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H.S. Football: Crestwood to battle fast-paced Jersey Shore in Class 4A quarterfinals

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States ramp up for biggest vaccination effort in US history

Here&rsquo;s the task at hand.
				Get ready to play a football game for the first time in nearly a month. Then hop on two charter buses for a one-way ride of about 200 miles. Once there, go through a strict COVID-19 protocol. And then, play a perennial state power.
				That&rsquo;s what the Wyoming Valley West Spartans (2-3) face as they play District 10 champion Erie Cathedral Prep (5-2) at 7 p.m. Friday in a PIAA Class 5A quarterfinal game at Brockway High School.
				&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a monumental task,&rdquo; Valley West coach Jack Baranski said. &ldquo;The trip, the rules, the team, there&rsquo;s a lot going on. The rules of travel. We&rsquo;re not getting a locker room. Everybody that&rsquo;s associated with the team has to walk in at the same time. There are just various travel rules we&rsquo;re not used to.&rdquo;
				Brockway is about 70 miles northwest of Penn State. Some Valley West coaches are opting to drive rather than ride the bus.
				There are 47 teams left vying for PIAA state football championships. All but one played last week &mdash; Valley West.
				In fact, the Spartans haven&rsquo;t played since Oct. 16 when they defeated Nanticoke Area 42-0 in a game that otherwise wouldn&rsquo;t have been scheduled if not for the pandemic. The last meeting prior to this season was 1999. Their other win was a 26-24 comeback victory against winless Pittston Area.
				The Spartans tried to get on the field last week but couldn&rsquo;t find an opponent. Seven of the Wyoming Valley Conference&rsquo;s other 13 teams had games on the books. A few others which would have made for competitive matchups weren&rsquo;t interested. They even reached out to Pequea Valley, a District 3 Class 3A team looking for a game, but were rebuffed. Pequea Valley instead filled its void with Class 3A Pine Grove.
				&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be difficult,&rdquo; Baranski said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to see how fast it takes us to get up to game speed. Probably my biggest concern right now is the safety of the players. We&rsquo;ve had more live contact in practice than we normally do just to try to keep us in tune going into the game.&rdquo;
				Under normal circumstances, Valley West would have had to win a District 2/11 Class 5A subregional championship to make it this far. That four-team playoff, though, crumbled. Abington Heights, the other D2-5A team, cancelled football because of COVID-19 concerns. Then District 11 decided not to participate in the subregional or state playoffs and instead end its season with district playoffs.
				That left the Spartans as the only team standing, although they disappeared for a time. The school board shut down fall sports because of COVID-19 issues in the school districts, only to bring them back on Oct. 29. The hiatus cost Valley West games against Hazleton Area and Wilkes-Barre Area.
				While Valley West was idle last weekend, five-time state champion Cathedral Prep was dismantling Hollidaysburg 33-7. The defense held Hollidaysburg to under 100 yards. Hollidaysburg&rsquo;s only touchdown came on a punt return with two minutes remaining, presumably against Cathedral Prep backups.
				Quarterback Tamar Sample, who is also a running threat, threw for two touchdowns against Hollidaysburg. Jaheim Williams ran for two scores. He and leading rusher Michael Parks give the Ramblers a potent running attack.
				Cathedral Prep lost in the PIAA Class 4A quarterfinals in 2019, ending a streak of three consecutive state titles. The Ramblers also won the Class 4A championship in 2000 and the Class 3A championship in 2012. Only Southern Columbia with 10 state championships and Berwick and Archbishop Wood with six each have more.
				Valley West&rsquo;s attack centers around dual-threat quarterback Donte Rhodes. He&rsquo;s hit on some big passes to receiver Tyler Weidman, but no other Spartan has been able to add to the rushing game.

H.S. Football: Spartans to tangle with state power Cathedral Prep