Pen Argyl football rides its defense to win over Salisbury

Nuallan King bent over with his hands resting on his knees as he and his Pen Argyl teammates waited for Salisbury’s offense to break the huddle late in the fourth quarter of Saturday afternoon’s game.

The defensive end was spent.

Imagine how Falcons quarterback Andrew Lucas felt.

King chased Lucas all around a sopping wet Alumni Stadium on Saturday. The Green Knight registered five sacks and Lucas escaped King two other times.

“I think I only had three sacks all last year,” King admitted.

Caiden Faust rushed for 112 yards and caught a touchdown pass, but defensive statistics determined the Colonial-Schuylkill League game.

Rocco DeCesare had three sacks. Lucas Lerch had two interceptions. Faust had a tackle for loss and returned an interception 37 yards for a score in a 21-3 Pen Argyl victory that brought both teams to 3-3 this season.

The Green Knights bounced back from their lone bad quarter of football in last week’s 21-20 loss to Palisades to play perhaps their best four quarters — particularly on defense.

“We played hard,” head coach Brady Mutton said. “That’s all we did. We didn’t change anything. We planned for what they showed, and the kids just came to play today.”

Pen Argyl’s offense got all it needed on the game’s first series, driving 58 yards in nine plays to take a 7-0 lead on Mason Soos’ 11-yard touchdown run with 7 minutes, 19 seconds left in the first quarter. Soos’ 17-yard completion to A.J. Sora on fourth down kept the drive alive.

The Green Knights defense did the rest, allowing just 54 net rushing yards and 133 yards total.

Salisbury wide receiver Caleb Gonzalez, 3, runs upfield against Pen Argyl in the first quarter of their game Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Pen Argyl’s Alumni Stadium. (Douglas Kilpatrick/Special to the Morning Call)

“Our biggest thing was just to play a full game,” King said. “The past few weeks hasn’t gone the way we wanted. We should have been 4-1 [before Saturday]. We’re sitting at 3-3 now. The biggest thing was to dominate on both sides of the ball, and I think we did that.”

King’s first sack came on fourth down on the Falcons’ first drive.

After Dominic Natosi’s interception stopped Pen Argyl’s next drive, the Green Knights’ defense stopped Salisbury with Jakob Pietraszkiewicz’s third-down sack.

The only punt of the game followed before the Green Knights marched 38 yards in eight plays for another score, a fourth-down screen pass for a touchdown from Soos to Faust for a 14-0 cushion with 4:37 left in the first half.

Pen Argyl’s defense came up big again on Salisbury’s next offensive series. King sacked Lucas on first down, then Faust picked off a pass and ran it back for a touchdown and a 21-0 lead.

Salisbury’s defense played well in the second half, but it couldn’t finish any drives. The first of two Lerch interceptions ended the Falcons’ first drive of the second half.

Their next one nearly stalled out after King’s 22-yard sack, but a targeting penalty led to a Josh Hudak field goal with 2:56 left in the third quarter.

The Falcons allowed only one first down in the last two quarters. Alex Moren had an interception. Jason St. Leger, Derek Trinidad and Natosi had tackles for loss.

But penalties and sacks prevented the Falcons from making a comeback.

“There’s a lot of little things we’re looking over for sure,” coach Kevin DiZenzo said. “It definitely starts up front. They beat us in the trenches. We have a good group there, so we’re going to have to get back to practice and work on the basics, get it right.

“They beat us today. They outplayed us. They outcoached us. Kudos to them.”

Pen Argyl, which lost a two-score lead in the fourth quarter in Week 3 against Northern Lehigh and coughed up an early lead last week with a bad second quarter at home, is looking to build on Saturday’s momentum in all phases of the game.

It hosts Notre Dame-Green Pond next Saturday before visiting Saucon Valley in Week 8.

“We challenged them this week,” Mutton said. “We feel like we’re beating ourselves up. We really put it on them. We told them last week was really unacceptable. We hadn’t really played bad until that one quarter last week. They bounced back, and resilient was the word we used all week.”

Notes

St. Leger had 54 rushing yards before leaving the game with an ankle injury. … Salisbury was 4 for 10 on third down and 1 for 3 on fourth down. … Pen Argyl was 0 for 8 on third down and 3 for 7 on fourth down as it never punted.

PEN ARGYL 21, SALISBURY 3

Salisbury; 0; 0; 3; 0 — 3

Pen Argyl; 7; 14; 0; 0 — 21

ORDER OF SCORING

First quarter

PA: Mason Soos 11 run (Reid Kotulka kick), 7:19

Second quarter

PA: Soos 14 pass to Caiden Faust (Kotulka kick), 4:37

PA: Faust 37 INT return (Kotulka kick), 3:54

Third quarter

S: Josh Hudak FG 28 yards, 2:56

TEAM STATISTICS

Sal; PA

First downs; 11; 10

Rushes-yards; 35-54; 38-157

Passing yards; 79; 61

Comp-Att-INTs; 10-19-3; 5-9-1

Punts-avg.; 1-13.0; 0-0

Fumbles-lost; 0-0; 0-0

Penalties-yards; 10-84; 8-73

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing : (Salisbury) Jason St. Leger 12-54; Derek Trinidad 4-15; Jordan Tocci 2-5; Jamanni Cruz 1-7; Andrew Lucas 10-(-68); Caleb Gonzalez 6-41; (Pen Argyl) Caiden Faust 24-112; Mason Soos 13-48, TD; Zach Metzgar 1-(-3).

Passing : (Salisbury) Lucas 10-19-3, 79 yards; (Pen Argyl) Soos 5-9-1, 61 yards, TD.

Receiving : (Salisbury) Gonzalez 1-3; St. Leger 2-14; Cruz 1-12; Keaton Frye 2-12; Jacob Watson 2-6; Tocci 2-32; (Pen Argyl) Lucas Lerch 1-5; A.J. Sora 1-17; Faust 2-22, TD; Michael Thomas 1-17.

Morning Call senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at 610-820-6651 or at thousenick@mcall.com.