Dunmore Football 2013 Season

Dunmore won the Lackawanna Football Conference Division II and finished 11-1. Old Forge ended it, 7-27, at Dunmore in the postseason on Nov. 15. The regular-season meeting had gone the other way, 21-16, at home on Sept. 20.

Entering that September game, the Times-Tribune had the all-time series at Dunmore 36, Old Forge 21, and seven ties, and Henzes at 18-4-3 against Old Forge. Riverside was a 60-7 road win on Nov. 1. Honesdale was 48-7 on the road.

On Sept. 20 at Dunmore, the Bucks beat Old Forge 21-16 in a Division II-III crossover. Freshman Colin Holmes recovered a loose ball on the opening kickoff, and Brandon Kujawski hit Josh Zilla for 35 yards on the first play. Kujawski finished with 112 yards passing. Daiqwon Buckley, a 225-pound senior, had 112 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown, with 36 yards on eight carries in the first half. Brandon Yescavage scored from 3 yards on a 14-play, 66-yard drive, then scored again on a 10-play, 74-yard drive to make it 14-7 with 3:47 left in the half. He had 151 yards, 110 of them before halftime. Buckley's 34-yard run set up a 30-yard scoring pass from Kujawski to Shakal Blackwell that tied the game with 9:12 left in the third. Henzes punted on fourth-and-2 from the Old Forge 39. Zilla's punt pinned Old Forge at the 5. Dan Drewes forced a fumble, Tim Drewes recovered it, and Dunmore had the ball at the 8. Buckley scored two carries later for a 21-14 lead. Old Forge drove 15 plays in 7 minutes, 6 seconds, and threw incomplete on fourth-and-goal from the 11. A bad snap on a shotgun went into the end zone, and Kujawski fell on it for a safety. Manetti hit Shane Schuback for 13 yards and ran 13 on third-and-8. Old Forge reached the 11 again, and Tyler Lasher broke up a fourth-down pass. The paper called it 12 straight wins against District 2 opponents.

On Nov. 15 at Dunmore, Old Forge won the District 2 Class A final, 27-7. Joey Gutowski returned the opening kickoff 58 yards to the Dunmore 30. Jake Manetti hit Jorden Sekol for 12 yards, and the lead was 6-0 with 8:35 left in the first quarter. Dunmore converted two fourth downs. Shane Schuback then dropped Buckley for a 2-yard loss on fourth down at the 3. Yescavage ran 84 yards off Joey Bruno's block, and it was 14-0 with 11:17 left in the half. A 17-play drive ended on three straight incompletions in the last 43 seconds of the half. Manetti intercepted the first pass of the second half. Yescavage scored from 2 yards at the end of a 15-play, 69-yard drive, and the lead was 20-0. Corey Souryavong had a sack. Gutowski's 39-yard catch set up Yescavage's 8-yard score. Through 40 minutes the lead was 27-0, and Dunmore had 56 yards on 26 plays. With eight minutes left, Old Forge had run 27 second-half plays to Dunmore's five, for 2 yards. Yescavage finished with 225 yards and three touchdowns. That story's season line for him is 2,050 yards and 38 touchdowns. The preview had him at 1,825 and 35. Manetti had 77 yards passing and 28 rushing. Sekol had seven solo tackles. Buckley came in with 2,252 yards, at 11.6 a carry, and finished with 70 on 21 carries, 38 of them on his last six. The story closed his career at 6,073 yards and 84 touchdowns. Both teams were 11-1. Dunmore had been giving up 144.4 rushing yards a game. The district results list had Dunmore 35, Lackawanna Trail 7 in the semifinal. The notes that Sunday had Henzes at 382 career wins after his 47th season, and Michael Schuback at his 100th win. Old Forge was to play Southern Columbia the next Friday at 7 at Shamokin High School.