Pittston Area’s season was at a crossroads.
The Patriots reached the midway point on a four-game losing streak – two blowout losses of more than 40 points and two brutally painful losses where leads got away.
Two weeks later, things look much different for Pittston Area with consecutive wins, including Friday night’s 20-7 triumph on the road at Williamsport in a meeting of Wyoming Valley Conference large schools.
“When you’re at 1-4 and you’ve lost four straight games, your kids can go one of two ways,” Patriots coach Nick Barbieri said in an early-morning telephone interview. “Our kids decided to step it up and the last two games have been good for us.”
There is a decidedly more upbeat feeling around a 3-4 team that has won two straight, including last week’s second-half rally from two touchdowns down to defeat West Scranton, 28-27.
“We just needed a few things to go our way,” Barbieri said. “We had two devastating losses in Tunkhannock and Wallenpaupack, two games that we could have won and we’d be 5-2 right now.”
Pittston Area combined its best defensive game of the year with two long pass plays to set up scores.
“Our outside linebackers Franny George and Jimmy Spindler did a great job on contain and Johnny Symons did a good job blocking things up in the middle,” Barbieri said.
Pittston Area shut down a Williamsport offense that played without its starting quarterback and two other key skill position players because of injuries.
The Millionaires lost for the fourth time in five games after starting 2-0.
For the second straight week, Pittston Area rallied to win and controlled the second half.
The Patriots trailed, 7-0, for much of the first half, then tied the game right before intermission. They outscored Williamsport, 13-0, in the second half, making their advantage after halftime in the past two weeks, 34-6.
Williamsport scored quickly on its first possession on a 15-yard Drake Mankey touchdown run.
Mike Nocito tied the game in the closing seconds of the half with a one-yard touchdown run on third-and-goal.
Andrew Krawczyk took a Nocito pass 63 yards to set up Bryheem Patterson touchdown for the lead in the third quarter.
Nocito hit Joe Slusark deep for a 66-yarder to the 1. After being moved back from there, Nocito hit George with a 4-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter, closing the scoring.
“They’re fast, so they chased us down, but we were able to punch it in,” Barbieri said.
As a result, the Patriots head for the home stretch of the season feeling a little different than they had at the midway point.
“That’s a big win for us,” Barbieri said. “It’s two in a row, so we’ve got a little momentum going.”
