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September 4, 2015
Serving the mid valley & upper lackawanna valley
Hoping for Gridiron Glory
ON THE INSIDE
High school football revs up
Around Town
The lastest happenings in our area Page 2
School News
What’s going on with your favorite student Page 16
Community Calendar
Plan some fun for the family this weekend Page 17
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by Dave Lauriha
SPECIAL TO THE VALLEY ADVANTAGE
It’s about time. With Labor Day so late this year, it seemed the high school football season would never start, but it finally begins around the area Friday night. The long wait that began back in November has only whet the appetite of area football fans, whose anticipation has carried them through winter, spring and summer. In Division I of the Lackawanna Football Conference, Valley View will hit the ground running, with senior tailback Scot Wasilchak leading the returning Cougars in his third year of starting. “I think we’ll be pretty good. We have a good amount of skilled kids coming back, and our linemen have done a good job,” Valley View head coach George Howanitz said. “We have a mixture of kids who got a lot of playing time, along with some newer kids who have come back bigger and stronger.” The returning veterans include seniors David Krutulis and Marcus Cicero, junior Matt Pittsman, senior linebackers Howie Babcock and Brandon Brzenski, junior receivers Jake Osborne, Ethan Carey and Evan Carey and, joining Wasilchak in the backfield, are senior quarterback Mitch McHale and sophomore fullback Sam Pittsman, who will also be a linebacker for Valley View. “If we can keep everybody healthy, we’ll have a good chance to compete this year,” Howanitz said. Carbondale Area returns a lot of athletes, with junior Jason Jablonowski making the move from receiver to tailback to join sophomore quarterback Jordan Tolerico and junior fullback Dominic Gigliotti. They are hoping the growing pains of last season will jolt the Chargers this year in the LFC III. “We should be much improved after going 3-7 last year, and we had a lot of young guys starting on both sides of the ball,” Chargers head coach Larry Gabriel III said. “We started to come together a little bit, played Old Forge tough and led at halftime. It was at that point
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Lakeland players scrimmage during a recent practice.
where we thought we finally turned the corner as far as knowing what it takes to play at the varsity level. Hopefully these guys learned a little bit from weeks 7 through 10 about what it takes to compete for four quarters, and that will get us over the top.” Senior Shawn Balinas joins Gigliotti and Jablonowski as two-way starters for Carbondale Area, which has 19 two-way linemen listed on its roster, including senior starters Cory Bradley, Austin Colachino, Tyler Deuel, Cody Calabro and Peter Saad. Mid Valley has new but familiar blood in the backfield as junior Colin Munley moves to quarterback, junior Zack Fiume joins senior Cody Petcavage at tailback and senior Tom Egnotovich should get more carries at fullback after picking up a ton of experience at the end of the season. Junior R.J. Powell and sophomore Matt Stankiewicz are set to be two-way starters on the front line, junior James Urso joins Petcavage at linebacker and Egnotovich, Fiume and Munley take up three of the starting positions in the secondary for the LFC III team. “We’re extremely young, and hopefully we can mature quickly, and keep focused, focused on what we’re supposed to do,” Spartans head coach Dave Rebar said. “We lost some key guys from last year, and filling their shoes is really,
PHOTO TOM BONOMO
really tough. “We’re just young, especially on defense. We’re trying to get tougher on defense, and understanding the game. We have so many young kids who never played football before come out for the team.” The numbers are a little better at Lakeland, which plays in the LFC II, but coach Jeff Wasilchak worries about injuries as much as the other coaches, all of whom are trying to make sure players stay healthy and are ready to compete. “You have to get the kids ready to play, and it’s a delicate balance between beating them up too much and not preparing them enough,” Wasilchak said. “Staying healthy is the key for all the smaller schools. Just like everybody else, we have question marks, but we’re going to work hard to solidify those areas.” Led by two-way senior linemen Corey Bednash and Antonio Cerminaro, the Chiefs are relatively strong in the trenches, a longtime cornerstone of the football program. Sophomore Cy Babcanec mans an outside linebacker position and senior Nick Setta is at end, with senior Garth Estadt in the secondary either at cornerback or safety. Junior Michael Lowry will share time with Estadt in the offensive backfield while seniors Cody Rupp and junior Jake Gross battling for quarterback job.