Jersey Shore suffers road loss in Week 9 to Scranton Prep
DUNMORE — It was a tough penultimate game of the season for the (6-3) Jersey Shore Bulldogs, traveling up to Dunmore, Pennsylvania to take on the (5-4) Scranton Prep Cavaliers. After scoring on their initial drive, it was all downhill for Shore, as they fell to the Cavaliers by a final score of 51-19.
Two early turnovers and multiple miscues defensively proved to be the downfall of the Bulldogs in Friday’s contest. Meanwhile for Scranton Prep some breakout performances from quarterback Will McPartland and wide out Noah Krzywiec, plus a fantastic game in the trenches helped lead to their fourth win in their last five games.
Things got off to a hot start for Jersey Shore in the first quarter, driving down the length of the field with relative ease before running back Bo Sechrist ran in a 5-yard touchdown to put the Bulldogs up 7-0.
Scranton Prep however was quick to respond, having their own long sustained drive before McPartland took a QB power up the middle for a 2-yard score to tie it at seven. Then, after two straight Bulldogs turnovers on their next two drives, the Cavaliers found paydirt again, this time it was Krzyweic taking a push pass 41-yards to the house at the end of the quarter.
Kriswiec and McPartland each found the endzone again on their next two drives, as suddenly Jersey Shore found themselves staring at a 28-7 deficit midway through the second quarter. Multiple stalled offensive drives and some breakdowns in open field tackling seemingly left the Bulldogs without any bite left.
But on their sixth drive of the game, Shore showed that maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks. Trailing by 21 forced head coach Tom Gravish to try and find any way to spark life into the offence, and they did so by pulling out some previously unseen trick plays. Reverse passes, designed laterals, fake reverses, you name it and Jersey Shore tried it.
Delving deep into the playbook immediately began to pay off, as receiver Luke Ryan took a reverse pass over 50-yards downfield with an incredible individual effort. Ryan shook three Scranton defenders, before carrying another two for an extra 15-yards all the way to the Cavaliers 5-yard line on a play of sheer willpower, but when he reached for the endzone the ball ended up popping out.
Luckily, fellow wideout Carter Rhinehart was only a few feet behind Ryan when the ball came loose and he was able to quickly pounce on the ball and finish off the spectacular play by carrying it over the goalline.
“It was the best effort we’ve had in a while offensively. That’s what we look for in a Bulldog player.” Gravish noted after the game when talking about Ryan’s catch and run.
Right before halftime, Scranton Prep would respond again, with receiver AJ Croom snatching a jump ball out of the air for a 20-yard touchdown catch.
Then, after the half, the scoring began to dry up for both teams, a Pauling rushing touchdown would add to the Bulldogs total but the Cavaliers added a field goal and pair of touchdowns of their own to add an extra garnish to their 51-19 win.
While it is certainly a disappointing result from the Bulldogs perspective, time will tell how major this defeat will turn out to be. Currently Jersey Shore sits in second in the Heartland D1 conference standings, closely trailed by (8-1) Athens High School. With a Shore loss and Athens win Friday, the question becomes will the Wildcats leapfrog Jersey Shore in the standings with one game left in the regular season. Only the top two seeds host the first round of Heartland playoffs, so staying inside that top two is crucial.
Despite the pressure of the upcoming standings, coach Gravish is laser focused on just going 1-0 every week, making clear his only goal for now is to beat (0-9) Central Mountain next week.
“We aren’t worried about playoffs, we just want that Central Mountain [game]. We want to try and get win number seven, that’s our goal. It’s senior night, it’s a home rivalry game. That’s our goal, then we go from there.”
Jersey Shore returns home for their Senior Night, hosting rivals Central Mountain (0-9) on Friday. Kickoff will be at Thompson Street Stadium at 7 p.m.
Scranton Prep 51, Jersey Shore 19
Jersey Shore 7 6 0 6 — 19
Scranton Prep 14 20 0 17 — 51
First quarter
JS–Bo Sechrist 5 run (Passetti kick), 8:26.
SP–W. McPartland 2 run (Bianchi kick), 4:59.
SP–Krzywiec 41 run (Bianchi kick), 0:23.
Second quarter
SP–Krzywiec 26 run (Bianchi kick), 11:17.
SP–W. McPartland 29 run (Bianchi kick), 7:14.
JS–Rhinehart 3 fumble recovery (kick failed), 4:57.
SP–Croom 20 pass from McPartland (kcik failed), 1:22.
Fourth quarter
SP–Bianchi 28 field goal, 10:03.
JS–Pauling 4 run (pass failed), 7:07.
SP–McPartland 8 run (Bianchi kick), 5:15.
SP–McCormack 32 pass from Swingle (Bianchi kick), 2:11.
TEAM STATISTICS JS SP
Rushes-yards 32-198 37-344
Passing yards 183 195
C-A-I 20-29-0 7-12-0
Total yards 381 539
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING–Jersey Shore, Nolen Pauling 9-59 TD, Bo Sechrist 12-57 TD, Luke Ryan 2-48, Kash Herritt 6-26, Carter Rhinehart 2-6 TD, Jason Jennings 1-2. Scranton Prep, Will McPartland 14-119 3 TDs, Noah Krzywiec 8-104 2 TDs, Anthony Prince 11-40, Owen McPartland 1-3, Ethan Barrett 1-3, AJ Croom 1-(minus 7).
PASSING–Jersey Shore, Nolen Pauling 20-29-0. Scranton Prep, Will McPartland 7-12-0.
RECEIVING–Jersey Shore, Carson watkins 8-79, Luke Ryan 6-46, Bo Sechrist 3-24, Carter Rhinehart 1-9, Kash Herritt 1-10, Luke Thompson 1-11, Aiden Patts 1-4. Scranton Prep, AJ Croom 3-75 TD, Noah Kryzwiec 2-76, Sean McCormack 1-32 TD, Liam Haggerty 1-12, Mackey Lynett 1-9.