Dunmore, PA — It could have been the biggest turning point of Dunmore’s season. Camp Hill’s Kobe Moore read the screen pass perfectly, and raced 55 yards untouched for the pick-six with four seconds left in the first half. Instead of having a one-score lead, it was just two points with all momentum deflated from the Bucks’ sideline. “I was down a little bit, but I knew that my teammates had my back,” quarterback Thomas Bowen said. “They kept telling me to focus on the next play. We wanted to really dominate the second half.” Don’t worry, the defense had Bowen’s back in a major way. Dunmore picked off four passes, highlighted by Jack McNeff’s pick-six, and the Bucks ran its Wing-T to perfection in the second half, pulling away for a 41-25 win over Camp Hill in the PIAA Class 2A state quarterfinals Friday night. The Bucks (12-2) advance to next week’s semifinals, and a showdown with state juggernaut Southern Columbia, a winner over District 6 champ Bald Eagle Area. Camp Hill, just 5-5 in the regular season before going on a tear in the postseason, ends its season at 8-6. “I thought we had a good look at practice with our scout team, and they really prepared us for this week. We knew that we had to hold down their passing attack,” said fullback Jake Hickey, who ran for 75 yards. “Even if we are down a little bit, we are going to come back and play harder than ever. That’s Dunmore football. It’s been a dream of mine to play Southern Columbia. You always see them win championships, and now, we have an opportunity to see how we match up against them.” The Bucks’ defense was absolutely stellar against a high-flying Lion offense and quarterback Drew Branstetter, who threw the ball 43 times Friday night. While he picked up chunks, ending with 252 yards and three touchdowns, he couldn’t escape the turnovers. Lineman Nathan Reuther picked one off the turf in the first quarter. Brayden Canavan grabbed an interception deep in his own territory as Camp HIll was driving at the end of the first half. But McNeff’s pick-six was the icing on the cake, breaking perfect on the screen route, snagging the pass out of mid-air and speeding 45 yards untouched for the score and the 21-7 lead midway through the second quarter. “I feel that we have the best defense in the state,” McNeff said. “We are all dogs out there, and we come to play every game. That interception felt great. We were in man coverage, and I saw the screen. That ball just fell right into my hands.” The second half belonged to Danny Pigga. He ran for 150 yards on nine carries in the final 24 minutes, scoring the clincher on a 32-yard burst with 95 seconds remaining. But even more important was his interception, picking off Branstetter as the 6-foot-1, 180-pound signal-caller was leading a scoring charge in the third. Branstetter was coming off a 400-yard, five-touchdown performance against West Catholic last weekend. “Actually, our goal all week was to get three interceptions and six sacks,” Pigga said. “And I think we definitely went beyond that.” Camp Hill couldn’t slow down the Bucks’ Wing-T. With Hickey constantly pounding the middle of the defense, and Pigga hititng holes on the right side of the line on counter runs, the Bucks wore down the undersized Lion front line. Bowen finished with two touchdowns, Hickey battered the front line for 75 yards on 17 carries, and Nick Donvito’s 9-yard counter off the left side gave the Bucks a 34-19 lead after three quarters. Dunmore finished with 335 yards on the ground, pounding the ball 52 times at the Camp Hill defense. “It felt great to punch that final touchdown in the end zone,” Pigga said. ‘The offensive line was blocking great. When they open up holes like that, you have to take advantage of it. We knew it was going to be a close game, and we had to play Dunmore football early on. The second half was going to come down to who was tired, and who wasn’t.” The lengthy second quarter provided a plethora of momentum-swinging turns. After Bowen’s first TD gave the Bucks a 14-7 lead, McNeff looked like he was about to hit the knockout punch early – picking off Branstetter and returning it 45 yards untouched to the end zone for the two-score lead. Back came the Lions. A Camp Hill drive was aided by four straight Dunmore penalties, allowing Branstetter to find Noah Doi wide open in the middle of the field for the 28-yard score, cutting the deficit back to 21-13. Canavan’s interception, Dunmore’s third of the half, set up the Bucks on the Lions’ side of the field. After a lengthy delay where one Camp Hill player was ejected for throwing a punch, and a holding penalty pushed Dunmore to a first-and-20, the Lions found its second life. Bowen was looking for a screen pass, but Moore had perfect timing – intercepting it in full stride and running 55 yards to the end zone with four seconds left in the half. The two-point conversion failed, but a one-touchdown lead was trimmed to 21-19. “We had a great crowd here tonight, and this town does everything for us,” McNeff said. “We knew that we had to represent them tonight. We didn’t play well in the first half. We really didn’t. We were fired up in the second half, and that’s the energy we are going to need for the full game next week.” (SOURCE: Tom Fox, Correspondent for the Scranton Times-Tribune)