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WEST PITTSTON — We now return this high school football season to its regularly scheduled programming.

Wyoming Area went back to Wyoming Valley Conference Class 3A/A Division competition Friday night and resumed running over District 2 football opponents.

One week after altering their schedule to take on a nine-time state champion, the Warriors went back to business as usual, rolling up a 42-point halftime lead in a 56-0 senior night rout of visiting Hanover Area.

It was the fourth time this season that Wyoming Area had leads of 42-0 or greater at halftime.

The Warriors were in range of a ninth touchdown at the Hanover Area 2 with two minutes left before taking a knee on third and fourth down.

Brian Williams, Darren Rodney and Vincenzo Giambra each scored two touchdowns and Dominic DeLuca passed for two. Two seniors who usually are responsible for blocking for their teammates also got involved in the scoring.

Derek Ambrosino’s role as a tight end more often involves blocking than pass routes. But he caught three passes, including a 31-yarder for the last touchdown of the half. Sammy Solomon, who had been a fullback prior to this year, slipped behind DeLuca from his tackle position to receive a lateral and run 10 yards for a touchdown.

The Warriors, who are closing in on the top seed for the District 2 Class 3A playoffs, improved to 8-1 by coming back strong from last week’s 42-0 loss to Southern Columbia.

“In the beginning of the week in practice, we were just shaking the last game off and focusing on correcting what we did wrong in that game,” Ambrosino said. “Toward the end of the week, we felt confident coming into this game.”

They had reason to be.

Wyoming Area has averaged 40.9 points this season against District 2 opponents and the loss to Southern Columbia, one of the nation’s top small school teams, is its only regular-season defeat in the past two seasons.

“We had a very successful senior night,” Warriors coach Randy Spencer said. “I think all the seniors got a chance to contribute on the field.

“It’s great when you have an opportunity to do that.”

Williams, one of the seniors, got it started. He pulled in a deep slant pass from DeLuca, split two defenders and raced 57 yards for the touchdown 1:28 into the game. His 74-yard punt return made it 21-0 at the end of the quarter.

The Warriors needed just 27 offensive plays and 13 minutes of possession time to produce the 56 points.

Wyoming Area 56, Hanover Area 0

Hanover Area`0`0`0`0 — 0

Wyoming Area`21`21`7`7 — 56

First quarter

WA – Brian Williams 57 pass from Dominic DeLuca (Josh Cumbo kick), 10:32

WA – Darren Rodney 23 run (Stanley Moderski kick), 6:10

WA – BWilliams 74 punt return (Cumbo kick), 0:22.7

Second quarter

WA – Solomon 10 run (Moderski kick), 8:20

WA – Rodney 19 run (Jayden Rusyn kick), 3:21

WA – Derek Ambrosino 31 pass from DeLuca (Sydney Kruszka kick), 0:09.2

Fourth quarter

WA – Vincenzo Giambra 70 run (Kruszka kick), 11:47

WA – Giambra 22 run (Kruszka kick), 11:00

Team statistics`HA`WA 

First downs`7`13

Rushes-yards`44-59`17-216

Passing yards`6`148

Total yards`65`364

Passing`1-5-0`6-10-2

Sacked-yards lost`2-30`0-0

Punts-avg.`6-21.8`0-0.0

Fumbles-lost`5-1`0-0

Penalties-yards`1-5`4-32

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — HA, Justin Stefanowicz 14-31, Connor Hummer 7-26, Hunter Karpowich 5-14, Pete Hibbard 9-11, Christian Torres 3-6, Bobby Sabecky 4-1, Team 2-minus 30. WA, Giambra 2-92, Rodney 6-79, Rich Hizynski 2-14, Solomon 2-10, DeLuca 1-9, F.J. Braccini 1-7, Dillon Williams 1-5, Blaise Sokach-Minnick 1-4, Team 2-minus 4.

PASSING — HA Torres 1-5-0-6. WA, DeLuca 5-8-1-148, Jacob Williams 1-2-1-3.

RECEIVING — HA, Camron Ceppa 1-6. WA, Ambrosino 3-85, BWIlliams 2-63.

INTERCEPTIONS — HA, Tanner Bednarski 1-9, Sabecky 1-0. WA, None.

MISSED FIELD GOALS – None.

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By Tom Robinson

For Times Leader