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Offenses in the spotlight for Week 4 of WVC Football

Three weeks into the Wyoming Valley Conference football season and there are only two unbeaten teams.Recent history shows the chances of Wyoming Area and Williamsport remaining undefeated after Friday night are about 50-50. From 2011-2015, there were 16 WVC teams undefeated after three weeks. Nine of them managed to win Week 4.Now before the term &#8220;trap game&#8221; is tossed around, it should be noted that both WVC unbeatens play quality opponents. Wyoming Area hosts Coughlin (2-1). Williamsport travels to defending D2-4A champion Wyoming Valley West (2-1).&#8220;They&#8217;re an outstanding team,&#8221; Coughlin coach Ciro Cinti said of Wyoming Area. &#8220;They&#8217;re probably the best team in the league, so we have our work cut out for us. All three phases of their game are outstanding.&#8221;Yet, there are some factors working against Wyoming Area and Williamsport. Let&#8217;s examine some involving the Coughlin at Wyoming Area matchup first.&#8226; Big-win hangover: A Wyoming Area assistant said before last Friday&#8217;s game at Berwick that the team &#8220;wasn&#8217;t getting any love.&#8221; Of course not. The Warriors were coming off three consecutive 3-7 seasons and their 2-0 record wasn&#8217;t against top-shelf competition.Then came the Berwick game where the Warriors dominated from midway through the third quarter on in the 34-20 victory. Respect was gained. Now we&#8217;ll see how they handle it.&#8226; The sandwich factor: This plays into the &#8220;trap game&#8221; idea a bit. Wyoming Area defeated Berwick, the favorite to win the D2-4A title this year, last Friday. Next week, the Warriors play defending D2-3A champ Scranton Prep, which is favored to win the championship again.No doubt Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer has driven home the fact that to his players that Coughlin should be the sole concern this week. But dang, this is a rough stretch in the schedule.&#8226; Coughlin itself: Although not as strong at a couple key positions as last year, Coughlin is always good. The Crusaders have made the postseason nine consecutive years. Bad programs don&#8217;t do that.Coughlin&#8217;s only loss this season was 23-2 to Scranton Prep. The Crusaders did a solid job in stopping Prep&#8217;s Ricky Morgan, one of the top running backs in District 2. They struggled when Prep utilized a short-to-intermediate passing game. If the Crusaders can slow down Wyoming Area&#8217;s three-pronged running attack, can the Warriors use the pass to loosen things up like Prep did?Now onto Williamsport at Wyoming Valley West.&#8220;On our schedule, every team we play that&#8217;s the team we say is the best team we&#8217;re going to play this season,&#8221; Williamsport coach Chuck Crews said. &#8220;We know coach (Pat) Keating is going to have his squad ready.&#8221;&#8226; The schedule factor: Williamsport built its 3-0 start against teams which are a combined 0-8. (Mifflin County has played just two games thus far). Valley West is 2-1, but played two very good veteran teams. The Spartans defeated Scranton 48-41 in their opener and lost 29-13 last week at Delaware Valley.An argument could be made that if the schedules were reversed that Valley West would be the unbeaten team.&#8226; Long road trip: Williamsport is located way outside the WVC boundaries. Most road trips to WVC games are usually 70-80 miles one way. The Millionaires will have a full day of school, board a bus and then go play football.Crews dismissed this factor, saying the team is used to these long trips due to playing in a conference so far away. But the numbers say it should be a concern since Williamsport has won just 33 percent of its road games since the 2011 season.&#8226; Big-game experience: Williamsport has the edge when it comes to veterans with just about everyone back on both sides of the ball from 2015. But those guys don&#8217;t have the same big-game seasoning like Valley West, which has fewer veterans but guys who played in pressure situations.EIGHT IN D2-4A PLAYOFFS?The District 2 football committee is recommending that eight teams qualify for the District 2 Class 4A playoffs. The committee was discussing whether to have six or eight of the 11 teams qualify.Football chairperson Mike Ognosky said the football committee will recommend the eight-team format to the District 2 athletic committee during the monthly meeting on Tuesday.Ognosky said the D2 athletic committee must approve the eight-team playoff and sees no reason why the recommendation would be shot down. Ognosky serves as the athletic committee secretary, but has been a non-voting member since retiring as superintendent of the Montrose School District.DOING THE DIRTY WORKNanticoke defensive end Justin Casey had a big game in last Friday&#8217;s 16-13 victory over GAR, recording three sacks including one for a safety. It&#8217;s not surprising Casey is doing things that don&#8217;t show up in the box score.Casey is also a starter on the school&#8217;s basketball team where his main job is interior defense and rebounding.1,000-YARD TIGER?Tunkhannock quarterback Logan Cywinski has rushed for 427 yards &#8212; most in WVC Division 4A &#8212; and is on pace to be the Tigers&#8217; first 1,000-yard rusher in quite some time.Running back Dustin Faux was the last Tunkhannock player to reach 1,000 yards on the ground when he rushed for 1,070 in 2007.STREAK ENDSBerwick went eight consecutive regular-season games with at least 148 yards rushing. Then came last Friday against Wyoming Area where the Warriors held the Dawgs to 68 yards on 33 rushes.Wyoming Valley West was the last team to keep the Dawgs running game in check during the regular season when it held Berwick to 63 yards on 27 carries in Week 4 of 2015.ROAD WARRIORSAfter playing Coughlin at home Friday and Scranton Prep at home the following week, Wyoming Area plays four of its last five games on the road. That isn&#8217;t as big a deal as it seems.Two of those road games &#8212; at Dallas on Oct. 14 and at Pittston Area on Oct. 28 &#8212; are against schools which border Wyoming Area. The Sept. 30 game is at Hanover Area. So WA fans shouldn&#8217;t have any trouble showing up, especially if the turnout at Berwick was any indication.The biggie comes Oct. 21 when the Warriors travel to Williamsport, a road trip of about 70 miles.REUNION OF SORTSLackawanna Trail coach Steve Jervis ventures back into the WVC as his Lions host Northwest on Friday. Jervis played quarterback for Tunkhannock and was Tunkhannock&#8217;s head coach for six years before his job was opened following the 2007 season. He&#8217;s been at Trail for eight years.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area quarterback P.J. Angeli (12) is tackled by Berwick&#8217;s Anthony Cicini during his team&#8217;s 34-20 victory over the Dawgs last Friday. The Warriors will be looking to keep the momentum going when they host Coughlin Friday night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_ber_wa2_faaCMYK.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Area quarterback P.J. Angeli (12) is tackled by Berwick&#8217;s Anthony Cicini during his team&#8217;s 34-20 victory over the Dawgs last Friday. The Warriors will be looking to keep the momentum going when they host Coughlin Friday night. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams | for Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Starting the season with four wins a tough task</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By John Erzarjerzar@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>UNBEATEN WVC TEAMSAFTER THREE WEEKS2015 (5) &#8211; Berwick*, Lake-Lehman, Meyers*, Williamsport, Wyoming Valley West2014 (2) &#8211; Crestwood, Meyers*2013 (4) &#8211; Berwick, Coughlin, Northwest, Wyoming Valley West*2012 (2) &#8211; Berwick*, Coughlin*2011 (3) &#8211; Crestwood*, Dallas, Wyoming Valley West* &#8211; Lost in Week 4</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</shirttailMeta></div>

Tough to stay unbeaten is tough in WVC Football