Missed chances haunt Misericordia
DALLAS – Mark Ross couldn’t ask for three better drives to open the game.
The end result of those three? Well, that’s something the Misericordia football coach may want to bypass during film session.
The Cougars drove inside the Delaware Valley red zone on three straight possessions, but came away with no points. The Aggies had no problems moving the ball – racking up nearly 450 yards and four scores on the ground en route to a 28-7 victory Saturday afternoon at Mangelsdorf Field.
Delaware Valley had two rushers eclipse the 100-yard mark, and finished with an astonishing 515 yards of total offense.
“We have three backs that we feel that we can win football games with,” DV head coach Duke Greco said. “All three are different, but can play. Defensively, I thought we played well, but not great. Misericordia had 48 plays in the first half. That’s way too many snaps. We have to get teams off the field. Those stops were big, though, especially since our offense sputtered early. It helped us regroup.”
Ross might wake up this morning and wonder what could have been.
The Cougars could have put 21 points on the board. Or at least 17.
Instead, simple mistakes killed each drive.
A botched snap led to a shaky hold on a 30-yard field-goal attempt as the ball sailed wide right on the first possession.
A fumble at the Delaware Valley 8 quickly halted the second series.
And a holding penalty wiped out a first-and-10 at the DV 15 on the Cougars’ third possession.
Three red zone trips. Zero points.
“I really thought we had a great opening drive,” Ross said. “But that bad snap hurt us, and we didn’t get that field goal on the board. We have to start playing winning football, and winning football isn’t beating yourself with pre-snap and assignment errors. I thought that we had a chance to go ahead at halftime or at least near tied. We had some encouraging signs, but there is still some work to do.”
That’s when the Aggies rushing attack took over.
Tyler Bing showcased his break-away speed on jet sweeps, scoring from 4 yards out to give Delaware Valley a 7-0 lead with 5:37 left in the first half. Later, he took another counter hand-off, sped around the left side and went untouched 40 yards down the sideline on the Aggies’ first series of the fourth quarter.
The scary part is that Bing wasn’t even the top 2 in rushing.
Devauntay Ellis and Armani Fuller-Williams combined for 242 yards. Ellis, which scored on an 11-yard burst late in the fourth, averaged 9.6 yards per carry.
Fuller-Williams, whose 57-yard score gave the Aggies a 14-0 lead at halftime, got nearly 11 yards every time he touched the ball.
“I think you saw a lot more consistency in the second half,” Fuller-Williams said. “Myself, Devauntay and Robert (Cleveland) all ran hard and hit the holes that the line opened up for us. I’m happy we did what we did today. I wished that we were able to do that last week. We kind of knew that we were going to be able to run the ball well.”
Misericordia (0-3) tried to rally back late.
The Cougars strung together a nine-play, 65-yard drive, which was aided by a DV pass interference to move the football down to the Aggies 22. On the first-and-10 play, Jeff Puckett found a wide open Ryan Kurtz on the wheel route as the junior walked into the end zone for the 22-yard score – trimming the lead to 21-7 with 6:06 left.
But the ensuring onside kick was recovered by Delaware Valley (2-1), and the Aggies used an eight-play drive to clinch the game – capped off with their fourth rushing score.
The Cougars had almost 400 yards of offense themselves – led by Puckett, who threw for 227 and rushed for another 83. Mark McMaster hauled in eight passes for 99 yards, and teammate Kurtz had seven catches for 72 yards and the team’s lone score.
“It’s no secret that people are going to run the football against us. We aren’t quite there yet. It’s just going to take us time,” Ross said.
Lycoming 48, Wilkes 24
The Colonels held a 24-20 lead with four minutes to go in the third quarter. But the Warriors scored 28 unanswered points in span of about 12 minutes to pull away for the victory.
After the Warriors pulled in front 27-24 with a touchdown with 3:51 left in the third quarter, they scored on an 87-yard pass to go ahead 34-24. Then everything turned disastrous for the Colonels (1-2 overall, 1-1 MAC) as Lyco scored two touchdowns in 10 seconds when a Colonels shanked punt and personal foul penalty gave Lyco tremendous field position.
The Warriors needed just one play to extend their lead to 41-24. On Wilkes’ first play from scrimmage after that score, Lycoming picked off Ryan Dailey and returned it 14 yards for a score with the clock reading 7:45.
Despite the pick-six, Dailey had another tremendous for the Wilkes offense, which ran 92 plays and piled up 414 yards. The quarterback threw for 357 yards and three touchdowns.
Eight different Colonel receivers made at least two receptions led by Storm Deemer’s 10 catches for 94 yards. Aaron Coyne finished with eight grabs for 72 yards and two scores.
Tanner Stengel led the defense for a third consecutive week with 11 tackles and two sacks. It marks the third straight week of 10-plus tackles for the junior linebacker.
Delaware Valley 28, Misericordia 7
D `0`14`0`14 – 28
M `0`0`0`7 – 7
Second Quarter
D: Tyler Bing 4 run (Brendan Hanagan kick), 5:37
D: Armani Fuller-Williams 57 run (Hanagan kick), 2:37
Fourth Quarter
D: Bing 40 run (Hanagan kick), 7:55
M: Ryan Kurtz 22 pass from Jeff Puckett (Ryan Davis kick), 6:06
D: Devauntay Ellis 14 run (Hanagan kick), 1:45
Team Statistics `D`M
First Downs `21`23
Rushes-Yards `54-449 `33-149
Passing Yards `66`229
Total Yards `515`378
Passing `6-13-0`21-39-0
Sacks-Yards Lost `1-9`1-13
Punts-Average `1-34`4-33.8
Fumbles-Lost `1-1`2-1
Penalties-Yards `6-64`6-40
Individual Statistics
: D: Devauntay Ellis 13-122, Armani Fuller-Williams 11-120, Tyler Bing 7-72, Robert Cleveland 8-46, Michael Fowler 2-46, Dashawn Darden 5-30, Danny Farley 5-16, Anthony Martinez 1-1, Team 2-(minus 4). M: Jeff Puckett 18-83, Ryan Kurtz 13-55, Mark Rainey 2-11.
: D, Danny Farley 6-13-0, 66 yards. M, Jeff Puckett 20-36-0, 227 yards; Brandon Leap 1-2-0, 2 yards.
: D, James Norton 3-46, Stephen Greco 2-19, Tyler Bing 1-1. M, Mark McMaster 8-99, Ryan Kurtz 7-72, Mark Rainey 2-35, Colton Pyne 2-6, Tyler Rowe 1-9, Juwan Petties-Jackson 1-8.
: none
MISSED FG: M, Ryan Davis 1 (30 yards)
: DV 2-1, M 0-3
Lycoming 48, Wilkes 24
Wilkes`14`7`3`0`—`24
Lycoming`6`14`7`21`—`48
First quarter
WILKES — Coyne 18 pass from Dailey (Von Glahn kick) 11:30
LYCO — Bowman 1 run (kick blocked) 7:53
WILKES — Coyne 21 pass from Dailey (Von Glahn kick) 2:55
Second quarter
LYCO — Bowman 3 run (Flynn kick) 13:59
LYCO — Smith fumble recovery in end zone (Flynn kick) 10:01
WILKES — Incremona 17 pass from Dailey (Von Glahn kick) :48
Third quarter
WILKES — Von Glahn 22 field goal 11:52
LYCO — Costello 5 pass from Whiteman (Flynn kick) 3:51
Fourth quarter
LYCO — Whalen 83 pass from Whiteman (Flynn kick) 14:49
LYCO — Palmer 19 run (Flynn kick) 7:55
LYCO — Smith 14 interception return (Flynn kick) 7:45
Team statistics`WILKES`LYCO
First downs`26`20
Rushes-yards`33-57`45-192
Passing yards`357`225
Total yards`414`417
Passing`39-59-2`13-21-1
Sacks by-yards`2-3`3-13
Punts-avg.`5-36.4`5-35.2
Fumbles-lost`2-1`2-0
Penalties-yards`5-50`6-59
— WILKES, Incremona 17-38, Deemer 5-19, Dailey 8-2, Fink 3-(minus-2). LYCO, Bowman 26-140, Palmer 7-33, Whiteman 9-27, TEAM 3-(minus-8).
— WILKES, Dailey 39-59-2-357. LYCO, Whiteman 13-21-1-225
— WILKES, Deemer 10-94, Coyne 8-72, Richards 6-58, Incremona 5-57, Armstrong 4-32, Fink 2-22, Latierno 2-15, Brook 2-7. LYCO, Whalen 3-108, Umpleby 4-41, Costello 3-29, Palmer 1-24, Morrison 2-23.
— WILKES, Stiles 1-20. Smith 1-14, Ward 1-5.
MISSED FGs — None.
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