Kempa leads Sabers past Mid Valley

BY MICHAEL IORFINO

Times-Shamrock Writer

Susquehanna put itself in position to win a division title.

Led by quarterback Dan Kempa, the ninth-ranked Sabers dominated Mid Valley en route to their fifth straight win, 33-14, Friday night at Spartan Stadium.

Kempa shouldered the work load for Susquehanna, executing its veer offense to perfection, and guiding the Sabers to two first-quarter touchdowns.

“I just focused on making the right reads,” said Kempa, who finished with 179 total yards and four touchdowns. “Our line did a great job of opening up holes, which made it easy for us tonight.”

Susquehanna, which will play for the Lackawanna Football Conference Division III title next week against Old Forge, opened the scoring when Kempa capped a 10-play, 82-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown.

On the ensuing kick off, Mid Valley failed to catch the boot, and the Sabers recovered at the 33-yard line.

From there, the Sabers needed three plays to extend their lead, scoring on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Kempa to Cole Mallery.

“The second touchdown was big for us,” Kempa said. “We wanted to jump out to an early lead and let our defense take over from there.”

Susquehanna limited the Spartans to one first down and 35 yards in the first half.

After a scoreless second quarter, Susquehanna’s put the game away scoring on all three of its third quarter possessions.

“Our defense did a great job of forcing turnovers,” said Kempa, whose 27-yard touchdown run in the third extended the Sabers lead to 19-0. “It was up to our offense to convert those turnovers into points.”

Following another Mid Valley fumble – its third of the night – Susquehanna needed six plays to get back into the end zone, scoring on a 10-yard run by Mallery.

Kempa closed out Susquehanna’s scoring with his 4-yard touchdown run.

Susquehanna   13   0  20   0 – 33

Mid Valley        0    0   0  14 – 14

Team Statistics

                             SUS         MV

First Downs           15            8

Rushing-Yards   42-234    27-83

Comp-Att-Int      4-10-0    6-12-2

Passing Yards        69           66

Total Yards           303         149

Fumbles-Lost        1-1         3-3

Penalties-Yards    6-30       3-16

Individual Statistics

Rushing: SUS – D. Kempa 15-118, 3 TDs; G. Price 9-73; N. Marco 10-29; J. Pruitt 1-14; C. Mallery 1-10, 1 TD; D. Fowler 5-(-4); S. Stanley 1-(-6).

Passing: SUS –  D. Kempa 3-8-0, 61, 1 TD; S. Stanley 1-2-0, 8.

Receiving: SUS – C. Mallery 2-46, 1 TD; S. Skurski 1-15; J. Wayman 1-8.