OLD FORGE — As Lake-Lehman was building an eight-point halftime lead Friday night, starting running back Nick Eury was on the sideline.
He winked, he blinked, he opened his right eye as wide as possible — all in the effort to regain some vision.
The impromptu physical therapy session didn’t work. But some strategically placed tape did.
Eury rushed for 220 yards and three touchdowns — all in the second half and all with his right eye taped open — as Lehman demolished state-ranked Old Forge 42-13 in a non-conference game.
Lehman improved to 3-0. Old Forge fell to 2-1, ending the Blue Devils’ 13-game winning streak against Wyoming Valley Conference opponents.
Two plays after returning a kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown, Eury was poked in the eye trying to make a tackle on defense. He ran to the sideline holding his hand over his face and immediately received treatment from the team’s trainer.
“I think it was a toss pattern or something,” Eury said. “I went to tackle him and he gave me a good stiff-arm. His fingers went into my eye. I was trying to get more vision in it. It was always blurry on my right side. Eventually, we found out if we taped both side of it it made it easier for me to see.”
Eury’s eyelid swelled from the poke. So some tape above, below and on the side of the eye propped up the eyelid.
“I was telling them to cut me, but you know,” Eury said.
Eury ran with vengeance to start the third quarter. He ripped off runs of 13 and 15 yards before completing the 60-yard scoring drive with a 7-yard run for a 28-13 lead. He then broke off touchdown runs of 83 and 50 yards in the fourth quarter.
Eury appeared trapped on the left sideline on the 83-yard TD run. He navigated around a block by lineman Kaleb Konigus and then broke a few tackles to complete his run.
Joey Vigil, Eury’s running mate, carried the load in the first half with 102 rushing yards, including touchdown runs of 27 and 65 yards in the second quarter for a 28-13 halftime lead. But Vigil hurt his left ankle early in the third and spent the rest of the game on the sideline. The dangerous running duo spent only seven of Lehman’s 50 offensive plays on the field at the same time.
“It was a statement,” Lehman coach Jerry Gilsky said of the victory. “Everybody was saying our schedule, our first three games (were weak). Our schedule this, our schedule that. What people don’t realize is, when we play only half of a game, we prepare our guys in practice as a staff.”
Old Forge made the first statement, scoring on the fifth play of the game on an 11-yard touchdown catch by running back Brendan Mozeleski. It would be the only noise heard from the Blue Devils’ offensive unit. Their other score came on a blocked punt recovered in the end zone by Nasir Harris.
“That first series, some of the young guys never played in a game like this,” said Lehman lineman and Penn State recruit Connor McGovern. “So once that first one set in, we knew (Old Forge) was here to play. We just played our normal defense. We came of physical, strong, fast. Just like we always do.”
Old Forge was held to 47 yards rushing and 130 total. Cooper Canifaro, a 1,000-yard rusher last season, finished with 3 yards on 16 carries.
Lake-Lehman 42, Old Forge 13
Lake-Lehman`7`14`7`14`—`42
Old Forge`7`6`0`0`—`13
First quarter
OF — Brendan Mozeleski 11 pass from Joey Gutowski (Jaret Horn kick), 10:26
LL — Nick Eury 84 kick return (Ian Dawsey kick), 11:011
Second quarter
OF — Nasir Harris blocked punt recovery in end zone (kick failed), 11:19
LL — Joey Vigil 27 run (Dawsey kick), 9:32
LL — Vigil 65 run (Dawsey kick), 1:55
Third quarter
LL — Eury 7 run (Dawsey kick), 8:12
Fourth quarter
LL — Eury 83 run (Dawsey kick), 8:42
LL — Eury 50 run (Dawsey kick), 3:42
Team statistics`LL`OF
First downs`13`6
Rushes-yards`49-390`21-47
Passing yards`0`83
Total yards`390`130
Passing`0-1-0`7-20-1
Sacked-yards lost`1-10`0-0
Punts-avg.`2-23`6-35.3
Fumbles-lost`3-1`1-1
Penalties-yards`8-51`1-15
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Lehman, Vigil 10-99, Eury 12-220, Luke Hummel 8-36, Trey Borger 12-89, Nate O’Donnell 1-(minus-10), Matt Benn 2-6, team 4-(minus-50). Old Forge, Cooper Canifaro 16-3, Mozeleski 5-44.
PASSING — Lehman, O’Donnell 0-1-0-0. Old Forge, Gutowski 5-12-1-54, Paul Cariati 2-8-0-29.
RECEIVING — Old Forge, Canifaro 3-57, Mozeleski 2-16, Jerry Hobbs 2-10.
INTERCEPTIONS — Lehman, Noah Gorski 1-0.
MISSED FGs — none.
