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First Posted: 11/11/2012
By defeating Pittston Area on November 2, the Wyoming Area football team evened the Bridge Award standings, 4-4 with the Fall season completed. Wyoming Area won the girls tennis, boys cross country, and field hockey events. Pittston Area won boys and girls soccer, golf and girls cross country.
The school’s girls volleyball teams did not play each other.
The 2012-13 school year is the ninth year of the Bridge Award competition, with Pittston Area having won six of the eight previous awards and four consecutive. In the 10 school years 2002-03 through 2011-12 Pittston Area teams have a 98-62 record against Wyoming Area teams. That’s a .612 winning percentage.
The first two school years of the competition, 2002-`03 and `03-`04, the winner was decided by the overall winning percentage of the schools’ teams in sports where they played each other with head-to-head games weighted for two points. Pittston Area won both of those years. Beginning with the `04-`05 season the formula was changed to a simple head-to-head competition. Whichever school won the most games against the rival school won the trophy.
Pittston Area won decisively in five of the first seven years of head-to-head. Pittston Area won 13-8 in 2004-`05, 16-5 in 2007-`08, and 13-8 in 2008-`09, 13-8 in `09-’10, 12-5 2010-’11 and 13-5 in `11-`12
The only drama in the history of the award came at the end of the two school years when Wyoming Area won. In 2005-`06 WA won 11-9 and had to win the last two games, softball and baseball, to clinch. With the competition tied 9-9, it looked like Pittston Area was about to clinch when the softball teams played at Pittston Area in the next to last head-to-head game of the year. Pittston Area had beaten Wyoming Area 12-2 earlier in the season and 11 consecutive times since 1997. But Wyoming Area pulled the upset, 6-5 to give the school a 10-9 lead with the just one game left, baseball. Wyoming Area had to win the baseball game, because if the Bridge standings ended 10-10 Pittston Area would have retained the trophy. There is no tiebreaker. Wyoming Area won 6-5.
In 2006-07 Wyoming Area won 12-11 after being behind 11-10 with two games to go, boys’ tennis and softball. WA won the tennis match 3-2 setting up a winner-take-all softball game. Lots of drama, as the Bridge Trophy was at the field for all to see. After winning, 9-3, the Lady Warriors sat in a circle around the trophy, pulled up grass and threw it in the air like confetti.
Pittston Area doesn’t go in for such drama. They clinched early every time they won.
In the early years there were two Bridge trophies, one called the Public Division for the Pittston Area – Wyoming Area competition.
The second trophy was for the All-Schools Division which included Seton Catholic. Seton, somewhat surprisingly, won the first season and hung a huge banner on the school proclaiming the fact.
Pittston Area won the All-Schools trophy the next three seasons and thus took permanent possession of the trophy after Seton Catholic closed.
Wyoming Area never won an All-Schools trophy. Counting both divisions Pittston Area has won eight of 11.
The identical Bridge Trophies were carved from single pieces of anthracite coal by Laflin coal sculptor Frank Magdalinski in 2003
The last two school years combined the Patriot teams are 25-10 against the Warrior teams. Last school year PA led 13-1 going into the spring.
WA won all three spring games in girls soccer, boys tennis, baseball and softball and the final was 13-5.
WA is in much better shape this year having already won four events, but PA has been very strong against WA in winter sports in recent years.