Berwick Beats Dallas, Clinches Top Seed The Dawgs And The Mountaineers Will Likely Meet Again Next Week In A District 2 Class 3a Semifinal.
By JOHN ERZAR [email protected]
Sunday, November 04, 2001 Page: 1C
DALLAS – To get the mismatches Berwick thrives on takes time and patience
against an opponent like Dallas.
And sometimes, like on Saturday afternoon, a timeout.
“We put that play in this week,” Berwick fullback/tailback Jason Warner
said. “We saw their safeties on films. They bite on play fakes.
“That’s why we called a timeout. We didn’t have the right personnel on the
line, and we needed someone else in there. We knew it was going to be open.”
And as Warner cradled a 35-yard touchdown pass from Frank Jankowski late in
the third quarter, the Dawgs put some space between themselves and Dallas,
eventually leading to a 14-6 Northeast Pennsylvania Football Conference
Division 2 South victory.
Berwick (8-2, 4-1 Div. 2 South) earned a share of the divisional title with
Wyoming Area. The Dawgs also clinched the top seed in next weekend’s District
slipped to the fourth seed.
“We’ve got to play them again anyway, so it might as well be
back-to-back,” Berwick coach George Curry said.
The other district game will be third-seeded West Scranton (7-3) at
second-seeded Blue Mountain (8-2), which bumped Pittston Area from the
playoffs. The complete district schedule will be set Monday.
Warner’s reception on a pass Jankowski placed just over an outstretched
Dallas defender was one of only a handful of plays that worked as designed for
either team. The game was an offensive stalemate, especially in the first
half, during which Dallas’ longest drive was 27 yards and Berwick’s 19.
Berwick, though, finally broke a scoreless tie with 4:22 left in the third
quarter. Curry inserted Alonzo Pruitt in the backfield on a first-and-10 from
the Dallas 20-yard line. Pruitt, whose elusiveness was a contrast to Warner’s
bulldozing running, broke through the line and bounced off a tackler at the 15
to give the Dawgs a 7-0 lead.
Berwick’s Mike Markowski picked off a pass on Dallas’ fifth play after
Pruitt’s score, and Warner grabbed his touchdown pass two plays later.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Dallas coach Ted Jackson said. “We
hoped to be in the game in the fourth quarter. They hit that play to (Warner)
and that kind of broke our back. But you have to give our kids credit. We came
right back and went down the field and scored.
“Then we make two stops on them and have good field position again, but we
dropped two first-down passes right in our hands.”
Dallas drove 80 yards on eight plays, using a 26-yard scramble by
quarterback Chuck Suppon to set up a 14-yard Suppon-to-Blake Saba touchdown
pass. The extra point was blocked, and Dallas trailed 14-6 with 8:46
remaining.
Suppon got off his touchdown pass under a Berwick blitz, but was harassed
by a relentless pass rush. He was sacked eight times for minus-49 yards and
was hurried on numerous occasions.
“We found a weakness and thought they couldn’t block the blitz that
well,” Berwick inside linebacker Tom Cicini said. “We tried to exploit
that.”
Cicini was the main disrupting force on the blitz. He often took a two- or
three-step running start into the line, either breaking through or allowing
defensive ends Andy Decker and Chris Hart to collapse the pocket.
“You can’t let that kid stand there and throw,” Curry said.
