SCRANTON – Wyoming Area was already one of the state’s top Class 3A football teams when the season started.
Its recent history and, even moreso, that of its conference rivals, however, required the Warriors to prove themselves.
The Warriors did just that on the final day of August at Scranton Memorial Stadium when they beat – and beat up – a Scranton Prep team that played in the state semifinals a year ago.
What does beat up mean?
Make yourself one of nearly 6,000 people to view twitter.com/Hudl/status/1169979313891889152 and you will understand. Dominic DeLuca’s crushing break-up of a pass in the middle led to one official far from the play instinctively throwing a flag. For what? Fifteen yards for hitting too hard? Playing football too perfectly?
Other crew members stepped in and the flag went away.
The hits kept coming in a shutout that finally placed the Warriors sixth in the state among Class 3A teams in this week’s PennLive.com rankings.
“The coaches said in the locker room, ‘this game will put us on the map if we win’,” DeLuca said. “I feel like it will.”
They are still waiting to be recognized by PAFootballNews.com and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which also does state rankings.
Why?
Wyoming Area’s 2018 season, fueled by much of this season’s talented senior class, provides a hint.
There are two ways to look at that season.
That the Warriors were able to win their first 11 games and destroy the opposition along the way while going through a series of injuries that knocked key players out of the lineup and would have devastated most small school programs should have been what stood out.
However, the way it ended caught more eyes.
Come playoff time – with close to half of the original projected starting lineup sidelined – Wyoming Area was upset by a Lakeland team that, while talented, was no threat on the state level. The Warriors gave up huge pass plays at the worst times and self-destructed with penalties in a 21-14 loss to the Chiefs.
At a glance from the distance, all the blowout wins along the way became an indictment of the Wyoming Valley Conference instead of a credit to the Warriors. It was noted that they could not be Lakeland, a team that was mauled by four-time District 2 Class 3A champion Scranton Prep by a total of 91-31 in their two meetings.
It makes no difference that I can sit at my laptop and write that after seeing Wyoming Area all of last season, I can comfortably state the Warriors would have handled Lakeland on most weeks in 2018. What is remembered is that they did not in the district semifinals.
The assumption thus became the Warriors’ record was a product of their conference and schedule.
It certainly has not always been this way and probably won’t be in the future, but the facts of the recent past are the WVC has not kept up with the Lackawanna Football Conference and District 2 has not kept up with the rest of the state since the addition of Philadelphia private schools to the state football mix.
Some shocking numbers pound home that point.
District 2 football titles in the past three seasons: LFC teams 17, WVC teams 1. For the past five seasons: LFC teams 23, WVC teams 3.
Since Berwick won its sixth state title in 1997, District 2 has not added any to the 10 it produced in the first decade of state championships.
Since 2007, District 2 has sent six teams to state finals. All have come from the LFC and all have come home defeated.
So, forgive the skeptics who need proof that Wyoming Area can stack up with the best in the LFC, let alone the other state contenders in Class 3A.
“We waited for this one all season,” said Sammy Solomon, the two-way lineman who had three sacks and another big hit that forced an incompletion. “We talked all year long about playing these teams out of the conference and how they think we’re soft and we have to come out and beat them up front.”
The Warriors – their senior class in particular – though deep and versatile, have accomplished so much already, but still have some proving to do as they aspire to take their success to another level.
Wyoming Area used the Wilkes-Barre Area sports program merger as a chance to adjust and beef up its schedule. It added perennial LFC powers Scranton Prep and Dunmore, a four-time state finalist. If those teams turn out to be a bit down, that is beyond the control of the Warriors, who, at this point, only seem to need to develop their offensive line a bit more to maximize their potential.
“We’re just in that situation where we have those type of kids,” Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer said before leaving Scranton Memorial Stadium. “Five four-year starters, we got talented guys who’ve gotten to that point where they have that confidence on the field.
“Now, it’s a matter of can they come together, can they bring everyone together and form that type of team that can go on that great run? Today was that kind of game where you find answers to those questions.”
And begin providing answers to some of the doubters.
