North Pocono Football 2023 Season

North Pocono went 4-7 and 1-5, sixth in Lackawanna 1. The opener was 13-21 at Wyoming Valley West. The Times-Tribune’s next preview said the Trojans had more yards, more first downs, and fewer turnovers in that loss.

Western Wayne was 10-9 the next week. North Pocono held the Wildcats to 95 rushing yards on 32 carries and gained 73 on 39 of its own. Brady Mapes’s field goal won it. Dolhon called it an old-time game of field position and stopping the run, and said his father-in-law, Jack Henzes, would have been proud of a 10-9 score. Noah West threw for 107 yards and intercepted a pass. Kevin Wickizer led the team with 172 rushing yards. Riley Moore had five catches for 83 yards and a touchdown. The Sept. 1 game story has a snap sailing over punter Sam Magnotta for a safety, then Magnotta pinning Western Wayne at its 6 with a 41-yard punt. Mapes’s kick in that story was from 25 yards, with 8:13 left.

Hazleton Area came to Trojan Stadium at 1-1 and left on the short end of 23-20. Trailing 20-16 inside the last seven minutes, West completed a 21-yard pass to Moore and a 10-yarder to Wickizer, then threw 32 yards to his younger brother, Cole, for the go-ahead score with 4:48 left. North Pocono stopped Hazleton Area four times inside the 3 in the final minute. Mapes kicked field goals of 36, 40, and 24 yards. Ryan Marsh made a tackle at the 1 that set up the stand.

Valley View won 14-7 at Trojan Stadium on Sept. 15, the week the Times-Tribune wrote that Valley View led the series 33-16. Scranton won 33-27, Delaware Valley won 42-0, and Scranton Prep won 49-6. Those four scores are the MaxPreps log.

The league win was 28-14 over Wallenpaupack at Trojan Stadium. Both teams were on losing streaks and outside the District 2 Class 4A field. North Pocono scored on all four first-half possessions, moved to 3-4 and 1-3, and went from 10th to sixth in the Class 4A rankings. Wallenpaupack fell to 2-5 and 0-4, a fifth straight loss. The opening drive was 71 yards in eight plays, with West throwing 14 yards to Ryan Marsh, and Wickizer scoring from the 4, his first touchdown of the year. Moore intercepted a pass, and Wickizer scored from the 3 to make it 28-0 with 1:42 left in the half. Dylan Podrazil scored twice in the second half. Wallenpaupack reached the 10 with under two minutes left, trailing by 14, and was stopped on fourth down.

Abington Heights won 27-9 in the rain at Abington Heights stadium. The Times-Tribune had North Pocono trailing by 10 with seven seconds left in the half, on an 11-play drive at the 28, and Richards scoring on a scoop-and-score for the No. 6 Comets. Crestwood was 27-10 the next week at Trojan Stadium. Noah West rushed for 48 yards and a touchdown and passed for 187, including a 58-yard score to Cole, then a freshman. A Citizens’ Voice capsule that week printed the Crestwood series at 7-5 for North Pocono. That line is as of Oct. 26, 2023.

The playoff game was a District 2 Class 4A quarterfinal at Jake Sobeski Stadium. Sixth-seeded North Pocono was 4-6. Third-seeded Wyoming Area was 9-1. Wyoming Area won 31-19. Aaron Crossley had 192 yards and two touchdowns on 35 carries before an ankle injury, with Wyoming Area leading 17-12 and about two minutes left in the third. On the next series Josh Mruk dropped a fourth-down pass, then intercepted a screen and returned it for a touchdown. He added a touchdown catch with about eight minutes left. Wyoming Area’s next game was the semifinal at Valley View.