WEST PITTSTON — Nick Ciampi took a shove to the back. It was a last ditch effort from the Crestwood defensive back covering him to prevent the Wyoming Area senior from making a big play in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s season opener.
Ciampi tried to turn upfield in front of his own sideline. He tiptoed along the white line like a member of the Wallenda family putting on a show for a crowd of onlookers. As Ciampi gathered his balance, he darted to the middle of the field. There was nobody there.
Ciampi raised an arm in the air as he crossed the goalline, giving the Warriors a 10-point lead with less than half a quarter to play. And when Josh Mruk infiltrated the Crestwood backfield on a critical fourth-down play minutes later, Ciampi’s tight-rope walk down the sideline proved to be enough.
Wyoming Area opened the season with a 24-21 win over Crestwood at Jake Sobeski Field. It was the third consecutive one-score game these teams have played on opening night.
Wyoming Area got great production from a bevy of new stars on offense, Ciampi included. The Comets fell despite an amazing effort from quarterback Jaden Shedlock, who threw for 261 yards and a touchdown in his first game back after tearing his ACL a year ago.
The game was everything it was supposed to be. The Warriors found a way to make one more play.
“The reality is nobody is a good football team Week 1,” Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer said. “You’re growing and developing no matter what. But it’s always important early in the season to get these kinds of wins. And when you do it against high level competition like Crestwood, it’s a big plus.”
Ciampi was one of the new faces Spencer felt had the potential to pose a problem for defenses. He mustered just 24 yards of total offense a year ago. And he nearly doubled that with one spectacular catch and run in the fourth quarter.
And it couldn’t have come at a better time as the Warriors were facing third-and-8 from the Crestwood 42-yard line, nursing a 17-14 lead with just under 6 minutes to go. But first-year starting quarterback Jack Gravine, who had completed just 3 of his previous 11 passes, hit Ciampi on an out route which was more than enough for a first down.
Ciampi wasn’t satisfied with that. He absorbed the shove from the defender, kept his feet in bounds even as his upper body hovered over the sideline, then quickly cut to open space in the middle of the field. A first down there would have been ideal for an offense just looking to run some clock. A touchdown proved decisive.
“We’re very excited for Nick Ciampi,” Spencer said. “We knew he had some talent that not everybody was aware of. But that’s the kind of play that builds competitive confidence, and we’re excited about him. And we’re excited about the other guys as we roll through the season, and hopefully they’re growing the same way.”
It was a good start for a Warriors offense which had plenty of questions. Tailback Trustin Johnson, who has the unenviable task of replacing more than 4,000 yards worth of rushing over the last two seasons from Aaron Crossley and Lidge Kellum, ran for 137 yards and a touchdown in his first start. Gravine threw for 107 yards and a touchdown in his first start, but also ran for 112 yards and a touchdown.
That trio provided the offense to a defense which found a way to make one last impactful play to close out the win.
Crestwood had cut the Warriors’ lead to 24-21 with a Shedlock 1-yard scoring run, and the Comets’ defense got a key 3-and-out to give Shedlock the ball at midfield with 1:18 to play.
The Comets faced third-and-3 with 54 seconds to go, and that’s when Wyoming Area came up with its best two plays of the night. The Warriors brought pressure up the middle, first forcing an incompletion on third down. And then recording a sack on fourth down to end the game.
“I just think situationally at different points of the game we have different things we can call, and we certainly had that available right there,” Spencer said. “The guys did a great job to close it out. We got aggressive there and the guys were able to make some plays.”
“They really had kind of stayed back and stayed home all game,” Crestwood coach Ryan Arcangeli said. “They went all out there and got to us. The guy made a play.”
Despite the loss, Arcangeli was definitely encouraged by the play of Shedlock coming off the ACL tear. He didn’t run the fleet-footed signal-caller as he has in the past, instead allowing Shedlock to play point guard and get the ball in the hands of his playmakers. Shedlock completed passes to five receivers and had three completions of 40 or more yards, including a 48-yard touchdown to Jack Rodgers when Rodgers was left uncovered down the sideline.
“He threw the ball great,” Arcangeli said. “It’s nice to have him upright and leading his guys. I think we’ll have a more traditional quarterback approach this year, but we can do that because we have great guys around him. So it doesn’t have to be his show.”
Wyoming Area 24, Crestwood 21
Crestwood 0 7 7 7 – 21
Wyoming Area 7 3 7 7 – 24
First quarter
WA—Jack Gravine 53 run (Gavin Feeney kick), 9:45
Second quarter
C—Jacob Jeckell 1 run (Cooper Laubach kick), 3:11
WA—Feeney 28 FG, :03
Third quarter
C—Jack Rodgers 48 pass from Jaden Shedlock (Laubach kick), 4:33
WA—Trustin Johnson 5 run (Feeney kick), :03
Fourth quarter
WA—Nick Ciampi 42 pass from Gravine (Feeney kick), 5:35
C—Shedlock 1 run (Laubach kick), 3:28
Cre WA
First downs 11 17
Rushes-yds 24-38 40-278
Com-att-int 13-21-0 7-18-0
Pass yards 261 107
Total yards 299 385
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-0
Penalties-yards 10-65 9-66
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing—Crestwood, Nate Walsh, 6-39; Jacob Jeckell, 7-10, TD; Team, 1-(-3); Jaden Shedlock, 10-(-8), TD. Wyoming Area, Trustin Johnson, 23-137, TD; Jack Gravine, 12-112, TD; Nick Ciampi, 5-29.
Passing—Crestwood, Shedlock, 13-21-0, 261 yds., TD. Wyoming Area, Gravine, 7-17-0, 107 yds., TD; Team, 0-1-0.
Receiving—Crestwood, Gio Barna, 5-116; Logan Lawson, 4-65; Jack Rodgers, 2-54, TD; Nate Walsh, 1-15; Amias Ocasio, 1-11. Wyoming Area, Luke Kopetchny, 3-29; Josh Mruk, 2-21; Ciampi, 1-42, TD; Johnson, 1-9.
INTERCEPTIONS—None.
RECORDS: Crestwood (0-1); Wyoming Area (1-0).