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Hot Spot: Wilkes-Barre’s Frog Pond is known more for its pizza than its lily pads

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Wyoming Valley West is used to winning. The Spartans tied a school record last year with 12 victories. They have won six consecutive Wyoming Valley Conference divisional titles. They won the District 2 Class 4A crown in 2015.So a 2-2 start is uncharacteristic for a program which has posted nine consecutive winning seasons and hasn&#8217;t finished with a losing record since 1994. The team hasn&#8217;t started 2-2 since 2010.&#8220;You can live with it,&#8221; Valley West coach Pat Keating said, &#8220;but 3-1 puts us in the driver&#8217;s seat. Being 2-2, we&#8217;re going to be in dogfight down the stretch. The 5A games are going to be crucial in two weeks. We&#8217;ll see how it all plays out.&#8220;We have some tough games down the stretch and it&#8217;s the same things and I can&#8217;t say it enough. We have to play cleaner and better in bigger situations or we&#8217;re not going to win.&#8221;Cleaner football starts with less penalties. Valley West has been penalized 38 times, most in the WVC. Keating mentioned prior to last Friday&#8217;s 35-22 loss to Williamsport that penalties at crucial junctures the week before were a reason for a 29-13 loss to Delaware Valley. Too many times, the coach said, infractions put the offense in difficult down-and-distance situations against DelVal.The same thing happened against Williamsport as three possessions started with penalties, resulting in two first-and-15 and one first-and-20 positions. A late hit on Williamsport quarterback Isaiah Hankins was costly as well in the second half.&#8220;In crucial situation again we shot ourselves in the foot,&#8221; Keating said. &#8220;It&#8217;s been our story the last two weeks. We&#8217;re young, but we have to grow up faster than this. We can&#8217;t keep using it as an excuse.&#8221;Injuries have been problem as well. Linemen Chris Bleich, who has verbally committed to Penn State, missed the Williamsport game. So did starting defensive lineman Elijah Rivers. Receiver/defensive back Jake Shemo, one of the few experienced players back from last year, has yet to play due to an injury.The schedule eases up a bit the next two weeks as Valley West heads to Dallas (1-3) on Friday and hosts Wallenpaupack (1-3) the following Friday. Both opponents are in rebuild mode, especially on offense.Then comes a big showdown on Oct. 8. No, not rival Berwick but Abington Heights (3-1).All three Class 5A teams &#8212; Valley West, Abington Heights and Wallenpaupack &#8212; make the District 2 playoffs. The top seed, though, gets a bye and the championship game on its home turf. The winner of the Oct. 8 game at Abington Heights will be the No. 1 seed in all likelihood.It might not be the Spartans unless they straighten things out by then.&#8220;They are definitely correctable,&#8221; Keating said. &#8220;The concern I have is we keep making the same ones over and over again. At some point in time, they have to take responsibility and get these things cleaned up. It&#8217;s one thing to make these mistakes in June or July. Even the first few weeks of playing games.&#8220;We know what to do and when execute things properly we do good things. Now we&#8217;re just not executing and one or two miscues are really hurting us.&#8221;Eight teams in D2-4A playoffsAs expected, the District 2 athletic committee approved Tuesday the football committee&#8217;s recommendation that eight teams make the District 2 Class 4A playoffs. That means only three D2-4A teams won&#8217;t qualify.The PIAA&#8217;s new six-team classification format means 25 teams will make the District 2 playoffs, up from 14 in 2015.Keeping it in perspectiveAs the Wyoming Area team bus was leaving Berwick a few weeks ago, the Warriors were whooping it up. Nothing vulgar, nothing profane. Just a good, old-fashion celebration as the bus eased away and past some Berwick fans.One Berwick fan, a grown man with a cigarette dangling from his lips, took exception. He threw the middle finger to the Warriors. Perhaps that guy &#8212; certainly an exception since a majority of the Berwick faithful took the loss in stride &#8212; needs to talk to Williamsport coach Chuck Crews.Crews&#8217; team won one of its biggest games in recent history, defeating Wyoming Valley West 35-22 to snap a 13-game losing streak to the Spartans. Crews, who sometimes speaks more like an amateur philosopher than a coach, didn&#8217;t want anyone to make a big deal of the victory.&#8220;Wait until the mortgage is due. And the phone bill. Then you have to feed your kids,&#8221; Crews said. &#8220;That&#8217;s life and death. This out here, this is fun. And that&#8217;s all it will ever be in my eyes.&#8221;History of the forfeitHoly Redeemer had to forfeit last Friday&#8217;s game to Western Wayne because it didn&#8217;t have enough players to field a team. The Royals had only 13 players healthy enough due to injuries and illness.While a forfeits might seem rare, there have actually been some over the past few years. Here&#8217;s a rundown of them.&#8226; 2015: Scranton had to forfeit a game to Valley View and West Scranton had to forfeit to Delaware Valley, both in Week 5, because of a teachers strike. The city rivals were scheduled to play the following week, but couldn&#8217;t and District 2 declared it a double forfeit for playoff purposes.Neither Scranton nor West Scranton made the postseason, so the teams were able to play their rivalry game Week 11 when the playoffs were going on.&#8226; 2013: Valley View defeated Lakeland 26-21 in Week 2, but later forfeited the game because it used an ineligible player based on the PIAA eight-semester rule.&#8226; 2012: Holy Cross forfeited to Dunmore in Week 5 because it didn&#8217;t have enough healthy players. Holy Cross managed to finish out the season.Northwest defeated Muncy 42-21 in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs only to have to forfeit. A player who was ejected a week earlier played against Muncy, a violation of a PIAA rule where a player ejected from a game can not participate in the next game.Record-setting nightDelaware Valley defeated West Scranton 67-32 last Friday, setting a school record for points in game. The previous high came in a 63-13 victory over Pocono Mountain East in 2006.DelVal started a football program in 1992 and lost 94 of its first 103 games before posting its first winning season by going 7-4 in 2002. The program, under the direction of former Penn State tight end Keith Olsommer, is considered one of the best in District 2.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley West fullback Zach Davis through the Williamsport defense during last Friday&#8217;s 35-22 loss. The Spartans are 2-2 for the first time since the 2010 season. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_wvw_w2_faaCMYK-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Valley West fullback Zach Davis through the Williamsport defense during last Friday&#8217;s 35-22 loss. The Spartans are 2-2 for the first time since the 2010 season. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams | for Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Spartans dealing with rare 2-2 start</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By John Erzarjerzar@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</shirttailMeta></div>

WVC Football Notebook: Wyoming Valley West in unusual position