Photo by Kristin Mazgaj Wheeling Park receiver Jerrae Hawkins, center, makes a leaping grab in the endzone against St. Clairsville.

WHEELING — To say that Wheeling Park head football Coach Chris Daugherty was pleased with his Patriots’ season-opening performance against St. Clairsville might be a huge understatement.

In a game dominated by Park from start to finish, the Patriots looked like a team in mid-season form on both sides of the football in rolling to an impressive 42-14 victory over the stunned Red Devils at Wheeling Island Stadium last Friday night.

“We are not normally a team that comes out and clicks on both sides of the football like that right out of the game,” Daugherty admitted. “As a team we do so many different things on both sides of the football and sometimes that leads to not being quite so sharp early on in the season. It is kind of a catch 22 for us. But I honestly felt like that was the cleanest season-opener we have had in a long time.”

Wheeling Park will look to continue on that path Friday night when they welcome a talented Brashear team from Pittsburgh to the Island for a 7 p.m. contest. The Patriots will look to open the campaign with a 2-0 record for the first time since rolling off four consecutive victories to start the 2018 season. The Bulls, who have multiple Division I performers, dropped a 47-17 decision to Baldwin, Pa. last week.

Offensively the Patriots are once again led by senior quarterback Brett Phillips, who was an impressive 11 of 16 for 182 yards and two touchdowns in week one. Making things even better for the Red, White and Blue was the fact that Phillips connected with seven different receivers during the game. Leading the way was sophomore speedster Jerrae Hawkins who had four catches for 97 yards, including an early 60-yard scoring bomb. Will James also caught two passes for 11 yards and a touchdown.

The ground game was just as effective with junior Zac Lydick ripping off 144 yards on 16 tries and a score and senior bruiser Erick Brothers, Jr. carrying just three times for seven yards but finding the end zone twice.

Brothers was also a key contributor on defense from his linebacker post with a 38-yard interception return for a touchdown. The Park defense allowed 179 yards on the ground and 132 through the air, most of those coming after the game had been decided.

“I knew we had the capabilities to be a big-play offense,” Daugherty added. “But I didn’t know we was going to play clean enough to score on all of our first half possessions last week.

“On defense we lost some key contributors, especially at linebacker, but we did a good job against the run. We had two good scrimmages and that carried over into the first game with our run defense forcing them to throw the ball more than I think they wanted to. And I was very pleased with the fact that they didn’t have any big plays through the air.”

Brashear didn’t fare well on either side of the football last week with senior quarterback Branndon Pezzelle, Jr. leading the offense along with junior running back Shawn Solomon and senior wide receiver Daquan Griffin. The Bulls do have a pair of Division I recruits on defense with senior edge/linebacker Ta’Mere Robinson (6-4, 225) committed to Penn State and linebacker Kam Cheatom (6-3, 218) heading to Akron. Robinson, however, missed last week due to an injury and is questionable again this week.

Coach Andrew Moore’s squad found themselves in a quick 23-0 hole against Baldwin and never recovered, trailing 40-8 at the half.

“Their tailback is real good and I have heard rumors that he has already committed to Wheeling University, which would be a huge haul for them,” Daugherty said. “They like to spread you out but they also run the football and have a very athletic quarterback.

“On defense they run a 3-3 stack and they try to blitz you from all over. Sometimes they hit a home run with the blitz and sometimes you hit a home run against it. They play a very aggressive man in the secondary and they like to come at you and cover your athletes with athletes.”