YATESVILLE — The grip wasn’t the greatest, pressure was flooding the pocket and hope was quickly collapsing.

Yet, Drew DeLucca didn’t panic and neither did the Pittston Area Patriots.

DeLucca threw the go-ahead touchdown pass with 4:20 to play, a punishing Pittston Area defense held Wyoming Valley West’s vaunted running game in check Friday and the Patriots stunned the heavily favored Spartans, 16-13 at Charley Trippi Stadium.

Pittston Area hung on at the end when a 45-yard field goal attempt by Valley West fell short as time expired.

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“This was a big win,” said DeLucca, a sophomore whose 16-yard scoring strike to Kevin Lockett proved to be the winning score. “We finally got a good win. We’ve been looking for one for the past couple years.

“Hopefully, this gets us going.”

The Patriots appeared to be going nowhere and headed to their third straight loss to open the 2021 season.

Valley West quarterback Luke Buss hit Ryan Meyers with a 69-yard touchdown pass on the team’s first offensive play, then turned to the brute force of running back Isaiah Cobb — who did most of the work on a clock-eating 60-yard drive and bulled for a 2-yard touchdown run that gave the Spartans a 13-7 lead with 11:12 to play.

But Cobb never really got loose and never took the game over, finishing with 105 rushing yards on 32 carries.

“I thought we did a great job on a superior running back, one of the best in the area,” Pittston Area coach Nick Barbieri said. “He got his yards, but we made sure he earned them.”

Each and every one.

Cobb, who gained well over 100 yards in each of the first two weeks, was limited to his night-long run of 8 yards midway through the opening quarter, as Pittston Area’s pursuing defense kept him from breaking any big ones.

“We chopped him down,” Pittston Area linebacker and running back Harry Pugliese said. “We chopped him down to bring him down.”

Still, the Spartans maintained control for much of the night.

Conner Olisewski intercepted two Pittston Area passes Valley West’s defense kept the Patriots under 200 yards of total offense.

But Pittston Area hung tough.

Pugliese broke free for a 23-yard touchdown run as the Patriots evened the game, 7-7 early in the second quarter.

And after the Spartans regained the lead, they immediately gave back some points. Their next possession after Cobb’s touchdown run ended with a low snap on a punt attempt, which Valley West covered in its own end zone for a safety that pulled the Patriots within 13-9.

That also set up a short field for the Patriots, who started their winning march 56 yards from the end zone. It was fueled by a nine-yard scramble for a first down by DeLucca and a 10-yard run by Pugliese.

But on a third-and-six play, DeLucca was flushed from the pocket, which turned out to be only the start of some turmoil.

“Really, it was a broken-down play,” DeLucca said. “And the ball slipped out of my hand. It was muddy.”

He overcame it, though, by getting enough on the throw to find a sliding Lockett just inside the boundary at the front corner of the end zone for Pittston Area’s first victory of the year.

“He made a great catch,” DeLucca said.

And the Patriots finally had a reason to feel great after a game this year.

“Sometimes luck is better than what you can design,” Barbieri said of the winning toss. “(DeLucca) is a sophomore, he made a big play there. This is a big win for us. We struggled the first two weeks. We had key injuries, had to put different people in different places.

“I think we’ve got it together now.”

Pittston Area 16, Valley West 13

Wyo. Valley West`7`0`0`6 — 13

Pittston Area`0`7`0`9 — 16

First quarter

WVW — Ryan Meyers 69 pass from Luke Buss (Jonathan Cardona kick), 9:49

Second quarter

PA — Harry Pugliese 23 run (Robby Barbieri kick), 11:25

Fourth quarter

WVW — Isaiah Cobb 2 run (Kick failed), 11:12

PA — Bad punt snap recovered in end zone for safety, 6:59

PA — Kevin Lockett 16 pass from Drew DeLucca (Barbieri kick), 4:20

Team statistics`WVW`PA

First downs`16`7

Rushes-yards`48-181`24-80

Passing yards`113`118

Total yards`294`198

Passing`8-22-0`12-22-2

Sacked-yards lost`2-11`1-3

Punts-avg.`4-24.5`5-29.8

Fumbles-lost`4-2`1-0

Penalties-yards`8-70`6-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — WVW, Isaiah Cobb 32-105, Ryan Meyers 1-27, Luke Buss 6-21, Jayden Swainbank 3-15, Conner Olisewski 2-14, Paul Riggs 3-10, TEAM 1- (minus 11). PA, Harry Pugliese 15-59, Drew DeLucca 6-18, Drew Menendez 1-5, TEAM 2- (minus 5).

PASSING — WVW, Buss 8-20-0-113, TEAM 0-2-0-0. PA, DeLucca 12-22-2-118.

RECEIVING — WVW, Meyers 3-74, Cobb 3-13, Ty Wells 1-23, Swainbank 1-3. PA, Adam Shovlin 4-21, Robby Barbieri 3-24, Gino Truboski 2-52, Kevin Lockett 1-16, Pugliese 1-3, Alex Hoban 1-2.

INTERCEPTIONS — WVW, Olisewski 2-0.

MISSED FGs — WVW, Cardona 45-S.