Staff photo / Brian Yauger Pymatuning Valley senior Ryan Croston tries to split the defense of Lordstown’s Ganon Force (2) and Mason Lee (20).

LORDSTOWN — It’s been a rocky season for Pymatuning Valley.

After losing a crop of six seniors that featured multiple multi-year starters, the Lakers entered this year with uncertainty as new players had to fill new roles.

While they aren’t where they want to be yet, Pymatuning Valley is angling for a solid playoff run.

On Thursday, the Lakers ended a three-game skid in a big way, dispatching Lordstown, 63-30.

“My seniors now have been kind of running JV, getting in some (varsity) minutes here or there, but this season’s really been kind of a turning point for them to be the leaders,” Lakers coach Ryan Shontz said. “They get to be the ones people are looking to, instead of looking to somebody else that comes the other way. We’re moving in the right direction with that momentum.”

It’s been a trial-by-fire year for Pymatuning Valley, but Thursday’s game gave the Lakers a chance to refine things going into the postseason.

In the second half, Pymatuning Valley focused a lot on adapting quickly, changing sets, and calling things they didn’t use much this year. They even threw in sets drawn up by the upperclassmen.

“We’re seeing if we can execute on the fly,” Shontz said. “We called a lot of sets on the fly to see if we could read and react and we’ve got a little room to improve. but we’ll see it’s trying to prepare for the situations when you get to the tournament. So we got a long way to go.”

Utilizing a five-in, five-out approach, Shontz opted for a hockey-style line change with a clear first and second unit on Thursday.

That allowed for more chances to refine sets.

“I have my guys around the bench, communicating with each other. OK, what’s the next step you’re going to run? Where are we going to look?’ Just trying to make them more involved and to take a little ownership of the offense. The hope is for that to show some dividends in the playoffs.”

Junior Justin Britton led Pymatuning Valley (12-9) with 14 points. Sophomore Ganon Force led the Red Devils with 21 points.

Lordstown could not be reached for comment. The Devils wrap up the regular season on Wednesday with Ashtabula St. John and are set to open the tournament that Friday with Jeromesville Hillsdale.

The Lakers close out the regular season on the road against county rival Conneaut. They host Lakeview to start off their tournament run.

With a younger team, Shontz’s main goal for his group starts with consistency and finishing.

“(I just want us) to play our best when our best is required,” Shontz said. “These last couple of games, we got out of the contention to our conference, we kind of loosened up our grip a little bit and had some bad losses to county teams. I just want to play their hardest, so if we do end up losing in the playoffs, they know that they went out swinging.”