Warriors push back to the top of the heap

Friday night, October 22, Delaware Valley had its final football home game of the regular season. This was Senior Night, when all seniors involved are honored. This includes cheerleaders, players, managers, and assistants. It is always a special event, and you sure want to enjoy the evening with a victory. DV would do just that with a 40-17 win over Wallenpaupack.

Let’s put this in perspective so that everyone is clear about the reality for Delaware Valley football. They are the Pocono powerhouse, and have been for many years now. Every team wants knocks the perennial king of the mountain off its perch. These other schools show up knowing they are up against the big boys, and all want to walk out with a victory. They show up all energized and highly motivated. Usually, by time the first quarter is over, the visitors realize they are in for a very rough evening.

Wallenpaupack, however, played a very spirited game and managed to get through the first quarter holding Delaware Valley scoreless. The quarter ended 0-0.

But in the second quarter it took DV four seconds to post up the first touchdown, finding themselves on the Wallenpaupack 17-yard line. Paulie Weinrich plowed right through the entire Wallenpaupack defense for a brilliant 17-yard run.

DV was now establishing its pound-it-out and grind-it-out run game. As the game wore on, they kept it honest by incorporating passes, but it was the usual stingy defense and jackhammer pounding ground game that wears opposing teams down.

Bad snaps, fumbles, and interceptions

Wallenpaupack made a good showing for themselves, but penalties, missed plays like quarterback sackings, bad snaps, fumbles, and interceptions inhibited progress just when things were looking good for them. You just can’t give gifts to DV like that. If you cough the ball up deep in you own territory and hand it to Delaware Valley, they will punish you for sure. Wallenpaupack mixed it up well with passes and runs but just had trouble sustaining their drives, with the exception of one brilliant run by Shadrak Agyei for a touchdown.

Players of note for Wallenpaupack were TJ Schmalzle and Shadrak Agyei who ran the ball very well. Roman Levant was a great kicker for them.

Too many DV players to mention made major contributions to the night’s game. I don’t want miss anybody but know I will. Here are a few: Gabe Tidridge, Tim Kizis, Aiden Black, Nate Malnick, and CJ Ross, with a special mention for Ryder Machado and Paulie Weinrich.

Ryder had many great runs, including one where he bulled through the line, broke many tackles, and scored with guys hanging all over him.

Paulie had a spectacularly great game. He made a bone-crushing hit on a Wallenpaupack player who made the poor choice of not calling for a fair catch after a punt. He had a big interception and many outstanding runs.

This was the year everyone thought that they could pay DV back for years of punishment, especially after DV lost their first three games and suffered heavy losses of so many top players last year to graduation. But DV made all the corrections and has now won six straight games, pushing themselves again to the top of the heap.

Next week they play North Pocono, another powerhouse, at the North Pocono field, which will make it a tough matchup. And as it turns out, that game will be for the league championship.

Here’s a human interest aspect of this game: the DV coach, Keith Olsommer, played his high school football at North Pocono. His team played the then-perennial state and national powerhouse Berwick for their championship. Want to guess who scored the winning touchdown to give North Pocono the amazing victory over Berwick? Yep, you guessed it. It is the one and the same Keith Olsommer.

Now he brings his Delaware Valley team to North Pocono intending to knock them off for the league championship.

How is that for a twist of fate?

Let’s go Warriors!