Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Mathews junior Jake Petak drives to the hoop during the second half of Friday’s game against Pymatuning Valley. Petak finished with 16 points.

VIENNA — Earlier in the season, the Mathews Mustangs had a tendency to rest on their laurels. With a player like Dom Toto on the court, it’s easy to wait for him to — in the words of coach Mike Weymer — “put on his cape.”

As time ticked away, Pymatuning Valley got more aggressive on both ends of the floor as they tried to push back and cut into the deficit.

While that happened, Toto was on the bench after picking up his fifth foul of the night.

As the season has gone on, those tendencies have disappeared, and the Mustangs rose to the occasion, fending off the Lakers, 65-53.

“Our junior class is a very tight-knit class,” Weymer said. “It’s a class that we’re really excited to have in our program, that I’ve watched grow up in our program, and get better, year-in and year-out. They have really good relationships amongst each other. They obviously respect Toto as well, but I think a small part of them relished the opportunity to put that game away with Dom on the bench.”

And the juniors did.

Jake Petak and Logan Linkesh helped seal the deal with 16 and 15-point nights respectively, aiding Toto who also had 16.

As things got grittier and the Lakers ramped up the pressure, Mathews was ready.

“We’ve been in a lot of games that have been close like that, so we really have had a lot of experience with tough games like that,” Linkesh said.

Petak scored nine of his 16 points in the final frame. He struggled shooting for bits of the game, and then hitting one shot woke the junior back up.

“Jake was struggling there in the third quarter with his confidence and then PV, for whatever reason, chose not to guard him one possession, and he got one to go. And then it was off to the races,” Weymer said. “Jake’s one of the best shooters in the area. Kid put in a ton of time in the offseason. From where he started, to where he is today is pretty impressive.”

The win gives Mathews its fourth win over Pymatuning Valley over the last eight years. Two of those wins came this season.

“In my eighth year as head coach, we know that to win a league championship and put a number on the wall, that (Pymatuning Valley) is going to be a factor every year,” Weymer said. “A big, physical team every year. They rebound the heck out of the ball. We got one on them early in the year, when I feel like they were still in football shape, not quite there yet, but we knew we’d see a much better effort today, and our kids were up to the task.”

Ryan Croston led Pymatuning Valley with 16 points. Sean Croston followed him up with 12.

“Just a rough night,” Lakers coach Ryan Shontz said. “We just couldn’t put it in the hoop, and we had about three minutes where we forgot to guard Petak, and that’ll do it for you.”

Pymatuning Valley falls to 9-6 on the season.

“We’re still trying to find our way,” Shontz said. “It’s a transition season for us. We lost a lot of seniors last couple years that hogged up all the minutes, so we’re still coming together. We just shot poorly tonight. The effort was there, energy was there, we just couldn’t put the ball in the hoop.”

The Lakers look to recover today against Middlefield Cardinal. Meanwhile, Mathews faces Grand Valley on Tuesday.