One guy finally gets healthy, another guy gets hurt.
Yet here is Wyoming Area (11-0) on the verge of tying the school record for victories in a season. The task begins at 7 p.m. Saturday when the Warriors host Lakeland (8-3) in a District 2 Class 3A semifinal game.
The game was originally scheduled for Friday, but switched due to the forecast for heavy rain. Wyoming Area tore up its grass field last Friday playing in a rainstorm against Hanover Area.
Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer said earlier this week field conditions would be assessed Friday morning and a decision would be made whether to move the game to Saturday. However, District 2 took control of the decisions from all schools for this weekend’s games and wiped out the complete schedule for Friday night.
A victory would tie the 12-win mark set by the 1980 team, which finished 12-0. Back in 1980, though, there were no state playoffs. The pinnacle of success was winning an Eastern Conference championship, which that version of the Warriors did by defeating Pottsville 29-27.
The 11th win came last Friday in the rain and mud — 44-0 over Hanover Area in the quarterfinals. Defensive lineman Sammy Solomon, a Division I recruit, played for the first time since Week 1 when he suffered an ankle injury. As he finally got on the field, Corey Mruk — the team’s leading rusher and tackler — was carted off with an ankle injury.
While Mruk was fortunate in a way as X-rays showed no fracture, he won’t play tonight. And, perhaps, not next week if the Warriors get past Lakeland.
“We’ve been very unfortunate in terms of injuries throughout the season,” Spencer said. “We’ve lost guys who’ve played significant roles. And with the case with Corey, there is no replacing his leadership on the field, his presence on the field in terms of what he does on both sides of the ball for us.
“However, we’ve been fortunate to have younger guys step up from seniors to freshmen and play significant roles when guys have gone down.”
Freshman running back Leo Haros was one of them last Friday. He replaced Mruk and ran 20 times for 133 yards and three touchdowns. Haros is among several players who got on the field not only because of injuries but because Wyoming Area has been in so many lopsided games. The Warriors had 15 players score touchdowns during the regular season, most of any Wyoming Valley Conference team.
The defense was at it again last Friday, holding Hanover Area to minus-10 yards rushing and 13 yards of total offense. Lakeland, obviously, will present a much bigger challenge — perhaps the toughest so far — than a three-win Hanover Area squad.
The teams are similar in some facets. Lakeland sophomore running back Giovanni Spataro posted his second consecutive 1,000-yard rushing season. He has 1,302 yards and 12 TDs on the ground. Like Wyoming Area quarterback Dominic DeLuca, the Chiefs’ CJ Dippre can be a run-pass threat. And while DeLuca’s favorite target has been Brian Williams (21 rec., 403 yds., 7 TDs), Dippre relies heavily on wideout Tom Pidgeon (38-606-4).
“They’re solid up front on both sides of the ball,” Spencer said of Lakeland. “Their front eight defensively is a good combination of size and athleticism, rangy on the ends. Offensively, they are a downhill running team.”
Wyoming Area and Lakeland have played three common opponents. Both handled Mid Valley and Nanticoke Area rather easily, but not much can be culled from the Lake-Lehman games.
Wyoming Area led Lehman 6-0 at halftime and won 29-7, but Lehman turned over the ball on three of its first six plays of the third quarter. Lakeland topped the Black Knights 6-3 in overtime in the D2-3A quarterfinals. The swamp-like field conditions, though, made it difficult to assess how the game would have unfolded on a dry field.
