HAZLETON — After its offense was completely stymied a week ago in a loss to Crestwood, it looked like a similar night was unfolding for Hazleton Area on Friday. The Cougars scored on their first drive, and then went cold for over two quarters.
Ashton Karlick wasn’t having it.
The junior running back capped off his 145-yard night with two fourth quarter touchdowns as Hazleton Area scored 14 points in the final 3:43 to beat Pittston Area 20-14.
Both defenses showed up to play: the game stood at 14-6 after the first quarter, and wouldn’t budge until inside four minutes left to play.
But Karlick, after spending much of the night making his own room to run, got a big boost from his offensive line and led the Cougars to the comeback victory.
“How about the job running by Ashton Karlick, and by those guys up front,” Hazleton Area coach Dennis Buchman said. “We battled, we battled against a lot of things and overcame some adversity.”
After several missed opportunities, including a 93-yard drive to end the first half cut short by an interception on the goal line, Hazleton Area finally took advantage of some of the gifts the Patriots gave them.
Chief among those gifts: great field position. On the drive to tie the game, a nine-yard punt allowed the Cougars to get started right around midfield.
Karlick took a handoff, stretched his run out to the sideline and did a good job walking the tightrope down the line to reach the end zone on a 34-yard touchdown run. He caught the two-point conversion pass from Freddy Corrado to tie the game with 3:43 to play.
Pittston Area started the ensuing drive in good shape out near their own 40, but a costly personal foul and another shanked punt gave the Cougars another short field to work with.
Corrado, starting in place of injured senior signal-caller Austin Wilson, worked the clock and worked his guys down to the red zone. Karlick, going left this time, shook off a couple would-be tacklers and rumbled across the goal line for the game-winning touchdown with just 21 seconds left to play.
Pittston Area’s CJ Pietrzak had 97 yards on the ground and scored the first Patriot touchdown to put his team ahead 8-6 in the first quarter. The Patriots added to their lead at the end of the quarter, with a perfect throw from quarterback Paulie Ferentino to Lucas Lopresto.
Ferentino, making his first-ever appearance at quarterback in place of Matt Walter, threw for 109 yards and a score.
The Patriots picked off two passes, and recovered a fumble on a muffed punt deep in Hazleton Area in the third quarter, but were unable to capitalize on some of these opportunities.
“We have to finish drives, finish games … that’s the name of the game,” Pittston Area coach Joe DeLucca said. “Paulie had a hell of a game, he made some big time throws.”
Hazleton Area 20, Pittston Area 14
Pittston Area`14`0`0`0 — 14
Hazleton Area`6`0`0`14 — 20
First Quarter
HAZ — Yohansel Moran 49 pass from Freddy Corrado (kick failed), 10:20
PA — CJ Pietrzak 2 run (Lucas Lopresto pass from Paulie Ferentino), 6:24
PA — Lopresto 26 pass from Ferentino (run failed), 1:43
Fourth quarter
HAZ — Ashton Karlick 34 run (Karlick pass from Corrado), 3:43
HAZ — Karlick 5 run (kick blocked), 21.1
Team statistics`PA`HAZ
First downs`10`13
Rushes-yards`38-87`30-144
Passing yards`128`141
Total yards`215`285
Passing`7-14-0`13-23-2
Sacked-yards lost`0-0`1-6
Punts-avg.`3-18.3`4-29.5
Fumbles-lost`2-2`1-1
Penalties-yards`6-50`5-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — PA, Pietrzak 24-97, Ferentino 8-2, Chance Radzewicz 2-5, Lopresto 3-3, Team 1-(minus-20). HAZ, Karlick 22-145, Riley VanGilst 1-(minus-3), Corrado 4-(minus-10), Carlos Gonzalez 1-8, Johncarlos Peralta 1-4, Xavier Heck 1-2.
PASSING — PA, Ferentino 7-13-0-128, Lopresto 0-1-0-0. HA, Corrado 13-23-2-141.
RECEIVING — PA, Lopresto 5-108, Jakob Bolchune 1-2, Malkolm Blackshear 1-18. HAZ, Karlick 2-10, Moran 5-111, Gonzalez 3-16, Jack Mariano 2-6, Peralta 1-(minus-2).
INTERCEPTIONS — PA, Gerry Groom 1-9, Aiden Levandoski 1-0.
MISSED FGs — none.
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