WEST PITTSTON — The first play from scrimmage of Friday night’s game between Wyoming Area and Northwest could have been disastrous for the Warriors.
Dominic DeLuca’s pass was intercepted by the Rangers’ David Piestrak.
Turns out that was the lone mistake of the night for the Warriors, who couldn’t be stopped on offense after that, and the defense was like a brick wall as they rolled to a 55-0 victory.
DeLuca, a junior, could have folded after the early miscue. But he rebounded by orchestrating four scoring drives while rushing for 102 yards and two scores and passing for 51 yards and a TD.
“That’s just something that we expect of Dominic where he’s grown and developed at this point,” Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer said. “He knows he needs to be a player, he needs to be a leader. And the thing about being a leader is it’s easy to lead when things go right. What do you do when things go wrong?
“And I think you saw not just his response but the team’s response. And that’s really positive for us.”
The Warriors (3-0) scored touchdowns via punt return, interception return, pass and run. The first score of the night came after the Rangers’ initial possession when they were forced to punt. Freshman Leo Haros took the return to paydirt from 52 yards out for a 7-0 lead early in the game.
When Wyoming Area got its first possession, it showed domination by the offensive line as Corey Mruk and DeLuca combined to run for 59 yards capped by a 2-yard score by DeLuca for the 14-0 lead.
DeLuca rambled off a 63-yard TD run on the first play of the team’s next drive for a 21-0 lead before the first quarter ended.
Mruk, who carried the ball 12 times for 120 yards, got into the scoring action in the second quarter on a 16-yard run. Six seconds later on the very next play from scrimmage, Derek Ambrosino intercepted a pass from Piestrak and returned it 13 yards for a score and a 35-0 lead. Ambrosino tipped the screen pass to himself then caught it before rumbling in for the score.
“It felt good. With all the preparation and practice, it just felt good,” Ambrosino said. “We knew they were the two-time defending Wyoming Valley Conference champs from 3A, so we knew we had to come out and play and that’s what we did.”
Backup quarterback Jacob Williams hit Ambrosino for a 20-yard TD pass with a little more than a minute to go before halftime as the Warriors led 42-0 at the break and the rest was history,
The defense also worked wonders piling up three sacks, one interception, forced one fumble, only gave up just one first down and held the Rangers to negative yardage at minus-10 total yards, which includes negative-44 yards rushing and 34 passing — 33 of those rushing yards were on sacks.
“We knew we had the confidence to come out and dominate them and that’s what we did,” Ambrosino said. “It (the dominant defensive effort) says we have a stingy defense. We have Cameron Carr, Corey Mruk, FJ Braccini, Dom DeLuca, all these guys that step up and play defense.”
Wyoming Area 55, Northwest 0
Northwest`0`0`0`0 — 0
Wyoming Area `21`21`7`6 — 55
First Quarter
WA – Haros 52 punt return (Kranson kick) 10:05
WA – DeLuca 2 run (Kranson kick) 3:23
WA – DeLuca 63 run (Kranson kick) 1:36
Second Quarter
WA – Mruk 16 run (Kranson kick) 8:47
WA – Ambrosino 13 interception return (Kranson kick) 8:41
WA – Ambrosino 20 pass from Williams (Kranson kick) 1:16
Third Quarter
WA – DePietro 19 pass from DeLuca (Cumbo kick) 5:32
Fourth Quarter
WA – Sancho 51 run (run failed) :07
Team statistics`NW`WA
First downs`1`19
Rushes-yards`24-(-44)`33-369
Passing yards`34`89
Total yards`(-10)`458
Passing`2-11-1`4-10-1
Sacks by-yards lost`1-9`3-33
Punts-avg.`10-37.9`1-29.0
Fumbles-lost`1-0`0-0
Penalties-yards`1-5`4-25
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
PASSING – NW, Piestrak 2-11-1-34, WA, DeLuca 3-6-1-51, Williams 2-3-0-38, Gashi 0-0-0-0.
RUSHING— NW, Piestrak 5-(minus-40), Stevens 3-(minus-3), May 14-13, Saunders 1-(mnnus-1), TEAM 1-(minus-13). WA, Mruk 12-120, DeLuca 3-102, Elko 3-13, J. Williams 1-(minus-9), B. Williams 2-(minus-8), D. Williams 2-8, Giambra 5-79, Sancho 2-65, Gashi 1-2, Scotto-Diluzio 2-(minus-3).
RECEIVING— NW, Koser 2-29, Hazlet 1-5. WA, Ambrosino 1-20, B. Williams 1-21, DePietro 1-11, Sokach-Minnick 1-8.
INTERCEPTIONS – NW, Piestrak. WA, Ambrosino.
MISSED FG’S – WA, Kranson (42 short)
