North Pocono Football 2001 Season

Anthony Donato was in his last season. The Times Leader calls him Tony Donato in the game stories. The Nov. 3 story prints the Trojans at 6-4 after the win at Tunkhannock, and 4-1 in the division.

The Sept. 2, 2001, Times Leader, in a Sunday roundup, has Saturday night’s game at Moscow. North Pocono beat Delaware Valley 28-6. Ryan Jones threw for a touchdown and ran for two more. He opened the scoring with a 56-yard touchdown pass to Mike Golecki. A.J. Sabatelle rushed for 209 yards and a score. Delaware Valley scored in the third quarter on a 75-yard pass from Marcus Adames to Jim Shea.

The Sept. 8, 2001, Times Leader has Friday’s game at Berwick, a 21-15 North Pocono win. Donato had said Sabatelle would need to carry the ball 35 to 49 times. He carried 38 times for 283 yards and two touchdowns. Donato said the Trojans were getting 6, 7, and 8 yards a carry and wanted to keep the ball. Berwick’s time of possession in the first half was 7:02. The first North Pocono drive took more than seven minutes and did not score. Ryan Jones then intercepted Frank Jankowski, and North Pocono took over at the Berwick 43 with 2:21 left in the first quarter. Three Sabatelle runs put the ball inside the 2, and Jones scored on a quarterback keeper for a 7-0 lead. In the second quarter Sabatelle carried 10 times on an 88-yard drive and scored from 17 yards, making it 14-0 with 1:10 left in the half. Thirty-five seconds later, after a Berwick turnover, he scored from the 23. Halftime was 21-0. Mike Viti scored from 2 yards with 7:11 left in the third, and Jankowski ran for the two-point conversion, 21-8. With 3:07 left, Jankowski hit Corey Green for a 32-yard touchdown, 21-15. The onside kick did not go 10 yards. Sabatelle carried five straight times to run out the clock.

The Nov. 3, 2001, Times Leader, a Saturday paper, has Friday night’s game at Tunkhannock, a 24-0 North Pocono win. A.J. Sabatelle ran for three touchdowns and 109 yards on 20 carries. Donato said the line blocked for him, and that Tunkhannock put eight players in the box. A 2-yard plunge capped a 50-yard drive in the first quarter. Chris Vilello’s 28-yard field goal made it 10-0. In the third quarter a 15-play drive took 8 minutes and 34 seconds, and Sabatelle scored from 3 yards off left tackle for a 17-0 lead. Bill Hampton returned the kickoff 64 yards to the North Pocono 23, and three sacks for a loss of 26 yards ended that drive. Tunkhannock finished with 101 total yards. The paper had Tunkhannock at 2-8 overall and 1-4 in the division. Sabatelle’s third touchdown was a 23-yard run over right end. The win gave North Pocono a share of the division title with West Scranton. Both teams finished the regular season 4-1 in the division.

The Sept. 26, 2020, Times-Tribune champions list prints 2001 Division II North as West Scranton and North Pocono. That is the shared league title. The Times Leader’s name for the league, with the Tunkhannock win, is the Northeastern Pennsylvania Football Conference Division 2 North. The champions list’s name is the Lackawanna Football Conference.