North Pocono Football 1992 Season

The Sept. 28, 2017, Times-Tribune story on Valley View’s 1992 state title prints North Pocono at 9-4 overall and 6-2 in the Big 11. Nick Donato was the coach. The same story says 1992 was the first year with District 2 playoffs, and that teams chose which tournament to enter. North Pocono played in the Eastern Conference Class I playoffs and had a rematch with Berwick. The 9-4 and the 6-2 are the lines in that story.

A Sept. 22, 2012, Times-Tribune lookback, in the items from 20 years earlier, has Gary Snyder returning a fumble 60 yards for a touchdown in a 21-6 win over Crestwood in September 1992. A Sept. 24, 2022, lookback, in the items from 30 years earlier, has Ryan McGee scoring two rushing touchdowns in a 35-0 win over Scranton that same month. A Nov. 3, 2012, lookback, in the items from 20 years earlier, has John McShaffery catching four passes for 86 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-7 win over Riverside in November 1992. The paper named him Athlete of the Week.

A Nov. 5, 2022, Times-Tribune lookback, in the items from 30 years earlier, has Jack Dempsey scoring on a quarterback sneak in the fourth quarter as Dunmore won 7-0 in November 1992.

Valley View won the final week of the regular season, 22-21. The 2017 story calls North Pocono the defending Big 11 and Eastern Conference Class I champion in that game. Mike Shemonski returned a kickoff 74 yards for a touchdown, Mike Conaghan scored on a 19-yard run with 1:32 left, and George Howanitz threw two 2-point conversion passes. The story calls it a 16-point comeback in the final 11 1/2 minutes. A Nov. 12, 2013, Teams of the Times story calls the same game Week 10 and says Valley View rallied from a 21-6 fourth-quarter deficit. Its score list prints the winner first, 22 North Pocono 21. A Sept. 18, 2026, Times-Tribune preview says Valley View earned the conference championship with that 22-21 win in the season finale, then finished 15-0 and won the PIAA Class 2A title.

The Nov. 29, 1992, Times Leader, a Sunday paper, has the championship at Berwick. Berwick won 35-0. The story calls it the Eastern Conference Class Division III championship. The 2017 Times-Tribune calls the postseason the Eastern Conference Class I playoffs. Berwick was 13-0, won its fourth Eastern Conference title in five years, and was USA Today’s top-ranked high school team. The next game was a PIAA playoff against Manheim Central the following Saturday, with the time and site not yet decided. The 2017 story says Berwick went on to win the 1992 PIAA Class 3A championship. Nick Donato said it was the best high school football team he had ever seen. He said his North Pocono teams had faced the Bo Orlando-led Bulldogs in 1983, Berwick’s 1988 state championship team, and the previous year’s Powlus-led club.

The Times Leader first has Ron Powlus throwing for 218 yards, then later has him at 14 of 23 for 232 yards. He also rushed for a game-high 67. Chris Orlando scored three touchdowns, all in the first half. The plays the story describes are a 13-yard catch from Powlus on third-and-12, and a 69-yard punt return from the Berwick 39. On the opening drive Powlus ran four times for 39 yards, threw a 39-yard pass to Mike Bennett, and scored from 6 yards for a 7-0 lead. The next drive covered 84 yards. The punt return made it 21-0. Powlus was 5 of his first 6 passes and 12 of 19 in the first half. Berwick scored all of its points in the first half. North Pocono’s first half was 28 rushing yards, minus 13 passing yards, and 15 yards total on 14 plays. A photo caption has Berwick’s Mike Sobolewski running past North Pocono’s Randy Wolff.

The 2017 story also says an 18-game North Pocono winning streak ended in a nonleague game against Downingtown. The same story says Jason Sepkowski, the Hookey Reap award winner for offense, quarterback B.J. Gallis, linebacker Randy Wolff, and backs Ryan McGee and Jeff Laboranti paced the team that finished 9-4.