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Backup quarterback Weist leads Wilkes to OT win against Misericordia

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Local roundup: Berwick girls soccer edges Scranton Prep in D2 quarterfinals

The burly gentleman with the gray beard was beside himself.He was wondering, quite loudly in fact, why the Wyoming Valley Conference insisted on sticking it to his favorite high school sports team.After sticking out his finger to make his point, the flabbergasted guy finally resigned himself to accepting the fact that nothing&#8217;s ever going to change.Well, not when it comes to breaking ties for league championships.The Holy Redeemer and Berwick girls volleyball teams wound up all even at the top of the final WVC regular season standings and were forced to break their deadlock by playing each other for the league championship on a neutral court Tuesday. That came one day after Lackawanna Trail and Northwest had a league title game at Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Klassner Field to decide the WVC Division 3 field hockey title.Both league championship games, for all teams involved, came right before they started their District 2 playoffs &#8212; the most important games of their respective seasons to date.Truth be told, those teams would much rather win a date to the district championship than a league championship.But the big, bad WVC had to throw a roadblock in their paths to try and stop some of these teams from getting District 2 gold medals. Or so some quite confused fans made it seem.Couln&#8217;t those WVC title games wait?Well, no.Before the start of each school year, the PIAA sends out a list of deadlines for the completion of district tournament play in each sport state-sanctioned sport, then officials from various leagues across the state make schedules that will, hopefully, keep the train moving as teams try to advance from league play to districts and to state playoffs.This past week, it only appeared to be going off track in the WVC.Both Berwick and Holy Redeemer won their season finales in volleyball Monday, then had to turn around and play each other in a league title game the very next day, which was two days before they began District 2 play &#8212; in Class 3A for Berwick and Holy Redeemer in Class 2A.Lackawanna Trail&#8217;s field hockey team was looking at a scenario that was even worse.After winning a makeup game Saturday to catch Northwest at the top of the WVC Division 3, the two teams played for WVC title Monday, and their scheduled battle in the District 2 Class A quarterfinals was moved from Monday to Tuesday. Only Tuesday&#8217;s rain prevented Trail from playing three times in four days &#8211; and being a lot less than fresh for the biggest game of its season.&#8220;Obviously, the timing&#8217;s a little strange when you have to try and squeeze things in,&#8221; said Holy Redeemer athletic director J.P. Aquilina, the assigner for WVC volleyball. &#8220;But there&#8217;s always some time for a (league) playoff built into the schedules, even if it&#8217;s only a couple of extra days.&#8221;Is an extra game right before districts a bit over the top?Sarah Warner sure thinks so.She&#8217;s the girls volleyball coach at Berwick, and believed her Bulldogs should win a tiebreaker over Redeemer and be crowned league champions. Both teams wound up 15-1, but Warner firmly believed defeating Redeemer during the regular season in the only head-to-head meeting between the two before Tuesday&#8217;s league playoff would bring Berwick the title.And after Berwick suffered a 3-1 setback against Redeemer in the WVC title game Tuesday, Warner said it was a game her team didn&#8217;t receive much notice to play and couldn&#8217;t see why the league crown was unfairly whisked away from Berwick and put on the head of Holy Redeemer.&#8220;We got one day (to prepare),&#8221; Warner said. &#8220;And I think that&#8217;s unfortunate. It really wasn&#8217;t our top priority. We beat them when it mattered, to be honest &#8212; when it counted in the standings and for the power ratings.&#8221;Lackawanna Trail&#8217;s field hockey team was counting on celebrating a league title too.In fact, the Lions did get so gleeful they jumped for joy last week after beating Nanticoke Area to finish tied with Northwest at 13-2 in the Division 3 standings. Lions coach Gary Wilmet reasoned his Trail team had the tiebreaker after playing Northwest three times during the WVC season.&#8220;We won two of the three against them,&#8221; Wilmet said at the time.Doesn&#8217;t matter if they won three of the three.If teams finished a season tied at the top of the WVC, they&#8217;re headed for a playoff.That&#8217;s the league&#8217;s only tiebreaker, and it&#8217;s not just a policy.&#8220;That&#8217;s in our by-laws,&#8221; WVC president Cliff Jones said. &#8220;The by-laws state that if teams finish tied, we&#8217;ll have everyone play off to determine a league championship. We always play off. It&#8217;s always decided on the court or on the field.&#8221;It&#8217;s probably the best way, even if that doesn&#8217;t seem completely necessary or particularly logical to teams that come out on top in head-to-head meetings during a regular season.&#8220;During the field hockey season, Lackawanna Trail lost to somebody (Nanticoke Area) that Northwest beat,&#8221; said Tunkhannock athletic director Kenny Janiszewski, the WVC&#8217;s field hockey assigner. &#8220;In volleyball, Berwick lost to somebody (Delaware Valley) that Holy Redeeemer beat. The (league) ADs know the league championship has to be decided on the field. That is the best solution.&#8221;It&#8217;s a lot better than a coin flip.What had some people flipping out, though, was the league fitting its title games in before playoffs. Heck, District 2 field hockey Class A quarterfinal between Northwest and Trail scheduled for Monday was pushed to Tuesday &#8212; and then Wednesday when it was rained out &#8212; to allow both teams to play for the WVC Division 1 crown Monday before they played again in districts.&#8220;That particular situation was really unique,&#8221; Janiszewski said. &#8220;In the power rankings, they finished four and five (for districts) and played in the first round. You can&#8217;t control that.&#8221;It turns out, the league didn&#8217;t have much control over when to play its division-deciding championships either.Some felt it&#8217;d be best to hold those title games after districts or states. Particularly in field hockey. Let&#8217;s face it, Trail and Northwest weren&#8217;t equipped to beat two-time defending District 2 champion and returning PIAA Class A gold medalist Wyoming Seminary in the semifinals.But what if one of them did?Again, Jones and Janiszewski came back with the PIAA-mandated finish dates.&#8220;What&#8217;s to say Sem can&#8217;t be upset? Or Wyoming Area?&#8221; Janiszewski said. &#8220;That&#8217;s why you play the game on the field. You never know what&#8217;s going to happen.&#8221;What the league does know will happen is a year without a division champion if it waited any longer to determine WVC title teams.&#8220;There are final dates we have to be done by,&#8221; Jones said, &#8220;and there&#8217;s a last play-date as well. This all comes from the PIAA. That kind of guides you to the point where you have to be done by these dates. If you have someone who makes a state run, who is involved in a tie for the division, then that (league) playoff does not happen and we could be without a league champion.&#8220;And you never know who&#8217;s going to make a run.&#8221;So as frustrating as it seems to some coaches and fans, the idea by WVC administrators is to make things as fair as they can for kids with big dreams. Not really a big attempt to run good teams into the ground. <style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Paul Sokoloskipsokoloski@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Paul Sokoloski covers area sports for the Times Leader. You may reach him at psokoloski@www.timesleader.com, at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @SokoSports</shirttailMeta></div>

Tied at the top means heading for a playoff in WVC