Through The Years: Warriors began taking control in 2005

At the time, Wyoming Area’s 41-28 victory over Pittston Area to end the 2005 regular season stood out simply because it was the highest-scoring game that the Warriors had ever won in what was then the 39-year history of the series.

With the benefit of historical perspective, the game marked the beginning of Wyoming Area’s gradual control of the series between cross-river rivals.

Wyoming Area has won three straight and six of the last seven to build a six-game edge, 31-25, that is the largest either team has had in the series. Pittston Area had a 7-3 advantage one decade into the rivalry, but for the most part the teams traded wins back and forth.

Two years in, the series stood at 1-1; after four years it was 2-2; and after six it was 3-3. The series was even again at 8-8, 9-9, 13-13, 14-14, 19-19 and one last time – at least for now – at 20-20 when Pittston Area won the 2004 game, 15-7.

The rivalry reaches its 55th year and 57th game Friday night at Wyoming Area’s Anthony “Jake” Sobeski Stadium.

Wyoming Area took a 6-1 record into this weekend while Pittston Area was 2-6, meaning the Warriors will again be regarded as the clear favorite in a series in which they have an 11-5 advantage beginning with that 2005 game.

On Nov. 4, 2005, Wyoming Area was preparing for the playoffs and Pittston Area was trying to find a successful finish to a one-win season.

Charlie Salvo opened the scoring for the upset-minded Patriots on a 34-yard fumble return and a wild first half ensued.

The teams were tied 7-7 after one quarter before Wyoming Area pulled ahead 28-22 at the half.

Ryan McDonnell earned the Carmelo Falcone Award as the game’s Most Valuable Player with a steady effort that helped offset Salvo’s many big plays.

McDonnell had a short touchdown run in each quarter, finally putting the win away in the last two minutes to finish off a game in which he carried 31 times for 192 yards.

Salvo also caught an 86-yard touchdown pass, finished with three catches for 109 yards and came up with an interception.

The rivalry has gone through some momentum surges through the years, but its intensity has never wavered.

After losing the previous two games by a total of 85-0 for its low point in the series, Pittston Area fought back in last year’s COVID-delayed game before falling short, 28-14.

There have been a half-dozen, one-point games, one that was tied until overtime and another that was tied until a field goal with no time left on the clock.

The 54 scheduled meetings – there have also been two playoff games – included 52 to end the regular season.

Some highlights through the years, in a decade-by-decade look back, in the Pittston Area-Wyoming Area football series.

1960s

Pittston Area won first, but Wyoming Area ended the first decade with a 2-1 lead in what was in the early days, a rivalry of teams in the Big 11, a Lackawanna County-based league.

The new rivalry actually was not born until the second year of the school districts that were created through consolidation.

They met Nov. 25, 1967, two days after Thanksgiving.

Pittston Area completed a 10-0 season in the Big 11 with a 28-7 victory.

The Patriots built a four-touchdown lead over the Warriors (7-3). A week later, they played to a 0-0 tie with Shikellamy in the Eastern Conference championship game.

Charlie Graziano ran 68 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. Eddie Booth, who kicked all four extra points, also ran for a touchdown. Eddie Brennan and quarterback Charlie Turco had the other Pittston Area scores.

Bill Anzalone ran for a Wyoming Area touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Wyoming Area held on through a scoreless second half to pick up its first victory in the series when the teams met on Thanksgiving Day for the first time a year later.

The Warriors won, 7-6, on a 6-yard Nick Marianacci run and Dan Lorenzini extra point.

Brennan returned a punt 85 yards for Pittston Area’s score, but the Patriots missed the tying extra point.

1970s

Pittston Area ruled the middle part of the decade, putting together the only five-game winning streak in the series from 1972 to 1976 to go 7-3 for the 1970s.

The 1973 game was a 41-0 rout by Pittston Area that ranked as the largest win in the series until 2019.

In his final game at Pittston Area, future Gator Bowl Most Valuable Player for Penn State and Miami Dolphins wide receiver/kick returner Jimmy Cefalo carried 23 times for 278 yards and four touchdowns to lead the way.

1980s

The teams were back on even terms, splitting their 10 games in the 1980s.

Wyoming Area won the lowest-scoring game in series history, 7-0, in 1981 on a Stan Abromavage-to-Mark Sickler touchdown pass.

The next-lowest scoring game came in 1989 when Pittston Area won, 6-2.

Quarterback Sean Richards ran 7 yards for a second-quarter touchdown and Charlie Kabalka led the defense as Pittston Area climbed to the .500 mark in the season finale and knocked Wyoming Area (8-3) out of a trip to the playoffs.

1990s

Wyoming Area put together a pair of four-game winning streaks while winning eight times in nine years from 1990 to 1998 on the way to finishing the best decade by either team at 8-2.

The first winning streak was marked by dominance with the Warriors winning by a combined 143-21. The second got started with a 14-13 win in 1995 and was followed by a 14-12 victory in 1996.

Ben Kopka’s two-point conversion run following a touchdown by Tony Scatena late in the third quarter provided the tying and winning points in the 1995 game.

2000s

The first meetings of the new millennium produced some interesting results.

Playing early in the season as part of their Northeastern Pennsylvania Football Conference Division 2 South schedule, the Patriots and Warriors wound up going to the 10-Yard-Line Overtime Procedure to break their 7-7 tie.

Pittston Area went first, scored and won, 14-13, when Wyoming Area missed its extra point.

In both 2001 and 2003 the teams met twice and both times the team that lost the regular-season meeting came back to get revenge in the playoffs.

Pittston Area went from being shut out, 15-0, in 2001 to winning the rematch, 52-24, in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Tony Avvisato’s 92-yard kickoff return started a game-ending, 24-point streak by the Patriots.

It was Wyoming Area which turned the tables in the 2003 District 2 playoffs. The two games that season were decided by a total of 10 points.

2010s

Wyoming Area expanded its series lead by going 7-3 in the decade.

The Warriors posted their biggest win to date in 2019 with a 40-0 romp, then topped it in 2020 with the largest margin of victory in the series, 45-0. They scored 43 of the points in the first half.

The most recent Pittston Area win was one of the most dramatic finishes ever in the series.

Shane Syms kicked a field goal with no time on the clock for a 24-21 victory.

The game was the Pittston Area highlight in a six-year stretch that features four 40-point efforts by Wyoming Area and five wins by a total of 201-37.

2020

There was reason to believe the series would take a break last year.

Pittston Area had canceled the game and ended its season as part of precautions for COVID-19, but then decided it could resume activities and play at a later date.

Once the game was played, there was reason to believe it was headed toward another Wyoming Area blowout.

But, Pittston Area cut a 21-point deficit to 21-14 before falling, 28-14.

Drew Mruk and Rocco Pizano led the victory.

Mruk led the team in tackles and ran for 168 yards, including the clinching touchdown with 1:25 left.

Pizano caught a 33-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-0 early in the second quarter, then came up with interceptions less than two minutes part in the fourth quarter of a seventh-point game.

Jake Williams also played a big role in the win. He ran four a touchdown and passed for another on offense, then on defense, he made four tackles, including one for a loss, and broke up four passes, including one at the goal line.

David Behm led Pittston Area back two tough end-zone catches on fourth-down plays for the two Pittston Area touchdowns. He caught six passes for 100 yards in the first half.