DALLAS — Rich Mannello admitted he made a mistake earlier this year when he told his Dallas football team to go out and just get the win against Hanover Area, get the job done, and get off the field.
Telling his team that didn’t put the Mountaineers in the mindset he wants from his undefeated football team. So against a beat up, outmatched Hawkeyes team Friday night, Mannello avoided those words. He wanted the now 11-0 Dallas football team to focus and put in the work necessary to open the postseason with a victory.
His first-team offense and defense put together a brilliant half of football against the Hawkeyes. The starting defense held Hanover to just 31 yards of offense, forced three turnovers and scored a touchdown of its own. The starting offense put up 35 points, averaged nearly 10 yards per play, and capitalized on the turnovers the defense forced.
Mannello’s starters were out of the game before halftime as the Mountaineers cruised to a 48-14 win in the District 2 AAAA quarterfinals. They will host Wallenpaupack next week in the district semifinals. The Buckhorns defeated Berwick, 31-14.
“I said before the game that we have a chance to redeem ourselves from that night,” Mannello said. “There’s a lot of good football players on that other sideline, a lot of kids who would start for us right now. But our kids were dialed in tonight.”
The game was as lopsided as the records would indicate. Top-seeded Dallas needed just three plays to score its first touchdown. Thanks to forcing turnovers on three consecutive possessions to end the first quarter, the Mountaineers had a 27-0 lead just 12 minutes, 31 seconds into the game.
Dallas’ Hayden Romeo recovered a strip sack which led to Hunter Pitcavage 4-yard touchdown run two plays later. Two plays after that, Brady McCann scooped up another fumble and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown. And just two plays later, McCann jumped in front of a Brody Richardson pass to set up a Mark Saracinaj 7-yard touchdown run on the second snap of the second quarter.
It was the continuation of a ball-hawking defense which has no forced seven interceptions this season and recovered 12 opponents fumbles.
“When we’re on defense, we believe that that ball is ours just as much as theirs,” McCann said. “We just have to go get it. If you just stick to your assignments and what the coaches tell us to do, big plays are going to happen.”
“Coach (Matt) Austin does a great job with the defense,” Mannello said. “Those turnovers are happening because they’re playing fast. They’re fast kids to begin with, but they’re playing fast on defense because they can get aligned properly.”
the three turnovers from Hanover all came with starting quarterback Logan Richardson out of the game. The junior missed last week’s regular season finale win against Nanticoke, an exited in the first quarter an incomplete pass. Richardson returned in the second half and finished the night 5 for 7 for 59 yards and a touchdown. But without him, Hanover was limited in its passing game and largely relied on Brody Richardson to run a wildcat offense which saw him carry 20 times for 76 yards.
The Hawkeyes had just three first-half first downs and moved the ball past midfield just once. It was largely because that speedy Dallas defense was ready for anything the Hawkeyes could throw at them. They bottled up Hanover’s run game to the tune of just 9 yards on 17 carries against the Mountaineers’ first-team defense. Hanover’s 25 first-half snaps netted just 31 total yards.
“We’ve got 11 guys that we believe in,” McCann said. “Bobby Gallagher went down for us, but Mark Saracinaj has stepped right in behind him. We have guys on every single play who just want to hit somebody. They want to hit somebody and they want to get the ball. Every play is a big play to us.”
Dallas played with a short first much of the first half. And with that 27-0 lead, it added two more touchdowns with short fields. Owen Oldt capped a six-play, 48-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. Geskey then found Tyce Mason wide open on the post for a 40-yard touchdown pass to close the first half. It was the last play Dallas’ starters played Friday night.
“We made that decision that if we can get just one more score before the half, then we can get the starters out and safely get the young kids in on every special teams unit, offense and defense,” Mannello said. “And it definitely helps to be able to do that, especially this time of year.”
Dallas 48, Hanover Area 14
Hanover Area 0 0 14 0 – 14
Dallas 20 22 0 6 – 48
First quarter
D—Talan Geskey 34 run (David Worth kick), 10:45
D—Hunter Pitcavage 4 run (kick failed), 2:18
D—Brady McCann 26 fumble return (Worth kick), 1:12
Second quarter
D—Mark Saracinaj 7 run (Worth kick), 11:29
D—Owen Oldt 1 run (Jim Youngblood pass from Geskey), 4:59
D—Tyce Mason 40 pass from Geskey (Worth kick), :40
Third quarter
H—Justin Hibbard 22 pass from Logan Richardson (Aiden Hollock kick), 6:43
H—Lucas Cruz 2 run (Hollock kick), :22
Fourth quarter
D—Drew Kostick 92 run (kick failed), 10:54
HA DA
First downs 12 10
Rushes-yds 32-81 25-244
Com-att-int 8-12-1 4-7-0
Pass yards 77 92
Total yards 158 336
Fumbles-lost 4-3 0-0
Penalties-yards 4-30 6-49
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing—Hanover Area, Brody Richardson, 20-76; Evan Rought, 3-18; Lucas Cruz, 4-14, TD; Matthew Acker Jr., 1-4; Daniel Valenzuela Jr., 1-(-5); Greg McCoy, 1-(-10); Team, 2- (-16). Dallas, Drew Kostick, 4-101, TD; Mark Saracinaj, 4-38; TD; Hunter Pitcavage, 5-36, TD; Talan Geskey, 2-31, TD; Logan Tanner, 2-18; Trevor Slavinski, 1-17; Jesse Berlew, 1-4; Owen Oldt, 1-1, TD; Tyce Mason, 1-0; Jim Youngblood, 1-(-1); Team, 3-(-1).
Passing—Hanover Area, L. Richardson, 5-7-0, 59 yds., TD; McCoy, 2-3-0, 20 yds.; B. Richardson, 1-2-1, -2 yds. Dallas, Geskey, 4-7-0, 92 yds., TD.
Receiving—Hanover Area, Conor Richardson, 5-40; Justin Hibbard, 1-22, TD; Angel Tejada, 1-10; Lucas Cruz, 1-5. Dallas, Youngblood, 2-20; Mason, 1-40, TD; Slavinski, 1-22.
INTERCEPTIONS—Dallas 1, Brady McCann.
RECORDS: Dallas (11-0); Hanover Area (2-9).