and QB Tyler Jervis took turns running the ball which drove Trail down to the 36. On a 3rd-and-6 there, Ryon hit the hole and ran down the far sideline for a 36-yard TD run. With 1:42 left in the 1st quarter, Lackawanna Trail had a 7-0 lead.

On the ensuing kickoff, Krushnowski attempted to field the kick at the 15 but mishandled it and the ball came free. Krushnowski then grabbed it at the 20 and broke free all the way down the sideline for an 80-yard kickoff return for the score. With 1:28 left in the quarter, we were tied at 7.

Old Forge then kicked off to Trail, and the Lions WR/DB Max Kimmel had a huge kick return of his own down to the Old Forge 34. 3 plays later, Ryon broke free yet again and scored on a 22-yard run that made it 14-7 for the Lions as the 1st quarter expired.

Trail kicked it off to start the 2nd quarter and disaster struck as Old Forge fumbled the kick and the Lions recovered it at the Old Forge 39. Ryon then hit on another big run, this time 34 yards down to the Old Forge 5. Douglas ran it for 1 yard, then Ryon ran it for 1 yard. Facing a 3rd-and-goal at the 3, Douglas took the handoff and ran it around the right end on the stretch play for a 3-yard TD that made it 21-7 for Trail with 9:48 to go in the half.

Old Forge started their next drive at their own 34, but the Trail defense was ready and forced another 3-and-out. A nice punt by Old Forge P Isiah Rodriguez pinned Trail back at their own 13. Runs by Jervis, Edwards and then Douglas drove the Lions out to the 35. On a 3rd-and-5 there, Ryon took the handoff and ran it up the right sideline for a 65-yard TD run to make it 28-7 with 4:34 to go in the half.

Old Forge still could not get anything going as the Trail defense continued to stop the Blue Devil running game. With another 3-and-out, Rodriguez again had a nice punt that put Trail at their own 9. Old Forge was ready and stopped 3 straight runs for only 1 net yard and the Lions punted it away. Taking over with their best field position of the night at the Trail 43, Old Forge switched things up. QB T.J. DiMattia threw it on 1st down to Krushnowski for a nice 21-yard gain to the Trail 22. The drive stalled however and facing a 4th-and-6 at the Trail 19 with only seconds on the clock, a 36-yard field goal attempt fell short and it was halftime.

Lackawanna Trail took the 2nd half kickoff and it was Ryon with a big return to the Old Forge 40. Trail went right back to their ground game, with Douglas as the main workhorse. He had 4 runs on the drive, the 3rd of which was a nice 16-yard gain to the Blue Devil 18. On the very next play, Douglas hit paydirt himself with a tough 18-yard TD run. The PAT missed, but with 8:56 left in the 3rd quarter it was Trail with a 34-7 lead.

The Lion defense roamed on the next Blue Devil drive and forced yet another 3-and-out. Trail took over at their own 22. After a false start pushed them back further, Douglas ran it for 3 yards. On the very next play, a 3rd-and-12 at their own 20, Jervis threw it to a streaking Douglas who caught the ball with 1 hand and ran it in for an 80-yard score. Ryon then ran in the 2-point conversion and invoked the mercy rule, and Trail had a 42-7 lead with 5:19 left in the 3rd quarter.

On the next drive, Old Forge drove into Lion territory but could only get to the 43 and turned it over on downs. On the very next play as Trail took over there, Ryon broke another one as he scampered all the way for the score from 57-yards out for his 4th TD of the night to make it 49-7.

As backups entered the game on both sides to start the 4th quarter, Old Forge had a long drive that was capped when RB Rylan Gutowski on a 13-yard run to make the score 49-13 with only 4:32 to go in the game. That ended the scoring, and the clock expired quickly thereafter giving Lackawanna Trail the 49-13 victory.

Lackawanna Trail improved to 5-1 and heads on the road again next week to face Carbondale. Old Forge fell to 3-3 and will go up to play Susquehanna next weekend.

Check out the photo gallery from the game here:  PHOTO GALLERY

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