WEST PITTSTON — Just in case they forgot, the Wyoming Area Warriors were reminded on several occasions this week by their coaches.
Two weeks in a row, Tunkhannock was down big and rallied for wins.
“They were nonstop talking about it every day,” Wyoming Area wide receiver Brian Williams said.
Some deficits, though, are just too much to overcome, and Wyoming Area made sure there would be no second-half Tunkhannock heroics on Friday night.
The Warriors scored on all six of their first-half possessions, shut down Tunkhannock’s offense completely and rolled to a 49-10 victory in a Wyoming Valley Conference interdivisional game.
Running back Darren Rodney, starting in place of injured Corey Mruk, ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries. All came in the first half. Between Rodney’s TD runs, quarterback Dominic DeLuca threw TD passes of 19 and 47 yards to Williams and 37 yards to tight end Caleb Graham.
The TD passes to Williams marked the fifth time DeLuca has connected for scores this season with his senior classmate.
“I kind of give him that look that I’m going up and I’m going to get it for you and we’re going to get this touchdown,” Williams said.
DeLuca’s other touchdown pass hit Graham in stride running down the left hashmarks.
Wyoming Area (5-0) put the final touches on the 42-0 halftime lead by driving 97 yards for its sixth touchdown. Zajquay Williamson ran in from 12 yards out with 2:35 in the second quarter, giving the Warriors 358 yards through the first half.
“(Tunkhannock) has done a great job the last couple of weeks of coming from behind and competing at a high level, especially late in games,” Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer said. “So I thought it was very important for us to get off to a fast start. We were able to do that and defensively we were getting a little pressure, play a little tight coverage and were able to be successful with that early.”
Tunkhannock quarterback Jack Chilson entered the game with the most passing yards in the WVC, but was just 4-of-11 for 17 yards in the first half. The ground game wasn’t much better as the Tigers (3-2) had just 29 yards at the break.
Tunkhannock crossed midfield once in the first half, moving to the Wyoming Area 38-yard line midway through the second quarter. Wyoming Area defensive end Derek Ambrosino, though, recorded consecutive sacks to end the threat.
The entire second half was played by the reserves from both sides. Tunkhannock scored its only touchdown on a 6-yard pass from Ben Chilson to Nathan Lord with 8:33 left in the fourth quarter.
Wyoming Area scored its only TD of the second half on a 1-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Blaise Sokach-Minnick to sophomore receiver Vincenzo Nova.
