WEIRTON – Weir High accomplished three important things on Friday night – getting its seniors a homecoming night win, getting its offense back on track and getting its young players some Friday night experience.

Those goals were accomplished in a convincing 49-2 win over visiting Richard Wright, who made the trip from the Washington, D.C. area, at Jimmy Carey Stadium.

“The message was we needed to come out immediately an do what we needed to do,” Red Riders head coach Frank Sisinni said. “We jumped on them early and it gave us an opportunity to play a lot of our kids that don’t often get to play under the lights on a Friday night. It was night for them, and our seniors with it being homecoming, but we knew if we came out and did what we needed to do we could get a lot of kids in our program time on the field.”

The big win came in front of a packed house for homecoming, as Rylie Baker was crowned queen in a halftime ceremony.

“This is huge for our seniors to have a night like this on their homecoming because we haven’t had one of these in a while,” Sisinni said. “They’ve earned it. We talk about working for payday, this was their payday to get a win in front of their families and friends.”

The Red Riders were firing on all cylinders early, and scored on all six possessions that featured the first team offense. The defense, meanwhile, recovered a fumble, forced three-and-outs on all but one of the Spartans (0-6) first half possessions and blocked two punts. They held Richard Wright to 0 total yards in the game.

“Anytime you’re playing a team that you know is hungry for a win, you don’t know what you’re going to get, so starting fast is important,” Sisinni said. “This was big to get some confidence and rhythm back for our offense. Anytime you stumble (like last week against Union Local), you want something immediately to come back to. We worked on our offense all week.

“When you get a win like this coming off a loss, it helps. We’ll take it.”

After the visitors fumbled on the opening drive, it took the Red Riders three plays to open the scoring on a 7-yard Malachi Stromile pass to Corey Lyons, set up by a 21-yard pass to Damir Mowder.

Lyons, who finished with three total touchdowns, ran for an 8-yard score on the next drive, before a Jamari Hubbard-Bass 27-yard scoring run made it 21-0 after one quarter.

DeShjuan Smith scored on an 8-yard run on the first drive of the second quarter, Lyons then added a 29-yard catch and run on a pass from Stomile, then Momo Prentice broke free for a 22-yard scoring run on the final drive for Weir’s starting offensive unit to make it a 43-0 Red Rider lead at halftime.

The coaches and officials decided to play the second half with six-minute quarters and a running clock.

The lone points of the final 12 minutes came when a bad snap into the endzone on a Weir punt resulted in a safety, which gave the Spartans their first points of the season.

“I commend Richard Wright for their effort,” Sisinni said. “They’re young, young team that’s trying to find their identity. I commend them, but it was our night.”

The Red Riders head on the road next week to face a tough challenge in Williamstown.

“That’s definitely been in the back of our minds,” Sisinni said. “That’s a tough road trip against a state power. We’re going to start working on them (Saturday) morning.”

Weir High 49, Richard Wright 2

Richard Wright 0-0-0-2 – 2

Weir High 21-22-6-0 – 49

SCORING

First Quarter

WH: Lyons 7-yard pass from Stromile (Hubbard-Bass run) 8:01

WH: Lyons 8-yard run (Howard kick) 3:38

WH: Hubbard-Bass 27-yard run (kick failed) :35

Second Quarter

WH: Smith 8-yard run (Howard kick) 9:58

WH: Lyons 29-yard pass from Stromile (Hubbard-Bass pass from Lyons) 7:16

WH: Prentice 22-yard run (Howard kick) 6:08

Third Quarter

WH: Shuble 45-yard interception return (no try) 2:55

Fourth Quarter

RW: Safety 3:52

RUSHING: Richard Wright 22-3 (Crawford 8-33; Robertson 10-(-12); Jones 3-(-9); Preacher 1-(-9); Weir High 19-56-4TD (Lyons 3-10-TD; Stromile 1-(-7); Hubbard-Bass 2-27-TD; Turner 1-16; Prentice 1-7; Shuble 3-(-10); Mowder 2(-9)

PASSING: Richard Wright 2-11-(-3)-INT (Robertson 1-4-(-7); Preacher 1-7-4-INT); Weir High 3-4-57-2TD (Stromile 3-3-57-2TD; Mowder 0-1)

RECEIVING: Richard Wright 2-(-3) (Crawford 1-(-7); Brooks 1-4); Weir High 3-57-2TD (Mowder 1-21; Lyons 2-36-2TD)

FIRST DOWNS: Richard Wright 2; Weir High 2

PENALTIES-YARDS: Richard Wright 13-67; Weir High 5-35

FUMBLES-LOST: Richard Wright 2-2; Weir High 2-0

PUNTS-AVG: Richard Wright 4-9; Weir High 0-0