HAZLETON — Adrian Otero was a one-man wrecking machine.

Two touchdown runs. A fumble return to the end zone. An amazing scoring grab where the Hazleton Area junior jumped over a Dallas defender near the pylon.

And all of that was just his second quarter.

Hazleton Area scored early and often on a soggy Friday night at Harman-Geist Memorial Field as the Cougars jumped out to a big lead at halftime en route to a 41-23 victory over the Mountaineers on Homecoming night.

It’s the second straight win for the Cougars (2-7), while Dallas falls to 1-8 on the season. Otero finished with five touchdowns and 197 yards of total offense.

“We are getting better,” Hazleton Area head coach Mike Brennan said. “We made some plays tonight. We came out of the blocks quickly, and made some plays on both sides of the ball. It was an exciting night for our kids. You know, it’s hard to have that faith when things aren’t going well, but we told them to just keep working hard every single day. And tonight, they were able to enjoy it.”

Really, it was almost the perfect quarter.

Take away a fumble that led to Dallas’ lone TD of the half — a 9-yard run by freshman Leonard Kelley — it was picturesque.

And it started on the very first play as Hazleton converted a fourth-and-5 on a Sparky Wolk 6-yard out to David Smith, who caught a 45-yard pass for the Cougars’ opening score.

From there, it was the Otero show.

He capped off the 10-play, 68-yard drive on a 11-yard pitch off the right side as Hazleton grew its lead to 13-3 with 10:30 left in the half.

Two plays later, he made his impact felt on defense. With rain pounding the turf, Dallas fumbled the second-down pitch as Otero picked up the ball at the 18 and rumbled untouched to the end zone.

He later added a 39-yard score with 2:21 remaining, and found paydirt one more time in the quarter.

“I don’t know. I guess I was just in a zone,” Otero said.

Following a Wolk interception-and-return back to the Dallas 19, Otero made a spectacular catch – leaping over a Dallas defender, turning toward the end zone and reaching over the pylon for the score with 15 seconds left in the half as the Cougars took a 34-10 lead into the locker room.

“This feels great. We came out here strong and ready,” Otero said. “We kept the momentum in the second half to make sure we kept the lead, and got a good win. Scoring five touchdowns is kind of surprising, but I worked really hard and got it. My line blocked well, and I was able to find some holes.”

Otero pretty much sealed the game in the third quarter as Wolk dropped back and found his tailback behind the Mountaineer secondary. Forty-nine yards later, the Cougars had a 41-10 lead.

“We really challenged our front guys tonight,” Brennan said, “and they fired off the ball and did some good things. I’m excited for our kids, and happy that they got to win one at home. It’s been a long year, but they’ve never given up. And we’ll work hard to get ready for next week as well.”

Down 20-3, Dallas tried to mount a comeback – thanks to Kelley. The freshman ran the ball on five straight plays, moving the ball 45 yards. His final run, a 9-yard dart straight through the heart of the Cougar defense cut the lead to 20-10 with 5:05 left in the second quarter. But the Mountaineers couldn’t slow down the Hazleton offense, which racked up 254 yards in the first 24 minutes.

Kelley had himself quite a night as well, rushing for touchdowns of 26 and 2 yards in the fourth. The freshman finished with a total of 211 yards on 36 carries.

“They did a nice job up front, and their coach has a lot of class there,” Dallas head coach Rich Mannello said. “We have a lot of work to do, but you can see that the weight room is starting to take hold over there on their sideline. We have a bunch of freshmen running around, but they aren’t freshmen anymore. They just need to get into the weight room, and they will get there. The only thing that fixes that is time and moving metal.”

Hazleton Area 41, Dallas 23

Dallas`3`7`0`13`—`23

Hazleton Area`7`27`7`0`—`41

First quarter

H — David Smith 45 pass from Sparky Wolk (Will Barrientos kick), 9:29

D — Nate Maransky 25 field goal, 2:49

Second quarter

H — Adrian Otero 11 run (kick blocked), 10:34

H — Otero 18 fumble return (Barrientos kick), 10:20

D — Leonard Kelley 9 run (Maransky kick), 5:05

H — Otero 39 run (Barrientos kick), 2:21

H — Otero 23 pass from Wolk (Barrientos kick), 0:15

Third quarter

H — Otero 49 pass from Wolk (Barrientos kick), 6:54

Fourth quarter

D — Kelley 26 run (run failed), 7:10

D — Kelley 2 run (Maransky kick), 0:06

Team statistics`DAL`HA

First Downs `17`15

Rushes-Yards `46-232 `34-192

Passing Yards `38`173

Total Yards `270`365

Passing `3-9-1`7-9-0

Sacked-Yards Lost `3-15`1-10

Punts-Average `2-39`1-46

Fumbles-Lost `3-1`3-2

Penalties-Yards `7-63`8-82

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — DAL, Leonard Kelley 36-211, David Schuster 5-27, Taylor Bolesta 1-0, Team 1-(-2), Michael Starbuck 4-(-4). HA, Adrian Otero 10-82, Damon Horton 8-63, Carson Kinney 8-45, Sparky Wolk 1-11, Koby Jackson 1-3, Kaleb Yahner 2-(-1), Team 1-(-2), Matt Fisher 2-(-9).

PASSING — D, Michael Starbuck 4-9-1, 38 yards. HA, Sparky Wolk 7-9-0, 173 yards.

RECEIVING — D, Chris Murray 2-25, Taylor Bolesta 2-13. HA, Adrian Otero 3-97, David Smith 2-51, Jacob Hunsinger 1-18, Will Strassner 1-7.

INTERCEPTIONS — HA, Sparky Wolk.

MISSED FGs — None.

https://www.mydallaspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_football-helmet-1.jpg.optimal.jpg

By Tom Fox

For Times Leader

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