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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; Wilkes-Barre Area senior Michael Deutsch-Jones played a soccer game Friday afternoon. He&rsquo;ll play another Saturday morning.
				In between, he had time to help the school&rsquo;s football team win its season opener Friday night.
				Deutsch-Jones kicked a 27-yard field goal with 9.4 seconds left as the Wolfpack edged Wyoming Valley West 9-8 in a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 game.
				The kick completed a 17-play drive where the Wolfpack moved 53 yards in just over five minutes, converting two third-down plays and a fourth-and-1 play where quarterback Kam Taylor bounced off two tackle attempt for a 5-yard gain.
				As the drive progressed, Deutsch-Jones remained calm. When he lined up for the kick, his mind remained clear.
				&ldquo;Nothing. I just go blank&rdquo; said Deutsch-Jones, who will be back at Wilkes-Barre Memorial on Saturday morning for a soccer game against Wyoming Area. &ldquo;I kicked it, I looked up and it was in and I was like &lsquo;Nice.&rsquo;&rdquo;
				While it was a nice ending, the process of getting there wasn&rsquo;t exactly appealing. Aside from Taylor, who rushed for a game-high 124 yards, the Wolfpack was sluggish on offense for the most part. They also lost two fumbles and fumbled a snap on a two-point conversion attempt.
				&ldquo;Give Valley West all the credit in the world,&rdquo; WBA coach Ciro Cinti said. &ldquo;For having not a lot of time to practice, the kids played hard. They didn&rsquo;t cramp, we cramped. We turned the ball over. We did everything wrong but win the game. I&rsquo;ll take an ugly win anytime than a loss, but we&rsquo;re a long way from being a good team.&rdquo;
				Valley West lost practice time when the school shut down sports briefly in order for the school board to hold a vote to hold them amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Spartans didn&rsquo;t have enough practices to have a scrimmage last weekend.
				Coach Jack Baranski didn&rsquo;t use that as an excuse, but the absence of two key pieces &mdash; running back Darius Redguard and 2019 leading tackler Jonathan Stochla &mdash; didn&rsquo;t help matters.
				&ldquo;We were down a couple running backs,&rdquo; Baranski said. &ldquo;We have a couple capable kids. We&rsquo;re looking forward to Darius Redguard returning next week as our featured back. I know he&rsquo;s raring to go.&rdquo;
				Like WBA, Valley West received most of its offensive output from quarterback Donte Rhodes. Rhodes ran for 111 yards on 18 carries while the rest of the ball carriers had 9 yards on 10 rushes.
				Rhodes got the Spartans on the board at 11:53 of the second quarter, scoring on a 19-yard run two plays after linebacker Jarrett Kasarda recovered a WBA fumble. WBA jumped offside on the extra-point try, so Valley West went for two points and Rhodes ran it in for an 8-0 lead.
				WBA needed just three plays to answer the score as Taylor ran inside then dashed to the right for a 35-yard TD. A botched snap on the two-point conversion led to a fumble, keeping Valley West ahead 8-6.
				The game&rsquo;s two touchdowns were a little more than a minute apart, but the offensive fireworks fizzled out. Neither team entered the red zone until the Wolfpack&rsquo;s final possession of the game that resulted in Deutsch-Jones&rsquo; winning kick.
				The teams will play again at Valley West in the regular-season finale Oct. 30. However, Friday&rsquo;s game will count toward the divisional standings. The second meeting will count only toward the District 2 power rankings.
				<ins>Wilkes-Barre Area 9, Wyo. Valley West 8 </ins>
				<ins>Wyo. Valley West`0`8`0`0 &mdash; 8 </ins>
				<ins>Wilkes-Barre Area`0`6`0`3 &mdash; 9 </ins>
				<ins>Second quarter </ins>
				<ins>WVW &mdash; Donte Rhodes 19 run (Rhodes run), 11:53 </ins>
				<ins>WBA &mdash; Kam Taylor 35 run (run failed), 10:42 </ins>
				<ins>Fourth quarter </ins>
				<ins>WBA &mdash; Michael Deutsch-Jones 27 FG, 0:09 </ins>
				<ins>Team statistics`WVW`WBA </ins>
				<ins>First downs`7`13 </ins>
				<ins>Rushes-yards`29-118`38-210 </ins>
				<ins>Passing yards`81`41 </ins>
				<ins>Total yards`199`251 </ins>
				<ins>Passing`8-13-1`8-24-0 </ins>
				<ins>Sacked-yards lost`1-2`1-4 </ins>
				<ins>Punts-avg.`4-29.5`4-35.8 </ins>
				<ins>Fumbles-lost`1-0`4-2 </ins>
				<ins>Penalties-yards`7-41`6-54 </ins>
				<ins>INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS </ins>
				<ins>RUSHING &mdash; WVW, Rhodes 18-111, Isaiah Cobb 2-1, Sadiq Burke 2-8, team 2-(minus-2). WBA, Noah Taylor 7-13, K.Taylor 17-124, Elijah Jordan 2-19, Javan McCleary 3-20, Javier Gonzalez 9-34. </ins>
				<ins>PASSING &mdash; WVW, Rhodes 8-13-1-81. WBA, K.Taylor 8-20-0-41, team 0-4-0-0. WBA, Jordan 4-11, Abu Samake 2-12, Maleek Robinson 2-18. </ins>
				<ins>RECEIVING &mdash; WVW, Tyler Weidman 3-54, Connor Olisewski 1-9, Burke 2-0, Ryan Meyers 2-18. </ins>
				<ins>INTERCEPTIONS &mdash; WBA, Samake 1-3. </ins>
				<ins>MISSED FGs &mdash; none. </ins>

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H.S. Football: WBA edges Wyoming Valley West on field goal with 9.4 seconds left