Crestwood charged into the season with hopes of defending its District 2 Class 4A championship, but is 0-2 going into Friday’s game at Tunkhannock.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
As Wyoming Valley Conference football heads into Week 3, a few teams are at a crossroad.
But first, this really isn’t Week 3. It’s Week 2 according to the PIAA. The WVC started on Week 0 in the PIAA calendar, when a team can either start its season or elect to have a second scrimmage. So WVC teams played their second games last weekend on Week 1.
Since the whole things is a bit confusing, we’re calling third games played Friday as Week 3, not Week 2. The PIAA, hopefully, understands.
Anyway, some WVC teams which were expected to be solid contenders for District 2 titles have stumbled out of the blocks.
Hazleton Area and Crestwood are winless. Both played for district championships during the truncated 2020 season. Lake-Lehman also played for a district title last season, yet is 1-1. Dallas also played in a title game in 2020, but was a whisker away from being winless. A 28-27 overtime victory against Wyoming Valley West last Friday put the Mountaineers in the win column.
Berwick is in an odd situation. The Dawgs are 1-1 with the only loss coming to perennial state power Southern Columbia. Yet, they are ninth in the District 2 Class 4A standings where eight teams make the playoffs. Ahead of them in the power rankings are winless West Scranton and winless Montrose. West Scranton has been outscored 99-6. Montrose didn’t even have enough healthy players to play last week and forfeited to Riverside. The other loss was 64-0 to Wyalusing.
Even undefeated Wyoming Area is in a unique situation. The Warriors (2-0) have defeated two Class 6A teams — Hazleton Area and Wilkes-Barre Area — but trail Lakeland for the race for the top seed in Class 3A. Lakeland’s wins have come against Class 3A Lehman and Class 2A Lackawanna Trail.
Under to old PIAA points system, Wyoming Area would have a somewhat comfortable lead over Lakeland.
The crossroads are in the Lackawanna Conference as well. Delaware Valley was the preseason favorite to win the D2-6A championship, but hasn’t won yet. Dunmore rarely has a down year, but this might be one of them. The Bucks are 0-2 and have scored just nine points, with their lone touchdown coming against Old Forge when the reserves for both teams were on the field.
Now, none of the aforementioned teams are in dire straits as far as making the district playoffs. All teams qualify in Class A, Class 2A and Class 6A. Only two teams won’t make it in Class 3A and three won’t in Class 4A. Class 5A is in a subregional with District 11, and only two of the combined six teams won’t make the postseason.
So when things get sorted out by the end of Week 10 — which is Week 9 in the PIAA hemisphere — only five of 35 District 2 teams won’t make districts. The number could be as high as seven if Abington Heights and Valley West don’t make the D2/11-5A subregional.
So it’s not a matter of making the playoffs for most teams. It’s a matter of being capable of doing something once there. And that process begins this weekend for teams off to slow starts.
