YATESVILLE — The Pittston Area Patriots have learned the hard way about the resilience of the football team from across the river.

Wyoming Area scored the game’s final 28 points to rally from a double-digit deficit for the second straight year to pull out Friday night’s 28-20 road victory at Charley Trippi Stadium in the regular-season finale between Wyoming Valley Conference divisional champions on winning streaks.

The Warriors (8-2) ran their winning streak to seven games going into next week’s home playoff game, likely against Mid Valley, in the District 2 Class 3A semifinals. The Patriots (6-4) had a five-game winning streak broken, but will still play for the District 2 Class 5A title Friday night at Abington Heights.

Luke Kopetchny, who has been a two-way starter in four straight Wyoming Area victories, earned the 49th annual Carmelo Falcone Award as the Most Valuable Player in the six-decade old rivalry.

Kopetchny’s 63-yard fumble return 20 seconds before halftime started the comeback from a 20-0 deficit. He later ran for an insurance touchdown and passed for the clinching score during a 21-point third quarter.

“I knew we could flip the switch right there,” Kopetchny said of the fumble return. “Coming out of halftime, we had some momentum and I feel like that’s what won us the game right there.”

After being outgained 258-53 in the first half, Wyoming Area had a 122-10 advantage in total yardage in a third quarter that included a Lavell Brock recovery of a mishandled kickoff and a Maddox Fink interception on a fake punt.

By the time the quarter ended, the Warriors had their 28-20 lead.

They then held on in the fourth, stopping the Patriots on downs at the 26 with 5:45 left and the 22 with 1:26 remaining.

“There was a lot of great football played on both sides of the ball tonight,” Warriors coach Randy Spencer said. “For me, it’s about the belief and togetherness of this football team.

“We talk so much about the pride of our program, our standards, our values. We stand on our character and this team stood tall on those standards tonight.”

With Santino Capitano running the game as Pittston Area’s primary quarterback for the first time since an injury in the first half of the season, the Patriots were rolling.

Capitano was 5-for-5 passing with a touchdown and ran for two scores on the way to a 103-yard rushing effort while doing much of the work in producing the 20-0 lead.

Pittston Area scored on the game’s second play.

Capitano faked one of the team’s base plays, a jet sweep, then turned and threw in the other direction. He hit speedster Deondre Miller on a slant pass and Miller did the rest for a 62-yard touchdown and 6-0 lead.

The Patriots scored on their first three possessions, all before the Warriors had their initial first down.

After having a holding penalty wipe out a 57-yard Lucas LoPresto run, the Patriots covered 77 yards in 13 plays to score on Capitano’s two-yard run to make it 12-0 with 1:09 left in the second quarter.

The Patriots moved 59 yards in 11 plays for another Capitano two-yard touchdown. Miller added the two-point run to make it 20-0 with 6:12 left in the half.

Pittston Area threatened to add to its lead late in the half when Capitano ran 40 yards on second-and-19 and LoPresto picked up 13 more on the next play.

Instead, the entire game shifted when Drew Keating poked the ball loose and Gavin Feeney helped bring the runner to the ground, leaving the ball free for Kopetchny to take the other way for a touchdown.

“I just saw Luke come out of the pile with it,” Spencer said. “It was an absolutely a momentum-shifting play for us.

“Once we got it going from that play, we really did let go of the momentum even going into and coming out of the half.”

It was Wyoming Area that scored on its first three possessions in the second half.

The Warriors took the kickoff and went 60 yards with the help of a 25-yard Kopetchny pass to Michael McKernan on third-and-20. Two plays later, Nicholas Kondrosky scored on a 12-yard run.

Pittston Area could not handle Ava Musinski’s well-placed kickoff and Brock recovered.

The Patriots, who were hurt by 106 yards in penalties, helped the Warriors with a15-yard face mask penalty and another personal foul.

Kopetchny scored from the one-yard line and Musinski officially put the Warriors in front with the third of her four extra-point kicks.

Fink’s interception put Wyoming Area at the Pittston Area three-yard line. The Warriors moved to the 12 quickly then scored when Kopetchny’s pass into the end zone bounced off of a tightly covered Brock and wound up in the hands of Lucas Viadock for the touchdown.

Keating and Connor Grochal were each in on two stops to half one Pittston Area fourth-down threat. Grochal made one tackle for a loss and assisted Keating on another.

Brad Bohn stopped LoPresto two yards short on fourth down with an assist from Viadock, another freshman, on Pittston Area’s last offensive play.

Wyoming Area 28, Pittston Area 20

SCORING SUMMARY

Wyoming Area`0`7`21`0 — 28

Pittston Area`12`8`0`0 — 20

First quarter

PA – Deondre Miller 62 pass from Santino Capitano (kick failed), 10:36

PA – Capitano 2 run (pass failed), 1:08

Second quarter

PA – Capitano 2 run (Miller run), 6:12

WA – Luke Kopetchny 63 fumble return (Ava Musinski kick), 0:20

Third quarter

WA – Nicholas Kondrosky 12 run (Musinski kick), 6:54

WA – Kopetchny 1 run (Musinski kick), 5:33

WA – Lucas Viadock (Musinski kick), 0:07

Team Statistics`WA`PA

First downs`10`16

Rushes-yards`31-117`45-220

Passing yards`52`95

Total yards`169`310

Passing`3-5-0`8-11-1

Sacked-yards lost`2-7`0-0

Punts-avg.`3-27.0`0-0.0

Fumbles-lost`0-0`3-2

Penalties-yards`9-73`11-106

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — WA, Kondrosky 12-57, Semaj Morris 6-29, Dominic Rosario 3-17, Gavin Feeney 1-13, Kopetchny 6-6, Team 3-minus 5. PA, Capitano 1-103, Lucas LoPresto 11-6, Bailey 9-30, Miller 5-12, Christian Cerasaro 1-1, Levi Pisano 1-minus 2, Team 1-minus 2.

PASSING — WA, Kopetchny 3-5-0-52. PA, Capitano 7-9-0-81, Miller 1-1-0-14, LoPresto 1-0-1-0.

RECEIVING — WA, Michael McKernan 2-40, Viadock 1-12. PA, Miller 3-71, LoPresto 5-24.

INTERCEPTIONS — WA, Maddox Fink 1-13. PA, None.

MISSED FIELD GOAL — None.