Wheeling Park Pulls Away From St. Albans
WHEELING — Using a gimmick defense in which it only rushed two and dropped nine in an effort to stymie Wheeling Park quarterback Cross Wilkinson, St. Albans hung around for a while. But if you take away one option from the Patriots, they can more than make up for it in other ways.
Rennie Clark again ran with a purpose, picking up 261 yards and scoring a pair of touchdowns on 31 carries as Wheeling Park (4-2) pulled away to beat the Red Dragons (1-4) by a 30-14 count at Wheeling Island Stadium for their second consecutive victory. And as it turns out Wilkinson got his anyway, completing 13 of 22 for 242 yards and two scores.
”I don’t know if they lined up in the same defense twice and I know that was part of his plan, to create confusion. They did,” Park coach Chris Daugherty said of counterpart Scott Tinsley. ”But we settled in.
”We moved the ball and ran it well, but we kind of shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times and didn’t finish drives. But credit them a little bit.”
The big blow came toward the end of the third quarter with Wheeling Park holding a 21-7 advantage. The Red Dragons were going in for a score when quarterback Jayson Barrett was stripped at the 8, with the Patriots’ Colin Hlad coming up with the fumble.
One play later the game was for all intents and purposes over.
Wilkinson fired a wide receiver screen pass to Nate Phillips who received a crushing block from Zach Torbett on his way to a 92-yard touchdown to make it 27-7 with 13.5 seconds to go in the third. Both the pass and the reception distances established school records.
”It was Zach’s block that sprang that touchdown to kind of put the game away, and he gives you that,” Daugherty said. ”He plays hard.
”He had a penalty earlier in the game on a block in the back and I told him ‘I know I am going to get that from you’ because he plays so hard.”
St. Albans didn’t quit though, and cut it back to 27-14 when Barrett finished a six-play drive with a 9-yard touchdown run. That march was able to continue after Dionte Patterson found Cayden Doub (five catches, 105 yards) for a gain of 26 on a fake punt.
The Red Dragons were in business again as they recovered the onside kick at the 50 with 9:32 remaining. But a 10-play drive was all for naught as Barrett, who rushed for 173 yards and threw for 137 was incomplete — his only second-half misfire on 10 attempts — on a fourth-and-4 from the Park 15.
”We thought they were good offensively and we thought the quarterback was good — we liked him last year,” Daugherty said. ”They’ve scored some points, they’ve just given up a lot. Not a bad football team.
”We weren’t at our best.”
The Patriots looked to be content to run out the clock — literally — as Clark carried the ball five straight times. But on a first down from the St. Albans 39, Wilkinson lofted a perfect pass to Phillips (five catches, 165 yards) down the sideline for a gain of 37. The drive stalled and Chase Gheen booted a 26-yard field goal for the final margin.
”We want to always have an offense that can run and throw the ball,” Daugherty said. ”A little bit of it was mixing up the plays all night and getting us in the right call. I thought Cross played really well.
”If someone is going to give us (that few in the box), so far Rennie’s made people pay.”
Wheeling Park dominated the opening half as Clark picked up 156 yards on 20 carries. In fact, the Patriots ran 41 plays compared to 13 for the Dragons, who were still in it thanks to a 68-yard scoring run from Barrett.
Park scored first-half touchdowns on a 1-yard Clark run and a 10-yard TD pass from Wilkinson, who is 38 yards shy of becoming the all-time leading passer in school history, to tight end Michael Muffeny who bulled his way into the end zone.
”I’ve never seen a defense like that in my life. Tinsley has been around,” Daugherty said. ”He’s got two high safeties, takes a kid in the middle of the field and plays him 8 yards back and plays man underneath.
”He took the short stuff away. He basically said run the ball.
”It’s no accident they hung in this game.”
St. Albans was its own worst enemy. The Red Dragons had two touchdowns called back as part of a night in which they were whistled 13 times for 105 yards.
Wheeling Park 30, St. Albans 14
St. Albans 0 7 0 7 — 14
Wheeling Park 7 7 13 3 — 30
W — Clark 1 run (Gheen kick), 6:56
W — Muffeny 10 pass from Wilkinson (Gheen kick), 1:32
S — Barrett 68 run (Burford kick), 1:18
W — Clark 9 run (Gheen kick), 6:56
W — Phillips 92 pass from Wilkinson (kick failed), 13.5
S — Barrett 9 run (Burford kick), 9:35
W — Gheen 26 FG, 2:10
Rushing: St. Albans 32-185-2td (Barrett 24-173-2td, Deleonardis 6-20, Fletcher 1-8, Doub 1-4, Miller 1-(-20). Wheeling Park 34-265-2td (Clark 31-261-2td, Hlad 2-11, Wilkinson 1-(-1), Team 2-(-6).
Passing: St. Albans 15-21-189-x (Barrett 11-14-137, Miller 3-6-26-x, Patterson 1-1-26). Wheeling Park 13-22-242-2td-x (all by Wilkinson).
Receiving: St. Albans 15-189 (Doub 5-105, Barrett 2-16, Fletcher 2-12, Thompson 2-11, Wright 2-10, Deleonardis 1-10). Wheeling Park 13-242-2td (Phillips 5-165-td, Mosby 3-36, Clark 2-23, Muffeny 2-6-td, Stakem 1-12).
First Downs: St. Albans 14, Wheeling Park 22.
Penalties: St. Albans 13-105, Wheeling Park 9-75.
Fumbles: St. Albans 4-1, Wheeling Park 0-0.
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