On the 2024 high school football season opening Friday night under the bright lights, the visiting Lackawanna Trail Lions trounced the hometown Tunkhannock Tigers by a score of 41-7.
Tunkhannock had upset on the mind and had all the early momentum in the contest, getting on the scoreboard first and enjoying an early 7-0 advantage heading into the second quarter of play.
However, the road warrior Lions came storming back with vengeance and ended the game scoring an awe-inspiring 41 unanswered points to capture their dominant 34-point victory.
Lackawanna Trail coach Steve Jervis was happy with his team’s resiliency and won’t-quit attitude after going down early in the game and never panicking.
“I do give credit to our kids, they didn’t get rattled,” Jervis said. “Kind of settled down. It’s more, we talk a lot about culture and process and all those things. Week one, you get behind and I was real happy with our kids, they went right back to work and I think we had a pretty good bounce-back second quarter there that set the tone for the rest of the game.”
Tunkhannock’s lone score of the night came with just 2:40 left in the first quarter when their senior tailback Karver Lewis sprinted to the right hand side and took it to the house on a 16-yard touchdown run to give his team the early lead.
That lead would be short-lived, as the Lions tallied a robust 27 points in the second quarter, and seven apiece in the third and fourth quarters respectively.
Trail’s first score came with 9:27 remaining in the second quarter when Issac Ryon scampered into the end zone from 4 yards out to tie the ball game up at 7-7.
For the Lions’ go-ahead score, their stalwart signal caller Tyler Jervis connected with a wide open Max Kimmel on an impressive 44-yard aerial touchdown strike with 5:43 left in the first half to give their squad a 14-7 advantage.
Then just a few minutes later, Demetrius Douglas scored on a lightning quick 20-yard touchdown run to stretch out his team’s lead to 20-7 with 2:57 left in the half.
Douglas would then score his second of his hat trick of touchdown runs in the contest just moments later, as he barreled his way in from 16 yards out to give the Lions the 27-7 cushion they would enjoy heading into the locker room.
In the third stanza, the Lions tallied another score, this time a 20-yard rushing touchdown from Ryon, his second of the ball game, to extend Trail’s lead to 34-7 with 1:30 remaining in the quarter.
Then in the fourth quarter, Douglas scored his third rushing touchdown of the night, this time pounding his way in from the 1-yard line with 5:03 left in regulation to give his club the 41-7 lead they would enjoy by game’s end.
Now coach Jervis and his 1-0 Lions will look to stay undefeated on the young season when they go on the road once again next week for a battle with Western Wayne on Friday night before having their home opener in Week 3.
Meanwhile, head coach Pat Keating and his 0-1 Tigers will look to bounce back and capture their first win of the season next Friday night when they travel to Spartan Stadium in Kingston to take on the Holy Redeemer Royals.
Lackawanna Trail 41, Tunkhannock 7
Lackawanna Trail `0`27`7`7 — 41
Tunkhannock `7`0`0`0 — 7
First Quarter
TUN — Karver Lewis 16 run (Jerome Callum kick), 2:40.
Second Quarter
LT — Issac Ryon 4 run (Ryon kick), 9:27.
LT — Max Kimmel 44 pass from Tyler Jervis (Ryon kick), 5:43.
LT — Demetrius Douglas 20 run (kick failed), 2:57.
LT — Douglas 16 run (Holden Edwards kick), 1:09.
Third Quarter
LT — Issac Ryon 20 run (Edwards kick), 1:30.
Fourth Quarter
LT — Douglas 1 run (Edwards kick), 5:03.
Team statistics `LT `Tunk
First downs`18`7
Rushes-yards`36-266`28-79
Passing yards`96`63
Total yards`362`142
Passing`3-4-1-0`6-12-0-1
Sacked-yards lost`0-0`4-33
Punts-avg.`1-45`5-38
Fumbles-lost`0-0`3-0
Penalties-yards`3-25`4-25
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING- LT, Issac Ryon 12-121, Demetrius Douglas 9-81, Logan Edwards 6-18, Tyler Jervis 7-34, Holden Edwards 2-12. TU, Karver Lewis 16-38, Zach Latwinski 4-10, Lucas Ciprich 3-12, Ethan Dominick 2-6, Randall Paxton 2-17, Mahkil Mickels 1-neg.4.
PASSING- LT, Tyler Jervis 3-3-96-1-0, Max Kimmel 0-1-0-0-0. TU, Zach Latwinski 6-12-63-0-1.
RECEIVING- LT, Max Kimmel 2-82, Issac Ryon 1-14. TU, Andrew Lupinski 3-32, Jayden Ransom 1-8, Mahkil Mickels 1-5, Colin Gregory 1-18.
INTERCEPTIONS- LT, Max Kimmel 1-0. TU, None.
Missed Field Goals —None
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