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Wyoming Valley West was on quite a roll and then it stopped abruptly.The Spartans are the only playoff team sitting out Week 11 thanks to getting a bye directly to next weekend&#8217;s District 2 Class 5A championship game. They will host Saturday&#8217;s Wallenpaupack at Abington Heights winner at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11.&#8220;That&#8217;s huge and that&#8217;s a goal we set out for,&#8221; Valley West coach Pat Keating said. &#8220;Since the time we lost to Williamsport, it was something we set out to do. Try to get on a run and put something together toward the end of the season and get the bye and host the district championship game.&#8220;Now we have to go and try to win it.&#8221;Byes in the District 2 playoffs last happened in 2008 when GAR and Dunmore sat out the first round of the six-team Class 2A playoffs.Keating didn&#8217;t give his team an entire week off, but said he was going to cut down the practice schedule. The change in the weekly routine could be challenging. For 10 weeks, the Spartans prepared for an opponent. Now, they have to wait until Saturday to find out who&#8217;s coming to play them, although it&#8217;s probably safe to assume they have prepared more for Abington Heights than Wallenpaupack so far. Abington Heights defeated the Buckhorns 38-0 in Week 8.&#8220;There are a lot of different ways to look at it,&#8221; Keating said. &#8220;We&#8217;re home and you want to be the one seed and host (the title game). We&#8217;ll cross this bridge right now and see how it works out for us.&#8221;The week certainly will go a long way in healing some injuries. But at the same time, Valley West was on a roll. The Spartans have won six consecutive games, with a 23-20 victory over Abington Heights in Week 7 the only close contest.&#8220;I think that&#8217;s the biggest thing right now,&#8221; Keating said. &#8220;It allows guys to heal up. We don&#8217;t have anything major right now.&#8221;Running back Chris Melovitz and receiver/safety Jake Shemo missed the Coughlin game last Friday. Running back/corner Sean Judge played with a couple fingers on his left hand bandage due to a deep cut suffered a game earlier.HOW IRONICPittston Area and Tunkhannock just missed the district playoffs, but will be represented in a way in the District 2 Class A championship game.Lackawanna Trail coach Steve Jervis is a former quarterback at Tunkhannock and coached the Tigers from 2002-2007. Tunkhannock made the postseason in 2006 and 2007, the last time it was there, but it wasn&#8217;t enough for Jervis to keep his job. He became Trail&#8217;s coach in 2009 and also left his teaching position at Tunkhannock to take one at Trail.Northwest coach Lon Hazlet coached Pittston Area from 2005-2007, moving across the state to take the job and getting only three years to turn around the program. The Pittston Area hierarchy must think three years is enough time because the next two coaches to follow Hazlet &#8212; Dip Donato and Mike Barrett &#8212; also got just three years before being replaced. (Uh-oh, current Pittston Area coach Jim Norris just finished year three).Pittston Area hasn&#8217;t played in the postseason since 2008. Hazlet has coached the Rangers to the postseason in his two seasons at Northwest. He still teaches at Pittston Area.GETTING TO 1,000Tunkhannock quarterback Logan Cywinski rushed for 84 yards in a 49-35 season-ending loss to Northwest, giving him 1,082 yards on the ground. The last Tiger to rush for 1,000 yards was Dustin Faux, who finished with 1,070 in 2007.PATTERN FORMINGBased on the last 14 games, Coughlin should defeat Valley View in the District 2 Class 4A quarterfinals on Friday.Every time the Crusaders won during those 14 games, they lost the following week. And then after losing, they&#8217;ve won. So last Friday&#8217;s 55-14 loss to Valley West means the Crusaders should win Friday. Right?EASTERN CONFERENCEThe Eastern Conference playoffs date back to 1922, but it&#8217;s certainly taken a big fall with the PIAA going to six classifications.Eastern Conference officials decided before the season to hold championship games only instead of four-team playoffs due to the increased number of teams making the postseason in Districts 2, 4 and 11. The results haven&#8217;t been pretty.Allentown Allen (2-8) is playing for the EC Division 5A-6A championship. Old Forge and Susquehanna are playing for the Class A title even though Susquehanna is a Class 2A team. The only other Class A options were Montgomery (2-8) or a trio of winless teams.The Eastern Conference took a beating when the PIAA decided in 1994 to make district playoffs the only way to qualify for the state playoffs. The latest PIAA decision could be the final nail.ENDING THE DROUGHTThe new six PIAA classifications means more teams in the District 2 playoffs. Heck, teams in Class 6A and 5A just had to show up since no one was eliminated through regular-season play.Here are the new playoff teams with their last appearance in parentheses: Abington Heights (2013); Crestwood (2014); Hazleton Area (2009); Mid Valley (2011); North Pocono (2010); Riverside (2012); Scranton (2013); Valley View (2012); Wallenpaupack (2009); and West Scranton (2010).Holy Redeemer and Western Wayne are the only teams never to play in the district playoffs.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley West&#8217;s Sean Judge catches a pass during last Friday&#8217;s game with Coughlin. Judge, who was wearing a bandage on his left fingers due to a deep cut suffered a week earlier, will be among the Spartans benefiting from the bye week. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_coughlinwvw04CMYK-1-.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Valley West&#8217;s Sean Judge catches a pass during last Friday&#8217;s game with Coughlin. Judge, who was wearing a bandage on his left fingers due to a deep cut suffered a week earlier, will be among the Spartans benefiting from the bye week. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pete G. Wilcox file photo | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></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: Bye is good and bad for Wyoming Valley West