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WVC Football: Valley View’s offense too much for Pittston Area

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O’Connor, longtime Plains Township commissioner, recalled as ‘true public servant’

<p>WEST PITTSTON &#8212; Faced with a 14-point deficit just 3:20 into the game, Wyoming Area appeared to be in danger of a letdown after its big win last week at Berwick.</p><p>Brian Miles made sure that did not happen.</p><p>The senior tailback bulled his way to 194 yards and four touchdowns Friday night as the Warriors stormed past visiting Coughlin, 38-14, in a Wyoming Valley Conference Class 4A Division game at Jake Sobeski Stadium.</p><p>&#8220;It feels great, knowing how hard we worked in the offseason and how much of a family we&#8217;ve become,&#8221; Miles said after the Warriors improved to 4-0, including wins over their top two in-division challengers the past two weeks. &#8220;We&#8217;re just getting hungrier every week.&#8221;</p><p>Miles led the response to Coughlin&#8217;s shocking start.</p><p>Vincent Todd covered 148 yards without being touched the first two times he got his hands on the ball, allowing the Crusaders to sprint to a 14-0 lead.</p><p>Todd returned the opening kickoff 82 yards. He then took Coughlin&#8217;s third offensive play &#8211; and its first with Todd as the Wildcat formation quarterback &#8211; 66 yards for another score.</p><p>Miles took an option pitch 15 yards to convert a third-and-4 into the first Wyoming Area first down, and the Warriors were off and running from there.</p><p>P.J. Angeli&#8217;s 25-yard pass to Marc Anthony Minichello highlighted the 10-play, 62-yard scoring drive that resulted in a 1-yard Miles touchdown.</p><p>The score was the first of four touchdowns by Miles in a span of 19:12 to put Wyoming Area ahead, 28-14, early in the second half.</p><p>&#8220;What we can look at for the first several weeks of the season now, whenever we face adversity, whenever a team has come and scored on us, we&#8217;ve been able to come right back,&#8221; Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer said. &#8220;That&#8217;s really one of the things that I can say as far as the highest praise for this team to this point is our ability to respond to those situations.&#8221;</p><p>The Warriors set themselves up for another big game next week at home against Scranton Prep by keeping Coughlin from getting closer than the 33 the rest of the game.</p><p>Miles tied the game with his most impressive single effort. He bounced off one tackler, then ran straight over another on the way to a 61-yard touchdown with 10:58 remaining in the second quarter.</p><p>Brandon Charney, who finished 5-for-5 on extra points and made his only field goal attempt from 29 yards, added the tying kick.</p><p>James Eslick&#8217;s fumble recovery and 12-yard turn to the Wyoming Area 41 set up the go-ahead score.</p><p>Dylan Kostak caught a 15-yard pass from Angeli to convert fourth-and-4, but left the game one play later with a lower leg injury.</p><p>With the fullback missing the rest of the way, Miles seemed to run even harder.</p><p>Miles scored from the 1, one play after Angeli found Minichello for 18 yards on fourth-and-9.</p><p>Wyoming Area broke the game open by making it scores on six straight drives.</p><p>Miles ran 16 yards off left tackle for a touchdown after Angeli took a quarterback sweep 30 yards.</p><p>Steve Homza took over at quarterback when Angeli left the game with leg cramps. Homza hit Minichello in the back of the end zone for a 29-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal after four penalties in the series.</p><p>Miles also contributed to the defense. He made seven tackles, including two for losses and one momentum-stopper for no gain, and assisted on another.</p><p>Coughlin fell to 2-2.</p><p><strong>Wyoming Area 38, Coughlin 14</strong></p><p><strong>Coughlin`14`0`0`0`&#8212;`14</strong></p><p><strong>Wyoming Area`7`14`14`3`&#8212;`38</strong></p><p><strong>First quarter</strong></p><p>COU &#8211; Vincent Todd 82 kickoff return (Michael Cinti kick), 11:49</p><p>COU &#8211; Todd 66 run (Cinti kick), 8:40</p><p>WA &#8211; Brian Miles 1 run (Brandon Charney kick), 4:12</p><p><strong>Second quarter</strong></p><p>WA &#8211; Miles 61 run (Charney kick), 10:58</p><p>WA &#8211; Miles 1 run (Charney kick), 4:52</p><p><strong>Third quarter</strong></p><p>WA &#8211; Miles 16 run (Charney kick), 9:00</p><p>WA &#8211; Marc Anthony Minichello 29 pass from Steve Homza (Charney kick), 1:35</p><p><strong>Fourth quarter</strong></p><p>WA &#8211; Charney 29 FG, 8:38</p><p><strong>Team statistics`COU`WA</strong></p><p>First downs`8`16</p><p>Rushes-yards`30-181`43-294</p><p>Passing yards`14`138</p><p>Total yards`195`432</p><p>Passing`2-4-1`8-14-0</p><p>Sacked-yards lost`1-5`0-0</p><p>Punts-avg.`3-19.0`1-19.0</p><p>Fumbles-lost`3-2`0-0</p><p>Penalties-yards`10-80`12-92</p><p><strong>INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS</strong></p><p><strong>RUSHING</strong> &#8212; COU, Todd 12-101, Jake Cole 9-52, Jervon Young 5-26, Eric Sovan 2-3, Matt Zalaffi 1-2, Kevin Kozerski 1-minus 3. WA, Miles 26-194, P.J. Angeli 3-33, Jesse Cegelka 2-31, Dylan Kostak 4-15, Steve Homza 2-9, Minichello 1-6, Justin Joseph 5-6.</p><p><strong>PASSING</strong> &#8212; COU, Kozerski 2-4-1-14. WA, Angeli 5-9-0-70, Homza 3-5-0-68.</p><p><strong>RECEIVING</strong> &#8212; COU, Malik Diop 1-10, Todd 1-4. WA, Minichello 3-72, Dante DeLuca 2-40, Kostak 1-15, Brian Williams 1-10, Miles 1-1.</p><p><strong>INTERCEPTIONS</strong> &#8212; COU, None. WA, Minichello 1-2.</p><p><strong>MISSED FIELD GOALS</strong> &#8211; None.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Coughlin quarterback Vincent Todd (2) accelerates through the Wyoming Area defense for his second touchdown. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_WyoArea-CoughlinFB_2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Coughlin quarterback Vincent Todd (2) accelerates through the Wyoming Area defense for his second touchdown. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_WyoArea-CoughlinFB_3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Coughlin running back Jake Cole, bottom, gets tackled by Wyoming Area&#8217;s James Eslick. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_WyoArea-CoughlinFB_3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Coughlin running back Jake Cole, bottom, gets tackled by Wyoming Area&#8217;s James Eslick. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_WyoArea-CoughlinFB_4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area&#8217;s Dante DeLuca, right, nearly makes a catch in the end zone ahead of Coughlin defender Jake Cole. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_WyoArea-CoughlinFB_4.jpg</photo2><caption2>Wyoming Area&#8217;s Dante DeLuca, right, nearly makes a catch in the end zone ahead of Coughlin defender Jake Cole. </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_WyoArea-CoughlinFB_1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area running back Brian Miles, left, gets a first down as Coughlin&#8217;s Melvin Robinson makes the tackle in WVC football action Friday night in West Pittston. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_WyoArea-CoughlinFB_1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Wyoming Area running back Brian Miles, left, gets a first down as Coughlin&#8217;s Melvin Robinson makes the tackle in WVC football action Friday night in West Pittston. </caption3><photoCredit3>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Robinson</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLSports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Brian Miles, Wyoming Area rush past Coughlin, 38-14