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KINGSTON — Wilkes-Barre Area retained the Battle For the Bridge trophy Saturday afternoon. But for one half, the Wolfpack played like they hadn’t crossed the river.
WBA, though, overcame a sluggish first half — due in part by Wyoming Valley West’s defense — with three third-quarter touchdowns for a 35-0 victory against its rival in a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 game.
The Wolfpack (3-3 Div. 1, 4-4 overall) don’t have a shot at the divisional title. But the victory was huge in the turbulent four-team District 2/4 Class 6A playoff race for the top two seeds. The Wolfpack climbed a spot to third with two teams in front of them — Scranton and Williamsport — both losing Friday.
“What happened last night helped us out a great deal with Scranton losing and Williamsport losing,” WBA coach Ciro Cinti said. “They were two teams ahead of us in the points. We hold our own destiny.
“We’d like to get a home (playoff) game. We took care of business today. That’s what we had to do first. Now we have two more games and if we can win those, anything happen.”
The teams plodded through the first half before a crowd much smaller than anticipated for the rivalry. They combined for seven first downs, 10 punts and 14 penalties. Yet, the Wolfpack managed to take a 14-0 lead into halftime despite having just 67 yards.
Treyvon Gembitski hauled in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Jake Howe at 2:40 of the first quarter one play after a short punt by Valley West. Gembitski returned a punt 41 yards for a touchdown a little over a minute later for the final score of the first half.
“We were very lethargic,” Cinti said. “I give Valley West a lot of credit. They played hard. We didn’t capitalize on mistakes early and we didn’t play with any passion. We weren’t staying on blocks. But give that credit to Valley West because they came to play and we didn’t that first half.”
Valley West (0-4 Div. 1, 0-8) has had trouble generating offense all season. That issue contributed to WBA scoring three touchdowns in the third quarter.
Valley West couldn’t get out of deep in its own territory, resulting in WBA starting scoring drives at the Spartans’ 35-yard line twice and 25 once after punts. The Spartans punted 10 times.
Howe ended the possessions that started at the 35 with a 10-yard TD pass to Jordan Kieselowsky and a 9-yard TD pass to Gembitski. Howe plowed in from the 1-yard line for the final score after consecutive runs of 11 and 14 by Devon Underwood.
Wilkes-Barre Area 35, Wyo. Valley West 0
Wilkes-Barre Area`14`0`21`0 — 35
Wyo. Valley West`0`0`0`0 — 0
First Quarter
WBA — Treyvon Gembitski 35 pass from Jake Howe (Jaedyn Sanchez kick), 2:40
WBA — Gembitski 41 punt return (Sanchez kick), 1:29
Third quarter
WBA — Jordan Kieselowsky 10 pass from Howe (Sanchez kick), 6:57
WBA — Gembitski 9 pass from Howe (Sanchez kick), 5:10
WBA — Howe 1 run (Sanchez kick), 1:45
Team statistics`WBA`WVW
First downs`11`4
Rushes-yards`23-51`21-21
Passing yards`155`73
Total yards`206`94
Passing`11-21-1`12-27-1
Sacked-yards lost`3-12`3-18
Punts-avg.`5-36.2`10-28.0
Fumbles-lost`1-1`2-1
Penalties-yards`7-57`10-64
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — WBA, Davon Underwood 7-26, Howe 5-6, Khalil Smith 2-(minus-4), Gene Ardo 2-2, Kieselowsky 1-(minus-6), Ethan Hooper 1-(minus-1), Rajon Watson 1-5, Kymani Hubbard-Jones 2-12, Liam Evanko 2-6. WVW, Paul Riggs 6-10, Tyler Mattis 4-(minus-9), Preston Sninsky 2-37, Damian Eastman 1-(minus-8), Chase Meyers 1-(minus-1), Carson Brown 4-(minus-9), William Lebron 2-3, Noah Council 1-(minus-2).
PASSING — WBA, Howe 11-20-1-155, Declan Gregor 0-1-0-0. WVW, Brown 7-14-0-15, Eastman 5-13-1-58.
RECEIVING — WBA, Gembitski 6-104, Underwood 3-19, Kesielowsky 2-32. WVW, Riggs 2-7, Sninsky 4-12, Tyler Ruddy 1-22, Mattis 4-36, Leland Alexander 1-(minus-3).
INTERCEPTIONS — WBA, Underwood 1-29. WVW, Mattis 1-7.
MISSED FGs — none.