PLAINS — Declan Gregor rolled to his right. He was patient. He waited for the play to unfold in front of him. But eventually the Wilkes-Barre quarterback had to get rid of the football on the Wolfpack’s last minute two-point play in the fourth quarter Friday night.
With a receiver sitting in the middle of the field with not a Whitehall defender in sight, Gregor threw across his body. The football never got to the receiver.
Zephyrs defensive back Rocco Fonzone made a tumbling interception to preserve Whitehall’s lead. And just a couple minutes later when Henry Shultz corralled the onside kick, the Zephyrs could breathe a little easier.
Whitehall was by no means happy with its 21-19 road victory at Wilkes-Barre last night. And on the flip side, the Wolfpack came out of the season opener feeling pretty good despite a two-point loss in a matchup of returning district champs.
“We gave up the big plays, that’s what killed us,” Wilkes-Barre coach Ciro Cinti said. “But in the same token, our kids never gave up. We were down by a couple scores and we came back. We’re a two-point conversion away from going to a fifth quarter.”
“This was awful,” Whitehall coach Andy Marino said. “Self-inflicted wounds. Lack of discipline.”
Whitehall lead, 21-6, going into the half thanks to a pair of long passes, one of which went for a touchdown, and the other of which set up a short touchdown run. It also had a blocked punt by Xavyer Fabian-Ubiera which was returned 29 yards by Fonzone for a touchdown.
But it felt like the gap was much wider than just a pair of scores. And the only reason it wasn’t was because of a Wilkes-Barre interception in the end zone on the Zephyrs’ opening drive, and a turnover on downs at the Wolfpack 10-yard line later in the first quarter.
It was a theme of the night for Whitehall. Every time it seemed to gather a little momentum with a big play, they gave it right back with a penalty, or a dropped snap, or getting dropped in the backfield trying to do too much. On top of that, Whitehall struggled to go more than a couple plays in a row in the second half without a player coming up with a cramp on an unsually cool night.
A relentless Wilkes-Barre defensive front limited the damage by Whitehall quarterback Tanner Dogmantis and running back Jeziah Gregory, both of which were massive headaches for Wilkes-Barre a year ago. They were able to hold a veteran offense in place in the second half while the Wilkes-Barre offense found its footing to get back into the game.
“Tale of two halves, right?” Marino said. “I think the cramps got us out of the flow. Wilkes-Barre got super aggressive and we just didn’t. We had a lot of bad calls on third-and-5, and that is definitely my fault. We have to get those so we can stay on the field.”
It turns out the footing Wilkes-Barre needed to find was receiver Deacon Eisenbach. Buried in a excessively deep depth chart of receivers a year ago, the senior made his presence known in the second half last night. His catch-and-run on a third-down slant in the third quarter should have been enough to keep the sticks moving and keep the offense on the field. But Eisenbach had different ideas, spinning out of a tackle, then racing down the far sideline for a 62-yard touchdown reception which got the Wolfpack within a score.
A quarter later, he went up over Whitehall defensive back Iskander Blanco — who already had one interception — for a 19-yard touchdown reception which got Wilkes-Barre within that two-point conversion of tying the game with 65 seconds left.
Eisenbach finished with 106 receiving yards, more than half of Blanco’s 199 passing yards for the night.
“Deacon’s first touchdown was huge. That was a momentum swing there,” Cinti said. “And then he makes a heck of a play in the corner of the end zone. That’s the familiarity of him and Declan getting together in the summer and throwing a lot.”
Wilkes-Barre put Gregor on the move for the two-point play, putting Eisenbach in motion and sprinting him in the flat to create some space. But Whitehall covered it well, and shut down any secondary throwing lanes. Fonzone won’t get credit for an interception in the box score, but of the three passes intercepted by the Zephyrs defense last night, it was the most important.
“Regardless of what happens on the two-point play, we had to get the kids to realize that we can still go win the game,” Marino said. “And two-point plays are not easy because there’s not a lot of space. It almost works as an advantage for the defense.”
Despite the loss, it was a positive night for the Wolfpack. Cinti implored his inexperienced group to live on the good of the night while correcting the mistakes. Gregor filled the shoes of the graduated Jake Howe quite admirably, completing 16 of 33 passes for 199 yards and a pair of scores. Minus one 33-yard scamper that led to no points, the defense held 1,000-yard back Jeziah Gregory to fewer than 4 yards a carry.
“They just hurt us on some big plays when we had some inexperienced guys playing there, and they’ll learn from that,” Cinti said. “But they’re good kids, and they’ll come to practice Monday ready to rock and roll and get ready for Stroudsburg.”
Whitehall 21, Wilkes-Barre 19
Whitehall 7 14 0 0 – 21
Wilkes-Barre 0 6 7 6 – 19
First quarter
WH—Envy Rivera 35 pass from Tanner Dogmantis (Nick Milley kick), 1:16
Second quarter
WH—Rocco Fonzone 29 blocked punt return (Milley kick), 1:59
WBA—Declan Gregor 1 run (kick blocked), 1:22
WH—Jeziah Gregory 4 run (Milley kick), :43
Third quarter
WBA—Deacon Eisenbach 62 pass from Gregor (John Mendola kick), :08
Fourth quarter
WBA—Eisenbach 19 pass from Gregor (pass failed), 1:05
WH WBA
First downs 12 17
Rushes-yds 26-94 37-77
Com-att-int 11-22-1 16-33-2
Pass yards 164 199
Total yards 258 276
Fumbles-lost 2-0 2-0
Penalties-yards 8-87 6-40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Whitehall: Jeziah Gregory, 13-78, TD; Tanner Dogmantis, 7-16; Iskander Blanco, 2-5; Ben Pychinka, 2-(-1); Team, 2-(-4). Wilkes-Barre: Declan Gregor, 14-27, TD; Aiden Gilmore, 3-20; Kymani Hubbard-Jones, 5-19; Anthony Daniel, 11-11; Jayden Pena, 1-4; Ethan Hooper, 1-1; Kelan Slivinski, 1-(-1); Deacon Eisenbach, 1-(-4).
Passing
Whitehall: Dogmantis, 11-22-1, 164 yds., TD.
Wilkes-Barre: Gregor, 16-33-2, 199 yds., 2 TDs.
Receiving
Whitehall: Henry Shultz, 6-105; Envy Rivera, 2-48, TD; Pychinka, 1-4; Gregory, 1-4; Rocco Fonzone, 1-3.
Wilkes-Barre: Rajan Watson, 5-50; Eisenbach, 4-106, 2 TDs; Daniel, 3-5; Jayson Sanchez, 1-21; Wonder Woods, 2-11; Nic Saracino, 1-6.
INTERCEPTIONS—Whitehall 2, Rocco Fonzone, Griffin Peters. Wilkes-Barre 1, Rajan Watson.
RECORDS: Whitehall (1-0); Wilkes-Barre (0-1).