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<p>Once the PIAA sets classifications for the next two school years, the Wyoming Valley Conference will begin working on football schedules for the 2020 and 2021 seasons. The scuttlebutt is the schedule could contain more local matchups, according to several people.</p><p>PIAA enrollment figures should be set in late November or early December. Schedules in all sports are done in two-year cycles and teams just flip-flop home dates from one year to the other.</p><p>The only games set for the next two years are Berwick and Southern Columbia playing Week 1 in 2020 and 2021, plus the annual Week 10 rivalry games (Nanticoke Area vs. Hanover Area, Wyoming Area vs. Pittston Area, Dallas vs. Lake-Lehman etc.).</p><p>Everything else is a blank canvas and the WVC should use it wisely. Here are some ideas to get more WVC vs. WVC matchups.</p><p>&#8226; The WVC can&#8217;t completely alienate the Lackawanna Conference from the scheduling process because they rely on each other to fill gaps. But better planning could tighten up the schedule.</p><p>Last Friday, Carbondale played at Lake-Lehman while Tunkhannock played at Honesdale. Yet, Lehman and Tunkhannock don&#8217;t play this season. And Carbondale and Honesdale don&#8217;t play each other. That&#8217;s just one example.</p><p>&#8226; One coach said the schedule makers shouldn&#8217;t be married to classifications when making the schedules because of the Power Rating System used to determine district playoff qualifiers.</p><p>The PIAA points system often penalized teams for playing opponents in lower classifications. The Power Rating System takes into account many factors, so if a Class 5A team plays a Class 3A team, neither is punished harshly for a loss.</p><p>&#8226; Another coach said too many same-classification games take away the intrigue of the District 2 playoffs. He used Dallas vs. Valley View last year as an example. Valley View defeated Dallas 33-0 in Week 8 and then 49-14 when the two met for the D2-4A championship.</p><p>If the two didn&#8217;t play in the regular season, then it would have been the WVC&#8217;s top 4A team vs. the LFC&#8217;s top 4A team. Not that the outcome would have been different, but at least there would have been some suspense.</p><p>&#8226; Here&#8217;s an idea for road trips of over two hours &#8212; play the games on Saturday afternoon. Delaware Valley travels to Williamsport for a Friday night game Week 8. DelVal coach Keith Olsommer said the bus ride is over three hours one way and expects his team to arrive home after 1 a.m.</p><p>Why not schedule the game for 3 p.m. Saturday? It would give DelVal parents and fans a chance to get to the game and get the players home at a reasonable time.</p><p>&#8226; One Twitter comment stated District 2 &#8220;just set a dangerous precedent&#8221; by allowing a schedule swap so Wyoming Area and Southern Columbia can play. The comment also said it is a &#8220;bad idea to allow a team to give up a league game.&#8221;</p><p>Actually, the bad idea happened two years ago when the schedule paired up Wyoming Area and Holy Redeemer because they are in the same WVC division. Wyoming Area won last year&#8217;s game 43-7, which doesn&#8217;t look too bad on the surface until you dig deeper.</p><p>Wyoming Area led 30-0 after nine minutes and coach Randy Spencer pulled his starters. The Warriors used 11 players to carry the ball and threw just five passes, none after building the 30-0 lead.</p><p>Matchups like this, whether they&#8217;re WVC division games or not, need to be avoided over the next two years. The schedule is littered with way too many blowouts.</p><p><strong>BEST OF WEEK 4</strong></p><p>Here are some of them:</p><p>&#8226; Williamsport&#8217;s Dallas Griess. In a defensive battle, the Millionaires quarterback ran for two touchdowns in a 13-7 victory over Hazleton Area. Football isn&#8217;t Griess&#8217; best sport. He has verbally committed to play baseball at North Carolina.</p><p>&#8226; Berwick&#8217;s Teagan Wilk. The senior safety tied the school record of 15 interceptions in a 42-0 victory over Wyoming Valley West. Wilk, who will play at East Carolina next year, returned the interception 21 yards for a touchdown. He started at Southern Columbia as a freshman.</p><p>&#8226; Hanover Area&#8217;s Hunter Karpowich. Although the Hawkeyes fell 39-13 to Riverside, Karpowich rushed 38 times for 218 yards. The 38 carries were the most by a Hawkeye since Parrish Bennett carried the ball 40 times vs. Meyers in Week 7 of the 2011 season. The rushing yardage was the most since Isaiah Taylor had 220 yards in the 2014 season finale against Nanticoke Area.</p><p><strong>THAT&#8217;S ENOUGH</strong></p><p>Just outside the area last Friday, Jim Thorpe defeated Kutztown 76-0. That was the score at halftime and the coaches agreed not to play the second half.</p><p>Here are some of the highlights, and lowlights, from a story posted on the Reading Eagle website.</p><p>&#8226; Kutztown coach Joe Moyer told the Reading Eagle his team had just 18 players dressed and several were injured in the first half.</p><p>&#8226; Jim Thorpe ran 13 offensive plays and scored on seven of them. Jim Thorpe also returned three interceptions for touchdowns and returned a block field goal for a touchdown.</p><p>&#8226; Kutztown has lost 24 consecutive games and 52 consecutive games in the Berks League.</p><p>Both teams are Class 3A schools, but Jim Thorpe is among the top in the state in that classification. The Olympians are 4-0 and have outscored their opponents 195-7. Kutztown has scored just 29 points and allowed 221.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre Area and Delaware Valley are just two of four Class 6A football teams in District 2 this season, but the new power rating system should allow schedule-makers more flexibility to match up teams from different classes. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_WB-Del-Val-ftbl-4-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre Area and Delaware Valley are just two of four Class 6A football teams in District 2 this season, but the new power rating system should allow schedule-makers more flexibility to match up teams from different classes. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By John Erzar</p><p>jerzar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</p></shirttailMeta></div>

H.S. Football: Wyoming Valley Conference has plenty to consider when making new schedules