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KINGSTON — The grins on their faces grew wider by the word, almost as wide as the lanes they’ve been opening.

Want to make Chris Bleich, Sammy Solomon and the rest of the Wyoming Valley West Spartans offensive line grin with glee?

Call a running play.

And Valley West has been doing that a lot lately, which is a big reason why the Spartans wound up in the PIAA Class 5A football quarterfinals against Archbishop Wood at 1 p.m. today at Northern Lehigh High School.

“I’m a physical person,” said Solomon, a sophomore. “I like to be able to grab and move people out of my way. I think everybody on the line feels the same way.”

The power and prowess of Valley West’s lines on both sides of the ball has the Spartans looking like champions again after the team sputtered at the start of the season.

Using a balanced offense and a two-quarterback system, Valley West stumbled through the first half of their season at 1-5 and hardly played the part of team headed to a District 2-11 title game.

Then something clicked.

The Spartans offense got grounded, and the victories got going.

Turning into a run-first team, Valley West began pounding away at midseason behind its behemoth offensive linemen Bleich (6-foot-6, 305 pounds), Solomon (6-5, 280), Dominic Alunni (6-5, 330), Dave Wildey, Donald Messersmith and Connor Mikovitch.

The result was a power running game that rolled to a five-game winning streak that, at 6-5, assured the Spartans of a non-losing season and walloped Whitehall, 32-21 in last week’s District 2-11 championship game.

“I think, as a team, we finally found what our go-to is,” said Bleich, a senior and a highly-recruited offensive lineman who verbally committed to UCLA before the season, but has since scheduled other college visits with the recent firing of UCLA head coach Jim Mora. “And that’s really running the ball.”

The Spartans ran their way to the state quarterfinals, bulldozing through Whitehall last week for 289 rushing yards on 56 carries and three touchdowns.

Quarterback Rob Dwyer, a 6-2, 215-pound former tight end, ran 17 times for 120 yards and two of the scores, while running back Zach Davies (18 carries for 94 yards) and Sean Mikovitch (15 carries, 69 yards) spearheaded a three-headed monster that was unstoppable at Whitehall’s Zephry Stadium and chewed up the clock, as well as yardage.

Valley West’s touchdown drives covered, 80, 80, 77 and 74 yards.

“The linemen were blocking great,” said Dwyer, who also caught a touchdown pass against Whitehall from his tag-team partner behind center, Jake Shusta. “They’re opening the holes for me to run through.”

That wears on teams, and wears them down.

“When we’re running the ball, and running it down their throats, you can only take so much,” said Dwyer, who also plays linebacker on defense. “We’re running the ball 90 percent of the time. Defenses don’t like taking all those hits. I know we don’t like taking hits like that on defense. Eventually, they’re getting out of gas.”

That’s when the Spartans up front seem to step on the gas.

“It’s a little more fun, run-blocking,” a grinning Bleich said. “As a team, when we first started off, Whitehall came out hard. As the game went along, you could tell they were starting to get tired and were wearing down.”

The Spartans could use a similar effort against Archbishop Wood, the District 1 champion which comes in at 9-2 and with a pretty impressive running game of its own.

While quarterback Jack Colyar has thrown for 1,006 yards and nine touchdowns, the Vikings lean on speedy running back Nasir Peoples — who piled up 1,254 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns throughout the season. He’s complemented by Chris Blackstone (310 yards, six touchdowns) and both average over 7.4 yards per carry.

Wood comes in on a seven-game winning streak that has produced at least 31 points for the Vikings in all of those victories and limited six oppononts to seven points or less. The exception was a 49-19 victory in early October.

They’ll be facing a fired-up team playing with a wall of linemen who their head coach, Pat Keating, describes as developing a certain attitude.

“It just took us awhile to get going,” Keating said. “I felt we were capable of it. We made some personnel tweaks up front, some of the young guys grew up. I think they committed to it. I think they just got comfortable with one another.”

In the process, the Spartans taking charge of the trenches are making things pretty uncomfortable for defenses trying to stop them.

“I think, as a unit, we picked ourselves up,” Bleich said. “Started playing the way we were capable of playing.

“With that attitude.”

Wyoming Valley West sophomore Sammy Solomon, known for his work at defensive end, has helped the offensive line open holes for Spartans running backs lately.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_TTL112517HSFWVW-ArchbishopWoodPre1.jpg.optimal.jpgWyoming Valley West sophomore Sammy Solomon, known for his work at defensive end, has helped the offensive line open holes for Spartans running backs lately. Sean McKeag | Times Leader

Quarterback Rob Dwyer rushed for 120 yards and scored two touchdowns behind a rejuvinated Valley West offensive line that’s paved the way for a five-game winning streak and a trip to Saturday’s state football quarterfinals for a game against Archbishop Wood.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_TTL112517HSFWVW-ArchbishopWoodPre3.jpg.optimal.jpgQuarterback Rob Dwyer rushed for 120 yards and scored two touchdowns behind a rejuvinated Valley West offensive line that’s paved the way for a five-game winning streak and a trip to Saturday’s state football quarterfinals for a game against Archbishop Wood. Sean McKeag | Times Leader

Wyoming Valley West offensive tackle Chris Bleich, right, is having fun blocking for the team’s ground game before he finalizes a decision as a Division 1 college recruit.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_TTL112517HSFWVW-ArchbishopWoodPre2.jpg.optimal.jpgWyoming Valley West offensive tackle Chris Bleich, right, is having fun blocking for the team’s ground game before he finalizes a decision as a Division 1 college recruit. Sean McKeag | Times Leader
Valley West leaning on rushing attack in state playoff battle with Wood

By Paul Sokoloski

[email protected]

WYO. VALLEY WEST (7-6)

vs. ARCHBISHOP WOOD (9-2)

PIAA 5A Quarterfinals

1 p.m. Saturday, Northern Lehigh HS

Up Next: The winner plays next weekend in the 5A state semifinals vs. the District 1 champion, either Springfield-Delco (13-0) or Unionville (13-1)

Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski