BERWICK — Berwick’s first drive Friday night did everything the Bulldogs wanted it to do.
Almost.
That initial possession stayed in the Bulldogs’ hands for 20 consecutive snaps. It took more than 11 minutes off the clock. And it kept a high-powered Dallas offense averaging more than 40 points a game on the sideline.
The only thing the drive didn’t do was end in points. And after punting the football away, Dallas didn’t need 20 plays to make Berwick pay. It needed just one, an 80-yard Mark Saracinaj touchdown run.
That swing in momentum marked the final time Berwick was really in the football game Friday at Crispin Field. The Mountaineers scored the game’s first 35 points in a 35-7 win which finished an undefeated regular season and earned them the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 title.
The win also vaulted Dallas over North Pocono for the top spot in the District 2 Class AAAA playoff standings. The Mountaineers will host eighth-seeded Hanover Area in the next week’s district quarterfinals. Berwick finished a brutally tough regular season 5-5 and fell to the No. 5 seed in the D2 4A tournament. It will travel to 6-4 Wallenpaupack next week.
“We have a lot of goals, and this was one of them,” said Saracinaj, who ran for a career-high 179 yards and three touchdowns. “We still gotta get back in the weight room on Sunday because it’s a new start for us.”
The first 13:02 of Friday’s game at Crispin Field really couldn’t have better represented who the two teams were. Dallas is a complete operation. It’s offense can hurt you in a number of ways — like the 54-yard Brady McCann catch-and-run to open the scoring less than a minute in, or the Saracinaj 80-yard scoring jaunt. Berwick is a talented, but limited, group which has worked through injuries with guts, guile, and heart to post five wins against a brutal regular-season schedule featuring six playoff teams.
But when Saracinaj ripped off his 80-yard run, it also represented the danger of a Berwick offense which has played on a razor-thin line for much of the season since quarterback Brady Cleaver went down with an injury in Week 4. It must capitalize on the chances it has offensively, especially against a defense the caliber of the Mountaineers’, which allowed one score or fewer for the seventh time this season.
That 20th snap of the football started with a fumble and ended with a 9-yard loss, forcing Berwick to punt. The five first downs gained on the drive were for naught. And with one play, Dallas made coming away with no points hurt even more, putting a two-score lead on the Bulldogs.
“You absolutely have to come away with points there,” Berwick coach CJ Curry said. “It’s like you’re doing well and then it’s a negative play or a penalty and you get yourself behind the chains. It’s been our Achilles heel all season. And then the next play they go 80 yards and it takes the air out of your sails a little bit.”
That run from Saracinaj set in motion a night for the Dallas running game which saw it average better than 11 yards per carry. Saracinaj was the main catalyst. He needed just three carries to eclipse the 100-yard make for the first time this season, and for the first time since he burst onto the scene as a freshman a year ago with a 156-yard performance on Sept. 12 against Wilkes-Barre.
The Mountaineers’ offense has been so diverse and efficient this season that it hasn’t needed Saracinaj or senior Hunter Pitcavage to be it’s bell cow back. Neither of Dallas’ top two running backs has 100 carries this season. Saracinaj and Pitcavage have combined for 1,217 yards this year at 7.7 yards per carry.
Even on a night where Saracinaj set a career high in rushing yards, he needed just nine carries to do it thanks to an Earth-moving offensive line, the balance of a tight-rope walker, and the toughness of the 20-win wrestler that he is. And because neither he nor Pitcavage have had to carry the load offensively this year, they’re both healthy and feeling fresh going into the postseason.
“It’s our job to go out and set the tone,” Saracinaj said. “This is what we practice. I trust my linemen, they do their job, and we run it in.”
“We don’t look at the stats much, but we know they’re pretty even,” Dallas coach Rich Mannello said. “And that’s why they work so well with each other. They’re completely different running styles. You can’t appreciate what Mark does until you watch it on film. It’s the wrestling in him. He’s a tremendous wrestler and he runs the same way. You’re not pulling him down with one guy. He can move sideways and not slow down, and that’s hard for a lot of backs to do.”
Dallas ran just 35 plays Friday night, but 15 of them produced first downs, and five of them produced touchdowns. They rode the running game to finish off an undefeated regular season. And no matter how often Berwick’s defense made a hit at the point of contact, it struggled to bring down any Dallas ballcarrier with the first man. Pitcavage carried just six times for 23 yards, but he also added a touchdown run.
“We got killed on two plays. They ran GT counter and they ran buck sweep, and we had no answer for it,” Curry said. “I think it’s things that are fixable, but we’re going to see a Wallenpaupack team who has a senior running back with about 1,200 yards and a good quarterback who can sling it and run. So the road isn’t going to get any easier.”
The one thing Berwick does have going for it heading into the postseason it didn’t have a year ago is that it is battle-tested. The adversity it has faced with injuries, setbacks and losses have better prepared the Bulldogs heading into the postseason this year than it did a year ago when it walked through an undefeated regular season before falling to a battle-hardened .500 Scranton Prep team in districts.
“It’s great to get a chance to compete against teams like Dallas all season long,” Curry said. “Shoot, look at us, we’re still standing and we’re still going to fight. We have to play our best football now and try to execute at a high level. These kids believe in each other, and they believe we can hang with anybody.”
Dallas 35, Berwick 7
Dallas 7 14 7 7 – 35
Berwick 0 0 0 7 – 7
First quarter
D—Brady McCann 54 pass from Talan Geskey (David Worth kick), 10:42
Second quarter
D—Mark Saracinaj 80 run (Worth kick), 10:58
D—Saracinaj 7 run (Worth kick), 1:00
Third quarter
D—Saracinaj 18 run (Worth kick), 6:13
Fourth quarter
D—Hunter Pitcavage 1 run (Worth kick), 11:13
B—Gavin Galutia 4 run (Caleb Yost kick), 6:54
Dal Ber
First downs 15 13
Rushes-yds 25-284 41-168
Com-att-int 4-10-0 7-14-0
Pass yards 81 43
Total yards 365 211
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-0
Penalties-yards 3-35 8-50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing—Dallas, Mark Saracinaj, 9-179, 3 TDs; Talan Geskey, 4-40; Hunter Pitcavage, 6-23, TD; Tyce Mason, 2-22; Trevor Slavinski, 1-11; Brock Bolton, 3-9. Berwick, Gavin Galutia, 23-106, TD; Jason Hook, 3-58; Jake Lisnock, 7-4; Landon Zapata, 2-4; Brady Cleaver, 1-4; David Robbins IV, 1-2; Dayton Adamczyk, 1-(-3); Shiloh Escobar, 3-(-7).
Passing—Dallas, Geskey, 4-10-0, 81 yds., TD. Berwick, Escobar, 5-12-0, 30 yds.; Lisnock, 2-2-0, 13 yds.
Receiving—Dallas, Mason, 2-14; Brady McCann, 1-54, TD; Pitcavage, 1-13. Berwick, Zapata, 4-30; Evan Neiderheiser, 2-(-1); Lisnock, 1-14.
RECORDS: Dallas (10-0); Berwick (5-5).