Needing a touchdown and two-point conversion to extend the game, its struggling passing attack put together five straight completions to give itself a shot. But a botched snap turned a third-and-short into a fourth-and-long. And although quarterback Elijah Jordan did his best to extend the ensuing play, the Scranton pass rush got the better of him, effectively ending the game with a strip sack and receiving a roar from its well-traveled fan base in response.

On a cold, fall night at Thompson Street Stadium, the Bulldogs (6-3) dropped their second home game of the season to the Cavaliers, 27-19. Louis Paris and Scranton’s stacked rush offense gave Shore headaches all evening, finishing with 261 yards, and it ultimately outscored the Bulldogs 27-6 through the second and third quarters to put them in a hole.

“Give Scranton a lot of credit, great football program, great tradition. We gave everything we had,” said Jersey Shore head coach Tom Gravish following the loss. “I think they just made a few more plays and we made a few more mistakes in probably every area of our game, offense, defense and special teams.”

Shore kicked things off strong, picking up where it left off last Friday against Penn Wood and forcing three straight stops defensively. On the team’s second drive, Elijah Jordan and Bo Sechrist broke off runs of 23 and 33 yards respectively to set up shop three yards away from paydirt. And one play later, Jordan punched it in to give the team a 7-0 lead.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Scranton Prep quarterback Louis Paris (5) is crushed between Jersey Shore's Trent Severino (14) and Luke Thompson (10) in the second quarter.

It was able to force a punt on the next drive and convert on its next third down to advance past midfield. But with a chance to go up by two scores, a penalty on its next third down proved costly, as the Bulldogs were forced to punt and the turning point was soon to follow.

Facing a second-and-28 just outside its own red zone, Scranton’s Louis Paris got the ball to running back Will McParkland (18 touches, 156 yards) on a screen towards the Shore sideline, who used his blistering speed and agility to turn it into a 69-yard gain.

Three plays later, McParkland tied the game with a three-yard rushing touchdown. And between then and late in the third quarter, Paris (14 rushes, 134 yards) managed to add touchdown runs of 23, 19 and 63 yards to help the Cavaliers take control, capping an incredible rushing span by bulldozing his way down the Scranton sideline, spinning off a tackler into the endzone and turning towards his crowd in celebration.

“They’re tough runners,” said Bo Sechrist on Scranton’s rushing attack. “But I think if everyone does their job, we can stop them. We’re disciplined enough.”

“They were good, coached up real well. Props to their coaches,” said Paul Hale on Scranton. “They had a really good team all around and could do about anything they wanted to do.”

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Jersey Shore's Elijah Jordan (1) tackles Scranton Prep's Brady Homes (11) for a loss in the second quarter.

Defensively, the Cavaliers held Shore’s passing offense to just 21 yards through three quarters, playing a key role in them jumping out to leads of 20-7 and 27-13, as multiple Bulldog drives stalled as a result. Though a 33-yard touchdown pass from Elijah Jordan to Paul Hale to start the fourth quarter helped get the pass game going, as the pair went on to connect on six straight completions, it ultimately proved to be too little, too late.

“They had that one high safety and took their outside linebacker and put him out and sunk him back when we tried to go a little deeper and he just sat under the routes,” said Hale when describing what Scranton did to keep their pass attack at bay. “We couldn’t really get there, where we needed to be.”

At times, Shore’s run game looked unstoppable, effectively keeping it in the game when things started looking dicey.

Even with running back Brodie Herr out, Bo Sechrist (19 carries, 118 yards) filled that void nicely on his way to a career night and helped his team get within one score late in the third with a three-yard touchdown run. Elijah Jordan added 79 yards and a touchdown on the ground, with he, Sechrist and the offensive line doing most of the work on that nine-play, 60-yard touchdown drive in the third.

“I feel like it was good line blocking. I just ran through the hole as fast as I could,” said Sechrist on his night. “(Elijah) does a super good job running the football. He’s slippery, hard to tackle and it shows. He runs hard and we just run hard, and we just should’ve gotten the job done.”

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Jersey Shore quarterback Elijah Jordan runs the ball against Scranton Prep in the second quarter.

“We’ll be happy to have Brodie back within the mix next week, but (Bo) had some great runs, tough runs against a very tough team,” said Gravish on Sechrist.

Paul Hale finished with eight receptions for 79 yards and a touchdown, garnering five of those catches and 63 of those yards through the fourth quarter. And defensively, Bo and Slate Sechrist each logged a pair of tackles for loss and freshman Talyn Lope posted a sack to halt a promising Scranton drive at the end of the first half.

All in all, it was another tough, hard-fought loss for a team that stacked its schedule to the brim with grueling opponents. It isn’t a loss Jersey Shore will harp on for long, as it looks to finish the regular season strong against Central Mountain before shifting its focus to the postseason.

“We can regroup, which I’m real confident we can,” said Gravish. “We’ll get back to practicing hard on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and get back to Central Mountain for our rival football game on Friday.”

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Jersey Shore quarterback Elijah Jordan runs the ball against Scranton Prep;'s Jack Doughton (43) and Ambrose Rossi (75) in the first quarter.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Jersey Shore's Evan Snyder (13) runs a sweep around Scranton Prep's Mackey Lynett (13) in the first quarter.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Jersey Shore's Cam Newcomer (13) stiff-arm's Scranton Prep's Will McPartland (12) on a sweep in the first quarter.